Histories of international law have typically focused on the origins of legal rules and doctrines, the decisions of courts and other formal tribunals, the views of professors and legal theorists and diplomats, and the evolution of the legal profession. That is, international legal histories have centered on the concerns of lawyers and states and have reflected a positivist vision of international lawmaking. We need a history of international law that focuses more on international law in action – the invocation, elaboration, and contestation of rules in and through their everyday application, not just by states, high-level state actors, legal theorists, and state-organized domestic and international institutions, but also by individuals, low-level officials, private groups, and nongovernmental actors and in places outside of the usual fora where ‘international law’ is said to be found. We need a history of international law in the vernacular.

国际法的历史通常集中在法律规则和学说的起源，法院和其他正式法庭的裁决，教授，法律理论家和外交官的观点以及法律专业的发展上。也就是说，国际法律史集中于律师和国家的关注，并反映了国际立法的实证主义观点。我们需要国际法的历史，而它的重点应更多地放在行动中的国际法上–在规则的日常应用中以及通过它们的日常应用，不仅是国家，高级国家行为者，法律理论家和国家组织的规则的调用，拟定和竞争。国内外机构，也包括个人，低级官员，私人团体，以及非政府行为者以及通常在论坛之外的地方，据说可以找到“国际法”。我们需要白话国际法的历史。