Ressource pédagogique : Wouter De Rycke - Pacific Swissresponses to international instability in the early nineteenth century Jean-Jacques de Sellon (1782-1839) and the Société de la paix de Genève (1830-1839)

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Although socio-legal histories are on the rise, little scholarship has been devoted to the legal aspects of the early to mid-nineteenth century pacifism. Those who have taken notice of the so-called amis de la paix have overwhelmingly concentrated on the founding Anglo-American peace societies. This has left many European publicists and activists underappreciated, who also attempted to persuade public opinion of legal alternatives to war. One such man was the Genevan aristocrat Jean-Jacques de Sellon (1782-1839), who founded in 1830 the first peace society of continental Europe: the Société de la paix de Genève. For the next nine years, a continuous stream of letters and propaganda flowed from his Alpine home across Europe, to fellow peace friends, to intellectuals, and even to politicians and sovereigns. Unburdened by legal theory and doctrine, this count attempted to revolutionize European politics and law by reviving the classic plan of Henri IV and Sully for a permanent international tribunal. While no doubt ‘utopian’ on several levels, the count de Sellon deeply enmeshed himself in the politics of his era, taking pains to reconcile personal ideology with political events both in the troubled interior of the Swiss confederacy, as well as in its relations to the Great Powers. From individual religious beliefs to high politics, this unique Swiss friend of peace embodied an early continental-European expression of the ideal of peace through law within the nineteenth century peace movement.

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• Droit international (341)

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