Humanitarian Intervention in International Law 1830–1939. The Debate

* The completion of this article has benefitted from an ‘Aristeia’ grant, funded by Greece and the European Union.IntroductionHumanitarian intervention was conceived in the nineteenth century, but the origins of the idea go back to the Renaissance, to Gentili1 and Grotius,2 and arguably to Vitoria,3 Bodin4 and the anonymous author of Vindiciae contra tyrannos [Defense against tyrants].5 The humanitarian intervention doctrine was at its heyday in international law from the mid-nineteenth century until the 1930s and in particular from the 1870s onward. It held a prominent