Andreas R. Ziegler, Die Entwicklung der Völkerrechtslehre und -wissenschaft in der Schweiz: eine Übersicht, 26 Swiss Review of International and European Law 21-52 (2016)
Ziegler – Entwicklung Völkerrechtslehre
Background
Ever since the beginnings of international law, marked by the work of Emer de Vattel, Swiss legal scholarship has been a cradle for transnational law –due perhaps to the fact the close borders of the cantons and of the country to neighbours, giving rise to international legal relations. Such relations have been a matter of practical importance in daily life in the Confederation. Yet the teaching of international law only emerged gradually, often linked to related fields of law, including penal and constitutional law in particular. Full-time scholarship was limited to the French cultural area, and practitioners played a central role in building up international law in the country. The paper by Andreas Ziegler offers a detailed historical account of this evolution, focusing on general public international law in areas including academic institutions, government and Geneva-based international organizations. The author focuses on general public and private international law from a classical angle. Except for mentioning more recent teaching materials, Ziegler essentially writes on past actors in the field essentially up to the end of the 20th Century.
The paper does not take into account contemporary representatives and research, nor does it detail the increasing specialisation seen in recent decades with the branching out of international economic law (international trade, investment, taxation), environmental law, human rights law and the increasingly interlocking nature of international, domestic and European law in the context of multilevel governance. While these recent developments heightened the profile of international law in teaching and research, they do not alter Ziegler’s conclusion that international law, despite enhanced integration and globalization, continues to play a minor role in legal education. The fact remains unchanged that there is a continuing disconnect between academic research and the practice of international law, essentially dominated by the Federal Government and its various departments.
Summary
This German-language paper offers a detailed account of practitioners who have been professors of international law teaching at Swiss Universities since the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The doctrine of natural law was of particular importance in the formative stage of international law, and the influence of Grotius and Pufendorf was of critical importance. At the same time, Swiss legal culture has been at the crossroads of French and German influences, as reflected in the teaching of international law at the Law Faculties of the country, picking up slowly towards the end of the 19th Century. This period also saw the divide arising between public and private international law and the evolution of different epistemic communities. The former was closely related to the teaching of public law, and rarely fell within the purview of professorial chairs fully dedicated to international law. The Swiss Society of International Law was founded in 1914, while the Swiss branch of the ILA was formed in 1929.
It is interesting to observe that the teaching of international law was more prominent in smaller European countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland in particular than it was in Germany, France and the United Kingdom at the time. Oppenheim taught penal law and international law in Basel before moving to London and Cambridge in 1895. The paper discusses the lives of professorial chairholders in international law in Switzerland and the careers of Swiss scholars in the field living abroad. These include particularly Caspar Johann Bluntschli, who moved from Zurich to Germany in 1848 and became one of the founders of codified international law, extending the traditions of civil law codification extant at that time. In the 20th Century, the international movement of professors was in decline, mainly due to requirements of linking teaching to national qualifications and teaching domestic law, including penal and public law in particular. Professors in the German-speaking part of Switzerland were not exclusively dedicated to teaching international law. The field was mainly assigned to scholars of constitutional law to teach. Prominent personalities include Carl Hilty, Walter Burkhard, Hans Huber, Jörg Paul Müller in Bern, Eduard His, Werner Kägi, Dietrich Schindler Sr. and Dietrich Schindler Jr., Daniel Thürer in Zurich and Luzius Wildhaber in Basel. Professors exclusively dealing with international law were appointed at French-speaking universities, including particularly the Graduate Institute in Geneva founded in 1927, where Georges Scelle, Hans Wehberg, Hans Kelsen and Paul Guggenheim taught. Eventually, specialised professorships were created for international economic law and European law in law Faculties.
Diplomats, officials and practitioners who were exposed to international law issues at all times due to the country’s interdependence were increasingly hired for part-time teaching positions at Swiss universities They focused on practical issues. Georges Sauser(-Hall), Jacques Secrétan, Charles Lardy, Max Huber, Paul Ruegger and Rudolf Bindschedler are prime examples. The Geneva Organisations of the League of Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross stimulated scholarship, as well as eminent lawyers like Georges Werner, Léopold Bossier, Hans Haug and Antoine Martin.
Finally, the paper provides a survey of the main works written on public international law from a Swiss perspective. These include books by Eduard von Waldkirch, Paul Guggenheim, Anton Favre and Georges Perrin as well as the seminal case book first published in 1977 by Jörg Paul Müller and Luzius Wildhaber, now in its third edition, which ably combines theory and practice from a Swiss angle. The paper concludes by stating that international law, despite increasing specialisation, continues to suffer from a lack of attention and of commensurate resources in view of the contemporary challenges posed by globalization