“Calculate the Limits of the Possible”: Scandinavian Legal Diplomacy, Diplomatic Arenas and the Establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice

Abstract This article considers the role of the Scandinavian states in the establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice ( pcij ) and how the construction of the pcij and the wider League of Nations shaped Scandinavian legal diplomacy. It does so by analyzing legal-diplomatic practices within five significant diplomatic arenas between 1917 and 1920, from the early Scandinavian committee work, via the Advisory Committee of Jurists to the First League Assembly. Our article argues that we need to be attuned to how the emergence of the League of Nations and the particular sequence of multilateral negotiations that led to the creation of the pcij transformed Scandinavian (legal) internationalism and aligned the three countries to the new international order.