Russia, the Soviet Union, and Imperial Continuity in International Law

Lauri Mälksoo is Professor of International Law at the University of Tartu in Estonia. He is member of the Institut de Droit International, of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. He has published widely on the history and theory of international law, including the monograph “Russian Approaches to International Law” (OUP, 2015) and is co-editor and co-author of the volume “The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Europe” (OUP, 2024). He is co-editor of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law and belongs to advisory boards of several specialized international law journals.

• Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter Chapter 2: The Russian Empire until the Crimean War (1853-6) Chapter 3: The Late Russian Empire (1856-1917) Chapter 4: From Soviet Russia to the Soviet Union: The Interwar Period and the Second World War Chapter 5: Interwar Soviet International Law Scholars and the Buildup to the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 Chapter 6: The Cold War: Interpretations of Soviet State Identity, Federalism, and Self-Determination Chapter 7: The Cold War: Soviet Views on Treaties, Peaceful Coexistence, and Socialist International Law as Imperial Doctrines Chapter 8: From Perestroika to Putin's Russia: Swinging Back to the Imperial Concept of International Law In Conclusion