2 - A History of ‘Humanitarian Intervention’ in Nineteenth-Century International Law

Summary

The nineteenth century has been called the ‘heyday’ of ‘humanitarian intervention’,¹ the time from the early nineteenth century through to the end of World War II an age of ‘imperial humanitarianism’.² The period is revisited time and again to draw lessons for the present.³ Given this use of the past, for the purposes of a history of the legal instrument, the nineteenth century might be considered as the canvas of a picture of ‘humanitarian intervention’ painted in the twentieth century. While the distinct legal concept of ‘humanitarian intervention’ did evolve late in the nineteenth century, drawing on the evolution of international law from a form of natural law to its own specific legal system, the humanitarian and legal dimensions of the historic events claimed for this development were rather marginal. It is only in writing about the nineteenth century that these events have gained their significance for the history of a legal concept.