TY - JOUR
T1 - Designing for international law
T2 - The architecture of international organizations 1922-1952
AU - McKenna, Miriam Bak
N1 - Funding Information:
Evidence of this debate can be seen in the design of the Peace Palace in the Hague, built in 1905 to house the Permanent Court of Arbitration (Figure below). The project was funded by the Carnegie Foundation together with the Dutch government, who held an international design competition to decide the design of the ‘stately and of [sic] noble’ home of the court, ultimately selecting a design by the French architect Louis Cordonnier. Evoking the neo-renaissance aesthetic of the Amsterdam Town Hall of 1652, the jury praised Cordonnier’s design for ‘following the local traditions of XCI Century architecture’ in the Hague, while architect Arthur Eyffinger described the structure as loyal to ‘the pillars of the Dutch Golden Age: Christian faith, the wealth of the merchant class and classical learning’. Expressions of internationalism were clearly anchored in a national (Dutch) aesthetic, in a visibly grand and historicist style, reflecting the preferences of a selective elite composed of mainly Western diplomats and academics (much like the supposedly universal ideals the Palace was said to embody). This can also be seen in the visualizations of the story of universal justice in the Palace’s decorations and gifts, which were ‘littered with symbols of Christian and humanist virtue’. Critics, however, decried it as a parochial and backward looking, criticizing its ‘lack of world harmony’ and calling the design ‘wholly imitative of the architecture of another era, without the slightest effort at large symbolism of modern life’. If we compare the final design to the Pan American Union Headquarters (Figure above), also commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation and built two years later in 1908, it was a very different form of expression that was to represent the newly established Pan American Union. Rather than elevating one single nation style, the structure blended North and South American expression by combining contemporary Beaux-Arts expression with elements alluding to the Spanish colonial architecture of the Latin America member states, such as the terracotta roof, ornamental bronze work, Aztec and Mayan artwork, and tiled central courtyard that featured flora from across the Americas. The harmonious combination of these various national design elements, and its more contemporary and unique aesthetic, could not be more estranged from the dated visual expression of the Peace Palace.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2020.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Situating itself in current debates over the international legal
archive, this article delves into the material and conceptual
implications of architecture for international law. To do so I trace the
architectural developments of international law’s organizational and
administrative spaces during the early to mid twentieth century. These
architectural endeavours unfolded in three main stages: the years
1922–1926, during which the International Labour Organization (ILO)
building, the first building exclusively designed for an international
organization was constructed; the years 1927–1937 which saw the great
polemic between modernist and classical architects over the building of
the Palace of Nations; and the years 1947–1952, with the triumph of
modernism, represented by the UN Headquarters in New York. These events
provide an illuminating allegorical insight into the physical
manifestation, modes of self-expression, and transformation of
international law during this era, particularly the relationship between
international law and the function and role of international
organizations.
AB - Situating itself in current debates over the international legal
archive, this article delves into the material and conceptual
implications of architecture for international law. To do so I trace the
architectural developments of international law’s organizational and
administrative spaces during the early to mid twentieth century. These
architectural endeavours unfolded in three main stages: the years
1922–1926, during which the International Labour Organization (ILO)
building, the first building exclusively designed for an international
organization was constructed; the years 1927–1937 which saw the great
polemic between modernist and classical architects over the building of
the Palace of Nations; and the years 1947–1952, with the triumph of
modernism, represented by the UN Headquarters in New York. These events
provide an illuminating allegorical insight into the physical
manifestation, modes of self-expression, and transformation of
international law during this era, particularly the relationship between
international law and the function and role of international
organizations.
KW - Architecture
KW - Historiography
KW - International law
KW - Law and aesthetics
KW - Legal materiality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105081045&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S092215652000059X
DO - 10.1017/S092215652000059X
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85105081045
SN - 0922-1565
VL - 34
SP - 1
EP - 22
JO - Leiden Journal of International Law
JF - Leiden Journal of International Law
IS - 1
ER -