Private Citizens of the World and Frontier Expansion

In her analysis of James Lorimer's The Institutes of the Law of the Nations (1883), Karen Knop called on public international lawyers to explore the potential of Lorimer's figure of the “private citizens of the world” to illuminate the position of the individual in international law.1 She argued that focusing on the individual's private law dimension revealed hidden understandings and manifestations of the international. This focus, she observed, might even clarify the structural role that nonstate actors and their legal interactions play in shaping sovereign states and their relations.2 This essay builds on Knop's insight to reflect on the role of actors involved in frontier expansion in international law. I examine the settlement of land deemed desert in South America at the turn of the nineteenth century, as private actors used law to incorporate new territories and resources into a capitalist order. Drawing on the work of Argentinian jurist Carlos Calvo, and analyzing specific cases of settlement in the Amazon, I explain how these actors and their legal practices participated in the consolidation of a territorial order of states. Following Knop's prompt, I explore how examining the role of individuals and their private allegiances sharpens our view of how international law exercises power and distributes resources around the world. Combined with efforts to decentralize the history of international law, Knop's private lens shows how individuals seeking to expand the capitalist frontier make international law, not only at the core, but also on the margins and in the interactions between the two.