Organizing Legal Internationalism: The Institute of International Law, the International Law Association, and the League of Nations, 1919-1939

Chapter 13 explores the interactions between the League of Nations and two transnational legal societies that had been torch-bearers of legal internationalism since their establishment in 1873: the Institute of International Law (IIL) and the International Law Association (ILA). Comparing how the IIL and ILA engaged with the League institutions and with specific projects such as the codification of international law, it demonstrates how the League’s limited geographical scope ensured that these ‘universal’ societies continued to consider themselves as crucial and sometimes even superior platforms for organizing legal internationalism. In spite of these reservations vis-à-vis the League, IIL and ILA discussions and reports fed the League with authoritative opinions on what was to be understood as international law, while the societies in return integrated the League into their scholarly understandings and their practical organization.