The Advisory Committee of Jurists and the historical origins of scholarly writings as a source of international law

This chapter looks at the deliberations during the Advisory Committee of Jurists (ACJ) meeting in July 1920 to develop a narrative on the historical origins of the sources of law from the point of view of the ‘teachings of the most highly qualified publicists.’ In doing this, the chapter develops a narrative on normative attitudes to explain how the teachings of publicist emerged as sources and then propose a ‘background theory’ that should take into account the historical origins of sources through a constructivist lens.