International Rule of Law in Context
Within the framework of the EUTOPIA European University alliance, the University of Gothenburg, the University of Ljubljana, and the University of Warwick are organising a digital conference on the theme “International Rule of Law in Context”, the 8 November 2022. Keynote speaker is Simon Walker, Chief, Rule of Law and Democracy Section, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Researchers, teachers, practitioners, and students are welcome. No reservation needed. You can find a detailed program and a link for online participation below.
The “Rule of Law” is a familiar concept in legal research. It has been defined in different ways, but at the core lies the principle that a society should be governed under the laws. Public power should not be exercised arbitrarily. This idea goes back to antiquity and has been an important part in the evolution of our modern nation states. However, in the present globalised world, a significant amount of public power is exercised at the international level, when states enter into agreements with each other, and establish international organisations and courts. An important example is of course the European Union (EU). But there are also many other examples. It can even be argued that the Rule of Law plays an important role when assessing the constituent parts of the international legal order itself, as a system of governing sustainable relationships between societies. Therefore, it also makes sense that promotion of the Rule of Law at the international level is mentioned as a target under UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.
While research about Rule of Law issues at the national level is comprehensive, research about such issues at the international level is more limited. Moreover, since international law is a very broad field, the Rule of Law does not necessarily play the same role in different contexts. The conference gathers researchers and practitioners who have worked with, and approached, Rule of Law issues in different ways, within different international law contexts. The purpose is to explore what these different contexts can learn from each other.
