British Contributions to the Concept of Recognition during the Interwar Period: Williams, Baty and Lauterpacht

Most accounts of the ‘great debates’ about the nature and meaning of recognition in international law pivot around the constitutive and declaratory theories in their articulations by Lauterpacht, Kelsen, and Chen, amongst many others, from the 1940s onwards. This chapter presents an earlier and specifically British story. It explores the contributions of three British jurists — John Fischer Williams, Thomas Baty, and Hersch Lauterpacht — to the development of the concept of recognition during the interwar period. After briefly surveying themes in pre-First World War theories of recognition and the changes of the interwar period, this chapter examines and contextualises each jurist’s writings on recognition, exploring how their views reflect and respond to the challenges of international legal argument during the interwar period, before tying those themes together in concluding reflections.