Symposium Justitia and Leviathans: The Struggle for the International Rule of Law

The international legal order 'as we know it' - as it has existed and evolved since the end of WWII - is now bent to a breaking point. Supplanted casually by its simulacra such as the 'rules-based order' or ‘multipolar world’, the international rule of law lies in shambles. Multilateralism is ceding ground to transactional exceptionalism(s) and fundamental international legal norms are increasingly honoured in the breach. Russia’s aggression against and atrocities in Ukraine, Israel’s total, plausibly genocidal, war on Palestinians in Gaza in the aftermath of the 7/10 Hamas attack, along with the creeping annexation of West Bank, and the US’ wrecking-ball approach to international legal institutions under Trump 2.0, demonstrate vividly that some powerful States and their allies have no qualms in trampling on the cornerstone principles of international law. Yet, it is other States’ complicity in those violations and selective support for accountability, when it comes to 'enemies' but not 'friends', that may signal something even more sinister.

International courts and tribunals under existential threat

If politics in the Schmittian sense indeed sets insurmountable limits on States’ commitment to the international rule of law, the very notion of the international community may have expired or been premature all along. International law, as embodied in its key tenets and institutions that are constitutive of that community, is under sustained attack not only from autocratic States but also from (erstwhile) liberal democracies. In the current geopolitical climate, international courts and tribunals, the guardians of international law, are routinely confronted with defiance of their authority and disrespect for their judicial independence. States neglect their rulings and seek to debilitate, control, or constrain them through governance (eg budgetary) processes. Moreover, some of them go as far as to mount virulent politicised attacks, engage in surveillance and (cyber)espionage, impose crippling sanctions, and launch criminal cases against court principals. These thuggish tactics are facilitated by the drawn-out triumph of illiberal populism and the rule-of-law decline at the domestic level.

Tackling the predicament of international justice

This symposium brings leading practitioners and scholars in a conversation on the predicament international justice institutions and the international rule of law are faced with at this critical juncture. (How) can Leviathans be reined in and Justitia be protected more effectively from the rule-of-law undermining - and whose responsibility is it? What is the link, if any, between the health of the domestic rule of law and States’ engagement with international courts and tribunals? What mechanisms are available - or need yet to be devised - to tackle state behaviour undermining the international rule of law? What measures can be taken to deter and sanction the onslaught against international justice in what is in essence a horizontal, self-regulatory system? How can the international rule of law be (re)built and the world pulled back from the brink of total lawlessness?

The Open Universiteit cordially invites you to join in discussing these matters with us on Friday 13 June 2025.

Programme

Registration

The symposium takes place on Friday 13 June 2025 at Open Universiteit in Heerlen, Pretoria building. Registration is possible from 29 April 2025 via ou.nl/uitnodiging.
Please register before 5 June 2025.

The symposium is followed by the inaugural lecture of prof. dr. Sergey Vasiliev, titled 'Justitia en Leviathans: De strijd voor de internationale rechtsstatelijkheid' (in Dutch) at 16.00 and can be followed via ou.nl/live.