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The Preamble of the UN Charter reminds us of the importance of human rights, freedom, and values such as "tolerance" and the "worth of the human person." Similarly, at the domestic level, many Constitutions drafted after 1945 uphold these values as a safeguard against the return of an authoritarian past. However, nowadays there are signs that democracy may be in decline. As authoritarian populism rises, we need to ask: What is the role of international law in all of this? This seminar delves into this question by exploring the possibility and risk of an authoritarian breed of international law, that is, the potential for authoritarian tendencies to shape international law (cf. GINSBURG, Tom. Authoritarian International Law? 114 AJIL 221, 228 (2020)). To do that, the seminar seeks to examining key (and debated) concepts such as authoritarianism and populism. The seminar will also seek a better understanding of whether international law inherently favors liberal governance, or not. The seminar seeks to explore cases in which authoritarian populists might have shown signs of how the international legal order might be shaped according to authoritarian tendencies, and if those examples are convincing that the future of the international legal order is illiberal. |
