Progress is a familiar slogan in international law, commonly used to accompany claims for improvement or change. At the same time, the notion of progress is rarely explored as such in the literature. The book begins to address this gap by examining the function of the notion of progress in international law rhetoric and writing. By looking at three concrete case studies taken from 'everyday' international law, the book concentrates on explaining 'what is it' that makes a specific international law event synonymous with progress. The book engages questions of narrativity, objectivity, and truth in some of international law's founding progress narratives. The book is valuable reading for international law academics and practitioners alike, especially for those interested in the history and theory of international law. Dr. Thomas Skouteris is currently Associate Professor and Director of the Ibrahim Shihata Memorial LLM Program in International and Comparative Law at The American University in Cairo as well as Secretary General of the European Society of International Law. Before AUC, Skouteris taught at the Faculty of Law of Leiden University and other universities as Visiting Professor. He is General Editor of the Leiden Journal of International Law and he teaches and publishes in public international law, legal history and theory, international dispute settlement, and international criminal law.

The language of international criminal law has considerable traction in global politics, and much of its legitimacy is embedded in apparently 'axiomatic' historical truths. This innovative edited collection brings together some of the world's leading international lawyers with a very clear mandate in mind: to re-evaluate ('retry') the dominant historiographical tradition in the field of international criminal law. Carefully curated, and with contributions by leading scholars, The New Histories of International Criminal Law pursues three research objectives: to bring to the fore the structure and function of contemporary histories of international criminal law, to take issue with the consequences of these histories, and to call for their demystification. The essays discern several registers on which the received historiographical tradition must be retried: tropology; inclusions/exclusions; gender; race; representations of the victim and the perpetrator; history and memory; ideology and master narratives; international criminal law and hegemonic theories; and more. This book intervenes critically in the fields of international criminal law and international legal history by bringing in new voices and fresh approaches. Taken as a whole, it provides a rich account of the dilemmas, conundrums, and possibilities entailed in writing histories of international criminal law beyond, against, or in the shadow of the master narrative.