Le droit international antiesclavagiste des ‘nations civilisées’ (1815–1945), written by Michel Erpelding

Abstract

The history of international law on matters pertaining to slavery has come under scrutiny over the last decade. Renowned scholars such as Jean Allain and Emmanuel Decaux have challenged the traditional narrative that presented the role international law played in fighting slavery in a generous and self-glorifying way. In their respective works, Slavery in International Law. Of Human Exploitation and Trafficking (Martinus Nijhoff, 2013) and Les formes contemporaines de l’esclavage (Martinus Nijhoff, 2009), both scholars provided a more thorough and realistic account of the history of abolition and the role of international law therein. Nonetheless, much work still has to be done in order to uncover the close but intricate relationship between the legal abolition of slavery and European imperialism. This is where Michel Erpelding’s book Le droit international antiesclavagiste des ‘nations civilisees’ (1815–1945) comes in. As the product of Erpelding’s doctoral research, which won the prestigious Varenne University Institute’s thesis contest, this book provides a major contribution to the existing international legal scholarship on slavery.