Rule of Law in International Relations
The Study Group on the Rule of Law in International Relations seeks to develop a more coherent and persuasive basis for the concept and authority of the rule of law in international affairs. Too often proponents of the international rule of law assume the contested value of law, without considering or offering convincing arguments to support their assertions. The initiative would explore and articulate the nature, value, and purpose of the international rule of law.
The mandate of the Study Group on the Rule of Law in International Relations is (1) to develop within four years a more formal proposal for an ILA Committee on the Rule of Law in International Relations, but also (2) to better define what the Rule of Law in this context means and (3) requires, including (4) identifying and (5) responding to imminent threats to the international rule of law. In the longer term the Study Group and (hoped for) Committee would (6) produce a published volume on “The Rule of Law in International Relations”.
The provisional programme of work or research will begin (1) in 2025 by considering the concept of the Rule of Law as developed (for example) in Sellers and Tomaszewski, The Rule of Law in Comparative Perspective (Springer, 2010) or Silkenat, Hickey, and Barenboim, The Legal Doctrines of the Rule of Law and the Legal State (Rechtsstaat) (Springer, 2014). These studies warrant mention because they are global and transnational in approach, as will be necessary for examining the globally shared foundational principles of international law.
The next step (2), advancing through 2026 and the ILA biennial conference in Austria, will be to apply the concept of the rule of law to the fundamental principles of international law, as discovered in treaties, custom, and the opinions of the most highly qualified publicists. This somewhat quaint language illustrates the extent to which endorsing and understanding international law requires a return to first principles. As international law has modernized it has become less coherent. The Rule of Law offers a unifying basis for our increasingly fragmented discipline. We hope that the foundations set at the 2026 biennial will encourage greater interest in the Study Group (3) and attract new members who will address specific areas of and threats to international law in greater detail through 2027. This would allow for a significant presentation of results at the ILA biennial in 2028. Simply to articulate this programme is to illustrate both its necessity and its ambition. International law is under attack -- and cannot be defended unless it can be justified and explained.
