Tobias Asser’s Legacy: The Pertinence of the Institut de droit international to The Hague

Abstract

This article is occasioned by this year’s visit of the Institut de droit international to The Hague. It addresses the seminal role that the Institut (f. 1875) has played in advancing The Hague to its position as the ‘Judicial Capital’ and the hub of international law. In reviewing the part that Tobias Asser, the co-founder of the Institut, played in the launching of L’Oeuvre de La Haye, it stresses the critical impact of his colleagues at the Institut at all major stages: from the Conference de La Haye (f. 1893) to the Peace Conferences and the Hague Conventions, and along the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (f. 1900), the Peace Palace and its Library to the implementation of the International Judiciary (f. 1922) and the Hague Academy of International Law (f. 1923). The article reviews the four previous Sessions of the Institut in the Netherlands (1875, 1898, 1925 and 1957) and highlights the role and record of the close to thirty Dutch internationalists who were elected to its membership. The author emphasizes the critical impact of the research body of the Institut on the development of the law and the city’s debt to the scores of members who, over the past century, have graced the arbitral panels and the benches of the International Courts, or served as lecturers at the Hague Academy. The author recommends a comprehensive study of the above tradition for 2023, when the 150th anniversary of the Institut coincides with the Centenary of the International Judiciary in The Hague.