Science Circle Lecture - "The International Rule of Law - Yielding under Pressure or Good for the Future?"

Prof. Dr. Georg Nolte

Dr. Georg Nolte is a professor of international law at Humboldt University Berlin (since 2008) and co-chair of the Berlin Potsdam Research Group “The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?”. He is a member of United Nation’s International Law Commission (since 2007, Chair in 2017) and an associate member of the Institut de Droit International. Prof Nolte was the president of the German Society of International Law from 2013 to 2017 and his recent publications include “The Charter of the United Nations: A Commentary”, Oxford 2012, (co.-ed.); The Interpretation of International Law by Domestic Courts, Oxford (Oxford) 2016, (co-ed.) and Treaties and Subsequent Practice, Oxford (Oxford University Press) 2013 (ed.).

The International Rule of Law – Yielding under Pressure or Good for the Future?

Since 2016, the Western World is being haunted by a sense of crisis following Brexit and the US Presidential Elections. Moreover, some also speak of a breakdown of the International rules-based order that got formulated post the Second World War. Is this sense of crisis just a political feeling native to one part of the world, or is there a bigger reason to ask whether the international legal order is affected or likely to get affected by more broadly based developments of which Brexit and other events are mere examples?