This chapter contains four snapshots depicting the state of international legal scholarship at the time of the League of Nations. The first captures the zeitgeist of scholarship during the interwar period and identifies some features that defined this emerging epistemic community. It also considers the extent to which scholars may have had an influence outside academic circles. The second and third snapshots focus on various intertwined debates of the time. In this regard, consideration is given to the debates on the ultimate source of international obligations and the broader discussions about scientific method and the place of ideology in international law. This is done by reference, in particular, to the approaches and/or theories followed by Kelsen, Lauterpacht, (French) legal sociology and jus naturalism. The fourth snapshot elaborates on these debates by focusing on state sovereignty as the vantage point where most doctrinal trends of the time intersect. It identifies liberalism as the ideology underpinning such criticisms and compares them with the views held, first, by controversial German scholar Carl Schmitt and. second, by Soviet legal theorists.

This chapter introduces the approach taken in the book, which is to focus on the law, not policy. It further clarifies that the book will focus on the legal aspects of the Security Council based on the UN Charter and in the Council’s practice.

The attempt to make abuse of right a part of international law was championed by Politis and Lauterpacht in the wake of the horrors of World War I. Their motivation was essentially idealistic, radical, and subversive; they wanted the concept to be used as a tool to overcome the stubborn refusal of states to yield sovereignty.