The Gentle Civilizer of Nations. The Rise and Fall of Inter-national Law 1870–1960

Book Review Martti Koskenniemi, The Gentle Civilizer of Nations. The Rise and Fall of Inter- national Law 1870–1960 , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001, ISBN: 0521623111, 569 pages, price: 120 EUR, 143 USD. Those following contemporary debates concerning the UN mandate in Bosnia, the war against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan or US resistance against the ICC will regu- larly encounter arguments stemming from older sediments of international law – be it from the foundational era of the UN, the disputes relating to the League of Nations in the 1920s and 1930s or the foundational age of modern international law