State Sovereignty and the Origins of International Legal Formalism

This essay explores the historical and intellectual context of the late-19th century that led public international law to adopt a formalist focus on the sovereign will of states. The discussion of the work of four German-speaking academics—Carl Wilhelm von Gerber, Georg Jellinek, Carl Menger and Max Weber—situates the rise of modern “public international law” within the debates concerning the specialization of different types of social science—namely those of public law, economics, and sociology. The essay highlights the impact of the methodological separation of these disciplines on the formalist orientation of international law. The analysis underscores the tension between legal abstraction and empirical social phenomena, revealing the challenges of thinking about international governance by focusing exclusively on the principles of sovereignty and the rule of law.