Isabel V. Hull. A Scrap of Paper. Breaking and Making of International Law during the Great War

Abstract

Isabel V. Hull's book aims to demonstrate that post-1919 writings have contributed to obscuring rather than clarifying international law's role in how World War I was fought. She develops an original and highly differentiated view on the topic. On the basis of thorough historiographical research, she analyses the belligerents' legal views put forward during the war and examines their effect on the conduct of war. The title takes up quotation that later became cliche about international law's role in World War I. Immediately after the German attack on Belgium, the German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg called the treaty guaranteeing Belgium's neutrality a scrap of paper. This might suggest that World War I was time of non-existence for international law, black hole. Hull's book demonstrates how complex the legal situation predominantly was and that the course of the war was closely interlinked with legal questions and arguments. The study begins by illuminating the remarkable fact that historians of World War I pay hardly any attention to international law. Recently published research is no exception, many books not even mentioning international law in the index. Hull argues that there must be strong reasons for such ignorance. She offers number of plausible and interlinked explanations. To many, the apocalyptic reality of almost 10 million soldiers killed seemed incompatible with any relevance of law and to suggest its complete breakdown. Sweeping post-war statements by eminent contemporaries on international law's ineptitude as means to solve the problems of the time were another factor.