The ''Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law'' (MPEPIL) is an online encyclopedia dealing with

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

. It was published under the auspices of Professor

Rüdiger Wolfrum Rüdiger Wolfrum (born 13 December 1941 in Berlin) is German jurist and the current professor of international law at the Heidelberg University Faculty of Law and director emeritus of the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law ...

, Director of the

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Max Planck Institute for International Law, MPIL) is a legal research institute located in Heidelberg, Germany. It is operated by the Max Planck Society. The institute was ...

until his successor

Anne Peters Anne Peters (born November 15, 1964 in Berlin) is a German-Swiss jurist with a focus on public international law. She is director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, honorary professor at the University o ...

became general editor in 2021. The initiative to compile the MPEPIL began in 2004 and the online version launched in September 2008. It represents a new edition of the ''Encyclopedia of Public International Law'' published between 1991 and 2001 by

Rudolf Bernhardt Rudolf Bernhardt (29 April 1925 – 1 December 2021) was a German judge. He represented Germany on the European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an internati ...

. In February 2012, the print edition was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. The encyclopedia is

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

ed. In a 2013 review of the work,

Sean D. Murphy Sean David Murphy is an American international law scholar currently serving as the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., where he has been teaching since 1998. His primary ar ...

wrote that: "All told, there is little question that the Max Planck Encyclopedia lives up to its claim as the definitive reference work for international law"

Description

''MPEPIL'' is an updated, comprehensive work covering the essential topics in international law. The new work is not just a revision of Rudolf Bernhardt's encyclopedia. Instead, new authors completely rewrote nearly all entries. ''MPEPIL'' includes numerous new topics in order to capture the latest developments in international law. To do justice to the changing nature of the law, an increased emphasis has been placed on the relevance of each keyword for contemporary international law. Particular attention has been paid to the contextualization of each topic within international law as well as the presentation of current trends while maintaining a focus on the mainstream/majority view. In order to reach the goal of avoiding a purely

Eurocentric Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism) is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western world ...

perspective the assistance of

academics An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

and practitioners from various legal backgrounds and perspectives was obtained already in the early stages of the undertaking. The intention is that ''MPEPIL'' is a work that reflects international law from a global perspective while taking into account also regional views.

''MPEPIL'' currently contains 1,618 articles. A total of 1,700 articles are planned for the site, with four content updates per year. Upon completion, the ''MPEPIL'' will cover the following overarching subject areas and article types: *

Air law Aviation law is the branch of law that concerns flight, air travel, and associated legal and business concerns. Some of its area of concern overlaps that of admiralty law and, in many cases, aviation law is considered a matter of international ...

and law of outer space *

Diplomacy Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...

and consular relations *

Foreign relations A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through mu ...

History of international law The history of international law examines the evolution and development of public international law in both state practice and conceptual understanding. Modern international law developed out of Renaissance Europe and is strongly entwined with the ...

Human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

* Immunities *

Individual An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own Maslow ...

s and

non-state actor A non-state actor (NSA) are organizations and/or individuals that are not affiliated with, directed by, or funded by any government. The interests, structure, and influence of NSAs vary widely. For example, among NSAs are non-profit organizations, ...

s * International co-operation *

International courts and tribunals International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

International criminal law International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetrati ...

* International economic law and relations *

International environmental law Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the manage ...

International humanitarian law International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war (''jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by prot ...

* International organizations: general aspects * International procedural law * International responsibility * Law of the sea *

Law of treaties The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) is an international agreement regulating treaties between states. Known as the "treaty on treaties", it establishes comprehensive rules, procedures, and guidelines for how treaties are defined ...

* Overview articles * Procedural law in international organizations * Regional organizations, institutions and developments * Relationship between international and domestic law * Settlement of disputes *

Sources Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

, foundations and principles of international law * Specific armed conflicts * Specific cases and decisions * Specific geographic issues * Specific treaties and instruments * Statehood, jurisdiction of states, organs of states * Subjects of international law *

Territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

* Theories of international law * Universal international organizations and institutions *

Use of force The use of force, in the context of law enforcement, may be defined as the "amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject". Use of force doctrines can be employed by law enforcement officers and military perso ...

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and neutrality. Given that the information contained in many of the articles may become outdated, authors are asked to update their articles once a year in the first three years after electronic publication of the entire ''MPEPIL''.

Personnel and management

Contributors

Over 800 authors from around the globe (74 countries) have agreed to submit articles to the ''MPEPIL''. Among them are not only distinguished

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

s and legal practitioners, who are involved in international law, but also up-and-coming academics and

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

ers. The latter have been included in order to promote the progressive character of the ''MPEPIL''.

Advisory board

An Advisory Board, consisting of renowned experts in various fields of international law, applies its expertise to ensure the quality and excellence of each article. They carefully read and evaluate each article, keeping in mind the high standard of the publication. The members of the Advisory Board include: Rudolf Bernhardt,

Armin von Bogdandy Armin von Bogdandy (born 5 June 1960 in Oberhausen) is a German legal scholar. He is director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and Professor for Public Law, European Union law, European Law ...

, Edith Brown Weiss,

Jean-Pierre Cot Jean-Pierre Cot (born 23 October 1937 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a French jurist who has served as a judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Biography He is the son of Pierre Cot, also a politician and minister. After stu ...

Yoram Dinstein Yoram Dinstein (יורם דינשטיין; born January 2, 1936) is an Israeli scholar and Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University. He is a specialist on international law, and a prominent authority on the laws of war. He served as President of ...

, Thomas Franck, Jochen Abr. Frowein, Meinhard Hilf, Rahmatullah Khan,

Martti Koskenniemi Martti Antero Koskenniemi (born 18 March 1953) is a Finnish international lawyer and former diplomat. Currently he is professor of International Law in the University of Helsinki and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law an ...

, Thomas Läufer, Thomas A. Mensah, Hanspeter Neuhold, Francisco Orrego Vicuña, W. Michael Reisman,

Bruno Simma Bruno Simma (born March 29, 1941 in Quierschied, Germany), is a German jurist who served as a judge on the International Court of Justice from 2003 until 2012. He currently serves as an affiliated overseas faculty member of the University of Mich ...

Daniel Thürer Daniel Thürer (born 6 June 1945 in St. Gallen) is a Swiss jurist and professor emeritus of international, comparative constitutional and European law at the University of Zurich. He is a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, a ...

Christian Tomuschat Christian Tomuschat (born 23 July 1936 in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland)) is a German jurist. He is emeritus professor of public international law and European law at the Humboldt University in Berlin and is a former member of the UN Hu ...

, Tullio Treves,

, and Michael Wood.

Staff

At the Max Planck Institute, a number of persons are or have been involved in the ''MPEPIL'' project since its initiation. The staff includes: Managing Editors, responsible for preparatory work, oversight over the project as a whole and to that end, involvement at all stages of the editorial and publication process, all the while ensuring a high level of quality for each article. Internal legal advisors, who are Senior Research Fellows at the Max Planck Institute, assist with quality-assurance in their supervision of the overarching themes as well as examination of articles. Editorial Staff consists of Support Staff, Editors, and Student Assistants. The Support Staff assist in the daily administration of the project. Editors review each article to ensure they are in keeping with the project's style guidelines and make certain the validity and content of the authors’ statements.

Availability

The ''MPEPIL'' is available in electronic form.

(OUP) started the online publication in September 2008 with more than 450 articles. Regular updates will steadily expand the ''MPEPIL'' until all of its content can be accessed online. As of December 2012, the total number of articles stood at 1,618. In 2012,
print edition
was published.

Oxford Law Citator

The ''MPEPIL'' features the Oxford Law Citator. This system links together OUP online materials that mention or discuss each other, and provides the user with further information on all references which are available online.

References

{{Reflist

External links

''Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law'' website

''Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law'' website
Heidelberg, Germany 2008 non-fiction books Internet properties established in 2008 British online encyclopedias Encyclopedias of law Oxford University Press reference books International law literature Max Planck Institutes