Forschungsprojekt

Creating international law through practice? International commissions and early human rights debates

This project examines the rise of international commissions of inquiry in the late 19th century, focusing on their role in addressing atrocities and violations of the laws of war. These commissions pursued the purpose of fact-finding in addition to monitoring international agreements and international administration in a colonial context. The commissions that will be examined had an international character and dealt with normativity. The project will analyse to what extent or in what form these commissions dealt with questions of international law.

Most commissions seem to inherit a humanitarianism based on the idea of civilization. Humanity was a central legal principle discussed by the Commissions. In a second step, a macro-perspective approach will try to systematically define and analyse commissions of inquiry in the 19th century.

By analyzing the normative frameworks these commissions operated within, the research investigates their connection to the development of international law and human rights, emphasizing the humanitarian principles that emerged during this period.