Th ere is no law of nations outside of the customs followed by
nations and the obligations contracted by States.
—Théophile Funck- Brentano and Albert Sorel At the beginning and the ending points of the (postrevolutionary)
nineteenth century, the world was treated to two highly contrasting specta-
cles in international relations. In 1814– 15, the victorious powers in the re-
cent French Revolutionary Wars convened in Vienna. At the opposite end of
the century, in 1899, delegates from twenty- six states met in Th e Hague for a
peace conference of a very diff erent sort. Th ese two gatherings presented con-
trasts in a number of instructive ways. In terms of stylishness, there was no
comparison. Th e Congress of Vienna was a gathering of the fashionable and
festive, as well as of the victorious— one of the great social events of the cen-
tury. By comparison, Th e Hague Peace Conference was a drab aff air (although
it, too, had an ample social calendar alongside the conference business), with
an abundance of frock coats and a shortage of colorful personalities.
Another striking contrast between the two events was the visibility of in-
ternational lawyers. At Vienna, these exotic creatures were scarcely in evi-
dence. Th e only international lawyer of note on the scene was a German
named Johann Ludwig Klüber, and he appears to have been a freelance, not
connected to— or consulted by— any of the state delegations. He was a gath-
erer of documents who went on to compile a multivolume history of the
conference (and also to write a treatise on international law). Present as
well, but even less conspicuously, was a lawyer from Florence named Lo-
renzo Collini, who was the secretary of the Crusca Academy (a Tuscan liter-
ary body). He helpfully (and anonymously) supplied the statesmen at the
Congress of Vienna with twenty- fi ve copies of a draft code of international
law— which did not, however, fi nd its way onto the congress’s agenda.
Th ings were very diff erent at Th e Hague. International lawyers were very
much in evidence in all of the major state delegations and some of the minor
ones. A great deal of the conference’s substantive work, in fact, was legal
business, relating to the laws of war and arbitration of disputes. Th e high
standing of lawyers was indicated by the impressive offi cial description ac-
corded to them: “scientifi c delegates.” Th at label summed up, as succinctly
as possible, what had happened to international law over the preceding