Speaker: Jean d’Aspremont

Time: 15:00-17:00 p.m., May 25, 2023, GMT+8

Venue: Zoom Meeting ID: 830 4187 2057 Password: 581783

Abstract:

Albeit the object of compelling criticisms in recent decades, international organizations continue to occupy a very central place in the practical, conceptual, cognitive, imaginary, and emotional universe of international lawyers. This presentation argues that the resilient centrality of international organizations in international legal thought and practice is the manifestation of international lawyers’ love for such institutions. This presentation’s main aim is to provide an account of the drivers that inform international lawyers’ love for international organizations with a view to elucidating what lies behind the centrality of international organizations in international legal thought and practice. Among the drivers of international lawyers’ love for international organizations, attention is paid to their representations as taking care of people, as showing where to look for power, as knowing so much, as romanticizing history, as providing a shared standard of experience, as textualizing the universe, as providing and organizing space for discontent, as expanding international lawyers’ field of study, and as holding many secrets.

Biography:

Jean d’Aspremont is Professor of International Law at Sciences Po School of Law. He also holds a chair of Public International Law at the University of Manchester. He is General Editor of the Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law,Director of Oxford International Organizations (OXIO) and series editor of the Melland Schill Studies in International Law. He has written extensively on questions of international law. His work has been translated in several languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Japanese and Persian.

Source: Peking University Law School