“International law has been subjected to at least four major shocks in a short space of time: Russia's war against Ukraine, Israel's war in Gaza, Western countries questioning the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and Donald Trump's explicit statements about taking over other countries,” says Valentin Jeutner, a researcher in international law at ۶Ƶ.
These developments risk undermining the international rule of law. But there are also glimmers of hope.
“States are bringing more cases to the International Criminal Court than ever before. This suggests that the crises we are facing also represent an opportunity to reaffirm and reconnect with the principles of the international legal order that emerged from the ashes of the Second World War," says Valentin Jeutner.
A changing world
The soft launch of the Museum of International Law in Lund is taking place in the shadow of these world events, and it is to be a place where every artefact carries a story. Through these artefacts, the museum aims to make international law and human rights both understandable and concrete.
“I have always found myself drawn to stories. They help us understand the chaos around us. Every conflict has two narratives – that of the enemy and that of the friend – and violence only becomes possible when we stop seeing the human on the other side,” says Valentin Jeutner.
The core of the museum is the world's largest collection of artefacts relating to the passenger ship the SS Lotus, which was at the centre of a controversial international law case. The museum also houses a range of other artefacts that provide insight into how the law, power and everyday life intertwine in times of conflict.
One such artefact is a family passport from the Austro-Hungarian Empire – a reminder of a realm that disappeared. Passports from fallen empires are loaded with symbolism, and collecting them has become something of a special interest for Valentin Jeutner.
“We often think that the world is unchanging, whereas history shows that it is constantly changing. Previous systems have collapsed and new ones have emerged,” says Valentin Jeutner.
War as a game
Another notable artefact at the Museum of International Law is the deck of cards featuring Iraq's former leader, Saddam Hussein, as the ace of spades. During the 2003 Iraq war, the United States produced playing cards of Iraq's most wanted, to help soldiers identify key figures in Saddam Hussein's regime. The deck served as a reminder of the regime's “most wanted”, but also as a form of gamification: the war became a game in which enemies were collected as cards.
The gamification of war is something Valentin Jeutner is interested in, and there are further examples on display in the Museum of International Law’s cabinets.
Another is the Ukrainian wartime stamp issued to commemorate the refusal of Ukrainian border police to surrender Snake Island to the Russian warship Moskva. The image portrays a Ukrainian soldier giving the ship the finger. A few days after the Ukrainian Post Office issued these commemorative stamps, the Moskva sank. It became the first Russian flagship to sink since 1906. Another stamp was then issued, featuring the same view – but this time without the ship.
The ship that sailed through the fall of empires
It all started with Valentin Jeutner's Lotus collection, based on the French passenger ship Lotus, which was involved in a highly publicised case in international law. It was in 1926 that the Lotus collided with a Turkish cargo ship in international waters. Although eight Turkish sailors died in the collision, the case was not about them – but about principles. The case resulted in the so-called Lotus Principle: anything that is not expressly prohibited is permitted by international law.
But it was not only the principles that attracted Valentin Jeutner's interest. During the ship's active years, 1913 to 1931, the Lotus crossed the Mediterranean through the collapse of several empires – including Tsarist Russia, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Empires fell while the Lotus continued to travel between Marseille, Alexandria, Port Said, Jaffa, Beirut, and sometimes between Smyrna and Istanbul – a journey that Valentin Jeutner dreams of making by sailboat.
The Lotus collection includes many postcards, playing cards, concert programmes, dinner menus and the ship's own magazine. Together, these artefacts bear witness to a disorderly everyday life during a tumultuous time.
“They write postcards about the weather, the temperature, the fear of getting seasick – or being torpedoed by a German submarine. But most of all, the missives are about love, loss and physical needs: Are you ill? Are you feeling cold? Have you had something to eat? The tone of the letters is almost modern. We have iPhones and better medicine, but our feelings are the same,” says Valentin Jeutner.
Few of those who travelled on the SS Lotus were simply seeking adventures. They included Jewish pilgrims on their way to holy sites, Russians fleeing the Revolution, and Frenchmen travelling from France to Middle Eastern colonies. Travelling on the Lotus was a way of getting from A to B.
International law in everyday life
The museum is also planning self-guided tours of international law in Lund – with stops at everything from the new UNESCO Memory of the World Ravensbrück Archive at the University Library to a lift at the Faculty of Law.
“The lift is made by Krupp, a German company with deeply compromised Nazi-era history. That is not something you would usually give much thought. And that is precisely the point: to make visible what we otherwise do not see,” says Valentin Jeutner.
This is just the beginning. The museum's working group, made up of Valentin Jeutner and law students, has lots more ideas. One ongoing project is to correct numerous inaccuracies in Wikipedia articles on international law – in both Swedish and English. The group has identified a great need, especially in the Swedish version of the encyclopedia, for keywords such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to be included.
The museum also becomes the first institution in Sweden to exhibit “unissued diplomas” – dedicated to Ukrainian university students who were killed before they could finish their studies.
The Museum of International Law cooperates with Skissernas Museum and the Historical Museum at ۶Ƶ, because, as Valentin Jeutner says, the international law group are not themselves museum experts.
“The museum itself is an invitation to reflect. What does it really mean to have a museum about international law? What does it mean to put legal principles and human experience behind glass? We take museology, the study of the museum as a phenomenon, seriously – not just what we show, but how we show it and what it does to our understanding.”
