Histories Melland Schill Histories of international legal theories in Japan: From dialogue to conversation

The first systematic account of Japanese international legal theory edited by Japanese scholars. Through thirteen influential theorists, the volume proposes an alternative approach to international legal scholarship—'conversation' over 'dialogue'—embracing incommensurability while enabling continuous productive exchange across legal traditions.

How can international law become genuinely global when its frameworks remain Eurocentric? This volume presents the first systematic account of Japanese international legal theory edited by Japanese scholars, offering perspectives from a tradition that has navigated between Western modernity and its own experiences for over a century.

The book examines thirteen influential Japanese scholars whose theoretical contributions challenge conventional assumptions about international law’s foundations. It traces their intellectual journeys across six historical periods, from nineteenth-century debates over sovereignty and civilisation to contemporary theories of normative multilateralism. The volume demonstrates how scholars positioned outside international law’s Western centre developed sophisticated frameworks addressing fundamental questions: how can legal traditions communicate across difference? What happens when seeking common ground reproduces existing hierarchies? The editors propose ‘conversation’ as an alternative mode of engagement – one that respects incommensurability (the recognition that some differences cannot be reconciled) while enabling continuous productive exchange. Through detailed intellectual biographies, the contributors reveal how Japanese theorists strategically employed legal positivism, articulated transcivilisational perspectives and developed concepts of international administrative law that addressed the structural limitations of Western-centric approaches.

Addressed at scholars of international law, legal theory and comparative legal traditions, this volume indicates a future direction that the discipline builds on genuinely reciprocal exchange where diverse perspectives can coexist productively without hierarchical integration.

This volume offers the first systematic account of Japanese international legal theory, tracing more than a century of scholarship across thirteen influential thinkers. Edited by leading Japanese scholars, it examines how theorists working outside international law’s Western centre developed sophisticated frameworks to navigate tensions between Western modernity and their own legal and intellectual traditions. The book’s central contribution proposes “conversation”—a mode of sustained engagement that respects irreducible differences between legal cultures—as an alternative to “dialogue,” which often reinforces hierarchy by presuming full reconciliation of perspectives. Through detailed intellectual biographies spanning six historical periods, contributors show how Japanese scholars strategically adopted legal positivism, articulated transcivilizational approaches, and advanced concepts of normative multilateralism. Aimed at scholars of international law, legal theory, and comparative traditions, the volume demonstrates that the field’s future depends on genuinely reciprocal, coexisting perspectives.