Systemerhaltung durch Systematisierung: Lehrbücher, Allgemeine Kurse und Kodifikation im Völkerrecht als politische Projekte

This article explores the politics of systematization as a task of international legal scholarship. The first part explores the invented tradition of international legal scholarship as an enterprise devoted to creating political order through legal order. The second part delves into three particularly influential genres through which scholars of international law continue to engage in the task of systematization. These three genres are textbooks and treatises, General Courses at The Hague Academy of International Law, and codification. Overall, the text sheds light on the political underpinnings of systematization in international legal scholarship, challenging traditional notions of neutrality and underscoring the dynamic nature of legal ordering. In conclusion, the text underscores the intertwined relationship between order in law and order through law, which sits at the heart of liberal internationalism. By focusing on how the contradictions inherent to this approach become apparent in all three of the examined genres of systematization, the article highlights how systematic representation of international law serves to uphold existing power structures while stifling dissent and alternative perspectives.