Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This book provides an exploration of China’s historical engagement with international law with a particular focus on the past two centuries. Written by an interdisciplinary group of international law scholars and legal historians, it offers 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 equally 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), exploring China’s relationship with international law from 1949—including through the Cultural Revolution—until the ‘reform and opening-up’ era and the end of the Cold War. Contributing to the burgeoning field of national histories of international law across the Global South and Asia, it sheds light on often overlooked historical episodes and key conceptual legacies shaping China’s contemporary approach to the international legal order. A unique feature is its curated gallery of historical figures—including multiple long-forgotten or invisible protagonists, such as pioneering women—in the history and theory of international law in China.</jats:p>