Abstract Although he was essentially a diplomat and was involved in the preparations for the plans for the Argentine delegation sent to the First Pan-American Conference (1889-1990), Vicente Quesada was a precursor of Latin American modern anti-imperialism and above all of the theories postulating the existence of a regional international law for Latin America. Before modern Latin American anti-imperialist ideas were incorporated within the intellectual, diplomatic and political Latin American imaginary, Quesada put forward a series of assertive critiques of the Monroe Doctrine as a safeguard to protect peace in the Americas and of the emerging Pan-American movement promoted by James Blaine in the context of the First Pan-American Conference. Moreover, preceding the institutionalization of international law as a modern discipline in Argentina and the construction of a continental legal tradition associated to Pan-Americanism, Quesada published a series of influential articles in which he sought to demonstrate that regional peace was the product of truly Latin American legal prínciples and not of the Monroe Doctrine. This article draws on these important pieces by Quesada and it argues that Quesada was pioneering in postulating a Latin American tradition of international law, advocating the construction of a regional Latin American legal order, safeguard from US expansionism.

Resumen Aunque fue un diplomático de carrera y se vio implicado en el armado de los objetivos de la delegación argentina en la Primera Conferencia Panamericana (1889-1890), Vicente Quesada fue un precursor del antiimperialismo latinoamericano y de las teorías que postularon la existencia de un derecho internacional regional para América Latina. Antes de que el antiimperialismo latinoamericano comenzara a calar profundamente en el imaginario intelectual, diplomático y político latinoamericano, Quesada esbozó una serie de críticas contundentes a la Doctrina de Monroe como garante de la paz en América y al emergente panamericanismo promovido por James Blaine en el contexto de la Primera Conferencia Panamericana. Asimismo, precediendo a la institucionalización del derecho internacional como disciplina moderna en la Argentina y la construcción de una tradición legalista continental asociada al panamericanismo, Quesada publicó una serie de trabajos influyentes en los que intentó demostrar que la paz regional era producto de principios legales auténticamente latinoamericanos y no de la Doctrina de Monroe. Este artículo se funda en el estudio de estos trabajos de Quesada y argumenta, entonces, que Quesada fue pionero en la postulación de una tradición latinoamericana del derecho internacional, abogando por la construcción de un orden legal regional latinoamericano resguardado del expansionismo estadounidense.

Abstract Through an analysis of the international legal thought of Alejandro Alvarez, Ruy Barbosa, Isidro Fabela and Carlos Saavedra Lamas, this paper shows that Latin America played a vital and complex role in the reconfiguration of a new global legal order in the early twentieth century and the consolidation of the modern discipline of international law, as well as a specific legal field in Latin America. It argues that the region was a pioneer in the promotion of distinctive continental and regional approaches to international law and world peace before and after the creation of the League of Nations.