The Temple Journal of International and Comparative Law, in
collaboration with Professor Jeffrey Dunoff, has published a
Symposium entitled “Engaging the Writings of Martti Koskenniemi,” a
major new collection of work by leading scholars that engages,
explores, and extends the work of Professor Koskenniemi, one of the
foremost critical thinkers in contemporary international law.

Professor Dunoff explained the origins of this project:
“Professor Koskenniemi and I met when we appeared together on a
panel at Cambridge University.  I invited him to visit Temple,
hoping to provide an opportunity for Temple faculty and students to
interact with him.  Once he accepted, we organized an event
that included prominent scholars from Harvard, Yale, Princeton,
Columbia, the London School of Economics, the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, and other leading universities.”    In
April 2013, nearly two dozen leading scholars met for two days at
the Law School, for intensive and, at times, contentious dialogue
over issues such as international law’s historic and contemporary
relation to empire.   The Symposium papers, including an
expanded version of Koskenniemi’s keynote address, have already
attracted significant attention, and are considered major
contributions to the current scholarship in the field.

Martti Koskenniemi is a Professor of International Law and
Director of the Erik Castren Institute of International Law and
Human Rights at the University of Helsinki. His publications
include From Apology to Utopia: The Structure of International
Legal Argument, a ground-breaking analysis of international
law’s rhetorical structures; The Gentle Civilizer of Nations:
The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870-1960, a
sophisticated intellectual history of the rise of a liberal
sensibility in international legal thinking in the late 19th
century and its subsequent decline after World War II; and The
Politics of International Law, which reproduces many of his
most influential articles on human rights, collective security,
humanitarian intervention, and related topics.  
Koskenniemi’s writings are informed by his extensive legal
practice, including service as a member of the UN International Law
Commission, as an international judge, and as Finland’s
representative to numerous UN bodies.

The workshop was supported by funds from the Laura H. Carnell
Chair.  More recently, the Law School hosted another Carnell
Chair event.  In February 2014, Professor Dunoff organized a
seminar entitled “Between International Law and Politics.”
  The seminar featured Georg Nolte, a Visiting Research
Scholar at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and member
of the UN International Law Commission, as well as law and
political science faculty from Temple and other area
universities.