Professor Janne E. Nijman’s co-edited book, Research Handbook on International Law and Cities receives the European Society of International Law’s 2022 Collaborative Book Prize. Bringing the urban turn to the field of international law, the Handbook’s co-editors and contributing authors provide a theoretically and empirically rich account of how cities have been reshaping international law and global governance practices over the centuries.
On the occasion of the 17th Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law (ESIL), Janne Nijman and Helmut Philipp Aust (Freie Universität Berlin) received the 2022 ESIL Collaborative Book Prize for their co-edited volume, Research Handbook on International Law and Cities. Having joined the Geneva Graduate Institute as a Professor of International Law in January 2020, Janne Nijman’s research interests include the role of cities in international law and global governance, questions of subjectivity in international law, and the history and theory of international law.
Published by Edward Elgar Publishing in 2021, the Handbook comprises a total of thirty-five chapters. Together, the chapters take an unprecedented multidisciplinary dive into the myriad ways international law is being formed, deciphered, and put into practice by cities. In their public accolade of the book, the ESIL prize jury commends the Handbook for inviting its readers to challenge the commonly held misconception that “cities have had little to do with intentional law as the law of nations was constructed around the nation-state and its sovereignty.” Indeed demonstrating the contrary, the Handbook “demonstrates how cities have become active in areas traditionally thought to be related to international law,” thereby visibilising and seeking to correct a significant blind spot in the discipline. Walking its readers through oasis city-states dotted along the Silk Road that connected East to West and the Italian city republics of the Later Middle Ages, the Handbook impressively historicizes the role of cities in international law-making across the centuries. Offering a prismatic view of international legal practice in urban settings throughout history and across geographies, the Handbook covers a vast thematic terrain, offering empirical insights into the governance fields of human rights, climate change, migration, security, health, and more. As cities have been key locations of globalisation, the Handbook equally tackles attempts to govern and offset the consequences of global connections in urban settings.
An obvious resource for scholars of international law, the Handbook speaks to and engages with other disciplines, namely human geography, urban studies, sociology, political science, and international relations.