Adventures in Internationalism

One of the greatest figures in modern international law, James Brown Scott [1866-1943] intended to publish an autobiography titled Adventures in Internationalism. He wrote a few paragraphs for this book, but he never completed it. He decided instead to entrust his life's story to George A. Finch, a protégé and friend. Finch began work on a biography with Scott's participation in the late 1930s, but he never completed it.

Using Finch's manuscripts and notes Butler has produced a compelling study of Scott's key role in the international law movement, participation in several important diplomatic conferences and work as an author, secretary of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and guiding force behind the American Society of International Law.

"[Scott] fathered and fostered the development of international law during the greatest period of its history." --Manley O. Hudson, Harvard Alumni Bulletin XXXIII No. 14 (1 January 1931) 419.

George A. Finch [1884-1957] was James Brown Scott's assistant and literary executor. He served as assistant director of the Division of International Law at the Carnegie Endowment, and, upon Dr. Scott's retirement, became that division's secretary and director. He was president of the Inter-American Academy of International and Comparative Law and held several positions at the American Society of International Law. At the time of his death he was honorary vice-president of the society and the honorary editor of its journal. He was the author of The Sources of Modern International Law (1937).

William E. Butler is the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law at Penn State University's Dickinson School of Law. He is the preeminent authority on the law of Russia and other former Soviet republics and the author, co-author, editor, or translator of more than 120 books on Soviet, Russian, Ukrainian and other Commonwealth of Independent States legal systems. Professor Emeritus of Comparative Law at the University of London, Professor Butler is the founder and director of The Vinogradoff Institute, which operates as a unit of Penn State Dickinson. The recipient of numerous honors for his service to Russian and international law, Professor Butler is an Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and is serving his third term as a member of the Russian International Court of Commercial Arbitration.