Abstract

Early in his academic career, Reinhart Koselleck developed an interest in questions of international law. However, the historiography of international law, which has undergone a very dynamic evolution for almost three decades, remains little interested in Koselleck’s conceptualhistorical method. In this paper, I trace Koselleck’s association with international law scholars – particularly with Carl Schmitt, with whom he maintained an exchange beginning with the latter’s Nomos der Erde (1950) and continuing through Die legale Weltrevolution (1978). I strive to uncover the mutual influences and the significance of this cooperation for today’s transdisciplinary legal research.Their perspectives and possibilities through the conceptual-historical method are discussed in closing, before I return to the end of the world, where land and sea meet and where this text began.