All's Fair in Love and War: Imperial Gazes and Glaring Omissions at the Expositions Universelles (1851–1915)

Abstract

Despite the ever-growing literature that turns to history in international law, few legal scholars have interrogated the tradition of Expositions Universelles, let alone reflected on their importance for the formation of imperial legal projects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this paper, I attempt to engage Science and Technology Studies with International Legal History, analyzing these World Fairs as prime spaces for the co-production of socio-technical imaginaries of global governance.

Keywords

• expositions universelles
• science and technology studies
• architecture
• expo
• international law
• michel foucault
• modernity