Conference | Symposium

Symposium: Rules for a lawless world? The international legal order in an age of great-power struggle for normative primacy

Date

Thursday 8 May 2025 - Friday 9 May 2025

Address

Lipsius & Johan Huizinga

The symposium explores the consequences of the struggle for global normative primacy between China and the USA and their respective allies, for the prospect of a law-governed world, or its potential collapse. Focusing on the ordering, protective and emancipatory functions of international law, it seeks to grasp the state and direction of the international legal order—whether we are witnessing the breakdown of existing legal norms, their pervasive violation, or their replacement with alternative standards. Ultimately, the symposium probes how great-power rivalry affects humanity’s aspiration for a world ruled by the force of law, and not the law of force.

Programme

Please find the final programme here.