Paintings of International Law

Abstract

International lawyers are involved in the business of persuasion. The primary aim of their international legal argument is to persuade peers and non-peers about the validity of their legal claims. In the quest for the optimal aesthetics of legal argument, one should certainly not overlook the role of the material container in which the international legal argument is stored and by virtue of which it is conveyed. Using data drawn from the catalogues of the main publishers of international law books, this chapter focuses on the imagery used in the design of international law books and the way it contributes to the aesthetics of international legal argumentation. This chapter zeroes in on the paintings that are reproduced on the cover of international law books, with a view to unravelling some of the dynamics of the aesthetics of international legal argumentation.