NEWS
Friday 20 July 2018 International Seminar
Limiting War Technologies in the History of International Law
Genealogy of Pariah Weapons
■This seminar will be held as part of our “Pariah Weapons” project.
On Friday, 20 July 2018 the Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global Arms
Transfer will host a seminar entitled “Limiting War Technologies in the History of International
Law: Genealogy of Pariah Weapons”. The seminar will be co-hosted by the Arms and Civil Society
Research Forum.
Professor Miloš Vec is professor of European legal and constitutional history at the University
of Vienna and a permanent fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM: Institute
for Human Sciences). In this seminar, he will analyse the intersection of the idea of pariah
weapons with clashes between moral verdicts and legal bans in the nineteenth century. The industrial
revolution and subsequent technological progress enabled the production and use of a new range
of weapons and military equipment. How did international law and lawyers react to this development?
What arguments based on legal doctrine were in favour of or against outlawing “uniquely evil”
weapons? The talk will also offer a synopsis and interpretation of the writings from the best-known
authors of the so-called classical European law of nations, such as Hugo Grotius, Emer de Vattel,
and Immanuel Kant, who provided long-lasting standards and criteria for outlawing weapons. The
history of international law will be approached from a multi-normative perspective that examines
entanglements between legal norms, morality, and social customs (e.g. military honour codes).
Finally, Professor Vec will address how the self-perceptions of nineteenth-century international
lawyers and their beliefs in the progress of technology and civilization were overshadowed by
Eurocentrism.
Date and time
Friday, 20 July 2018, 6:30PM-8:30PM (Venue opens at 6:00PM)
Venue
Room 1085, 8th Floor, Liberty Tower, Meiji University
Map
Entry fee
Free
Seating capacity
Maximum 30 seats
Registration
Pre-register before 19 July 2018 at the link below. We will close the registration when the number of applicants reaches the capacity. Your information will be kept confidential by the Arms and Civil Society Research Forum and will be used to provide you with information on its events.
Language
The seminar will be held in English ONLY without translation.
Sponsor
Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global Arms Transfer
Co-sponsor
Arms and Civil Society Research Forum
Panelists
| Speakers | Dr. Miloš Vec, Professor of European Legal and Constitutional History at the University of Vienna and a Permanent Fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM: Institute for Human Sciences) |
|---|---|
| Chair | Dr. Tamara Enomoto, Research Fellow, Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global Arms Transfer |
About the Speaker
Dr. Miloš Vec is professor of European legal and constitutional history at Vienna University
and a permanent fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM: Institute for
Human Sciences), Vienna. His main research interests are the history of international law and
multinormativity. His recent publications include “Challenging the laws of war by technology,
blazing nationalism and militarism: Debating chemical warfare before and after Ypres, 1899”,
in Friedrich et al. (eds.), One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences
(Springer International Publishing, 2017); “Reinsurance law as an autonomous regulatory regime?:
Resistance to codification and avoidance of state jurisdiction in the twentieth century“, in:
Haueter and Jones (eds.), Managing Risk in Reinsurance: From City Fires to Global Warming (Oxford
University Press, 2017); and “From invisible peace to the legitimation of war: Paradoxes of a
concept in nineteenth century international law”, in Hipper and Vec (eds.), Paradoxes of Peace
in Nineteenth Century Europe (Oxford University Press, 2015).
*This seminar is hosted by the Meiji University Research Institute for the History of Global
Arms Transfer and co-hosted by the Arms and Civil Society Research Forum. It is supported by
the Forum for the History of Armaments Industry and Arms Transfer and is partially funded by
the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s (MEXT) Program for the
Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities, 2015–2019 and JSPS KAKENHI grant
number JP16K17075.
