International Law’s Cabinet of Curiosities

Abstract

This chapter considers the significance of objects for international law through the lens of collecting and curation. It focusses upon the history of the cabinet of curiosities (or wunderkammer) as a precursor to the modern museum. The metaphor of the cabinet of curiosities reveals the folly of international law’s ambition to represent and order the world. Interpreting and critiquing the history of international law in light of its material culture reveals its Eurocentricity and connection to empire. The chapter invites critical reflection upon the volume as a whole as a cabinet of curiosities, open to its limitations as a collection, but also offering innovation and contemporary insight through its idiosyncrasy and personal form. It concludes by considering the turn to materiality in the context of broader anxieties generated by the digital era.