Histories of International Law in China : All Under Heaven?

Histories of International Law in China: All Under Heaven? offers a groundbreaking exploration of China's engagement with international law over the past two centuries.Written by an interdisciplinary group of international law scholars and legal historians, it provides a longue durée perspective, revealing both enduring patterns and profound shifts in China's approach to the global legal order. Beginning with China's millennia-old Sino-centric worldview-rooted in the Confucian concept of Tianxia (All under Heaven)-the book traces China's evolving relationship with international law from its period of isolation to its forced entry into the Western legal system during the First Opium War (1839-1842).It examines the transformation of China's legal landscape through the fall of the Qing Dynasty (1911), the Republican era (1912-1949), and the establishment of the People's Republic of China (1949).The book explores China's relationship with international law from 1949-including through the C