Legal Innovation through a Biographical Lens: Antonio Cassese and the European Tradition

Abstract This symposium introduction reflects on themes of tradition and innovation in the work of Antonio (‘Nino’) Cassese. These themes were central to Cassese’s own thinking, in ways drawn out by the three symposium articles on aspects of his life and work, and they play important roles in international law more broadly. In exploring these themes in a loosely biographical inquiry, the introduction also poses questions about the nature of biographical writing in international law and its relation to memorialization and historicization of law’s recent past.