About the 8th Annual T.M.C. Asser Lecture, Michael Fakhri writes:

“Drawing on my work as Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and my upcoming report to the Human Rights Council, I will outline a way out. I will explain how systems not only produce food but also amplify and produce forms of violence that make people more poor, vulnerable, and marginalised. I also describe how food systems rely on a global economy of dependency and extractivism.

In sum, food systems are part of a cycle b...

Fleur Johns on her lecture 'Connection in a Divided World: Rethinking ‘Community’ in International Law':

“The concept of ‘community’ (as in the ‘international community’ or the ‘community of nations’) has been a cornerstone of international law, sometimes aiding the articulation and promotion of public interests. For example, recent attempts to forge international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response have been spurred by governments acknowledging ‘th...

Andrew Murray on his lecture ‘Almost Human: Law and Human Agency in the Time of Artificial Intelligence’:

‘Law is about agency – the human capacity to act independently and to make our own free choices. As Jeremy Webber observes, “Law is consciously created” and is the distillation of the collective agency of a society, group, or culture. The rule of law is the ultimate distillation of this principle: the clear spirit of human choice in the purest form.

However, the process of dat...

Brigid Laffan on her lecture 'Can Collective Power Europe Emerge from Putin’s War?':

‘On 24 February 2022, the post-war international order ended, as did the 1989 peace dividend. A major nuclear power, Russia, invaded its neighbour Ukraine, targeting civilians, reducing urban centres to a rubble and triggering a major displacement of people in Europe. For the European Union (EU) and the wider community of democracies, this is a critical juncture with implications for the security and poli...

Saskia Sassen on her lecture 'A Third Emergent Migrant Subject Unrecognized in Law: Refugees from ‘Development’':

‘There is an emergent type of migrant not formally recognised in law. She is a kind of refugee, but not of war. Rather this is a refugee from particular forms of economic development that not only cause environmental destruction but also have expelled millions of rural smallholders from their land over the last few years.

They include mining, plantations, land grabs to expan...

Martti Koskenniemi on his lecture 'International Law and the Far Right: Reflections on Law and Cynicism':

‘Since the emergence of the profession in the 1870s, international lawyers have lent themselves to supporting various political projects, from ruling of empire to decolonisation, from supporting national self-determination to arguing in favour of global governance of the transnational economy. They have celebrated sovereignty and supported human rights.

The recent backlash against glob...

Anne Orford on her lecture 'International Law and the Social Question':

‘While international law has played a central role in creating the conditions for market liberalization on a global scale, many international lawyers have paid less attention to the social question - that is, the question of who is able to participate in political decision-making about economic relations and property rights.

The current moment of perceived backlash to international law and institutions offers an opport...