Democracies, Dictatorships, and International Law - a podcast by The Verdict: Law & Society

A session from YTL Centre's 'Online Symposium on Democracy' looking at democracies, dictatorships, and international law.

Speaker: Professor Tom Ginsburg (University of Chicago)
Abstract: As a formal matter, international law is neutral among regime types, in keeping with Westphalian principles of sovereignty and mutual non-interference. In practice, however, international law has been dominated by liberal democracies in the post-World War II era. With the recent breakdown in the liberal international order, we have seen international legal institutions come under attack. But international law is also being repurposed by authoritarian states. Despite Westphalian rhetoric, authoritarians are actively interfering with democratic governments abroad, while deploying new concepts and tools of international law to insulate themselves from the threat of regime change. What might international law look like in a world in which democracy is no longer viewed as the “End of History” but instead as a system of government that is more fragile than previously understood?
Chair: Dr Carmen Pavel (King's College London)
Commentator: Professor Guglielmo Verdirame (King's College London)

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