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The “good offices” of international law: the constitution of a non-political authority in the diplomatic concert of the 1920s The traditional debate surrounding the force of law in international politics is re-examined here through an analysis of the concrete operation of such transnational legal communities as emerged with the development of multilateralism and of international organisations during the 1920s. This article reveals the social mechanisms underpinning the third power constituted by jurists on the international stage of the period. It underscores the particular vision of the international general good constructed at the time within these academic transnational communities which were constantly torn between national and international loyalties, on the one hand, and between political and learned logic, on the other.