Recentering the World

Recentering the World recovers a richly contextual detailed history of Western-imposed legal structures in China as well as engagements with international law by Chinese officials jurists and citizens. Beginning in the Late Qing era it shows how international law functioned as a channel for power relations techniques of economic domination as well as novel forms of resistance. The book also radically diversifies traditionally Eurocentric accounts of modern international law''s origins demonstrating how by the mid-twentieth century Chinese jurists had made major contributions to international organizations and the UN system the international judiciary the laws of armed conflict and more. Drawing on extensive archival research this book is a valuable guide to China''s often conflicted role in international law its reception and contention of concepts of sovereignty property obligation and autonomy and its gradual move from the ''periphery'' to a shared spot at the ''center'' of global legal order.