‘What We Seek Is the Reign of Law’: The Legalism of the Paris Peace Settlement after the Great War

The Paris Peace Settlement of 1919–1920 has decisively influenced the development of international law in the 20th century. We know far less, however, about the legalism that shaped the process of peacemaking after the Great War. Going beyond conventional narratives of reiterating the achievements and failures of the peacemakers, this article develops an outside perspective on the impact that notions of law, justice and legality had on the Paris negotiations. Allied claims of defending international society and establishing the ‘reign of law’ in international affairs created normative expectations that staked out the ground for the entire settlement. The article exhibits the inherent ambivalence of those declarations and demonstrates how the normative reality construed by the Allies fashioned the political and diplomatic agenda of victorious and vanquished nations alike.