Maarten Manse will present his paper “Recasting the Terms of Empire: How Indigenous Translators and Scribes Mediated the Legal Vocabulary of Empire through Treaty-making in Southeast Asia (c. 1750–1900)” at the junior conference Invisible Actors in the Making of International Law (1750–2000), hosted at Sciences Po, Paris, 27–28 November 2025.
Speaking in Panel 2: “Shaping the textualities of international law” on 28 November, Maarten will present how his work examines the crucial role played by indigenous translators and scribes in shaping the legal and diplomatic language of imperial treaties. Rather than passive intermediaries, these actors actively negotiated and reworked legal terminology, translating not only words but political concepts, cultural assumptions, and local understandings of authority.
The paper shows how treaty-making was a site of intellectual exchange, where Southeast Asian legal traditions and European imperial frameworks intersected. By tracing the influence of multilingual treaty manuscripts, the research highlights how local agents quietly reshaped the vocabulary of empire and, in doing so, helped to co-create emerging forms of international law.
The conference brings together early-career researchers exploring the hidden contributors who influenced the development of international legal order and will feature keynote speaker Tamar Herzog (Harvard University).
