Articles

• Simpson, Gerry

Abstract

There is much talk in international law about ‘liberalism’. The term means many things but is too often taken to mean only one. This essay is intended to act as an historical gloss on some contemporary debates featured elsewhere concerning the meanings of liberalism and the possible consequences of adopting liberal positions in international law. The author aims to accomplish three ends here. First, he distinguishes between two different but familiar liberal conceptions of international community. The author calls these Charter liberalism and liberal anti‐pluralism. Secondly, the author discusses the tension between these two conceptions during two periods of innovation in the international system, namely, the late‐Victorian era and the Conference at San Francisco to establish the United Nations Organization. Thirdly, he turns to the contemporary version of liberal anti‐pluralism and contrasts two variants of this new liberal anti‐pluralism, mild and strong, before showing how each of them constructs the problem of the ‘outlaw state’.