International law is increasingly subject to global contestation, regional reinterpretation, and strategic repurposing by a range of actors, from liberal democracies to authoritarian regimes. Understanding the politics of international law today requires moving beyond universalist assumptions and engaging with diverse legal traditions, political settings, and institutional practices. Challenges such as the fragmentation of global order, legal pluralism, norm contestation, and the instrumental use of law in hybrid conflicts raise new questions about how international law operates, whose values it reflects, and how it can be reformed or how democratic strategies of legal resistance could look like.
This course equips students with conceptual tools and empirical insights to explore these challenges critically and comparatively. It introduces leading perspectives from general international law, critical legal studies, comparative and regional legal thought, and international relations (IR) theory. Through weekly case studies and foundational texts, students will analyse how law is used, contested, and transformed in global politics – and how international legal institutions navigate the pressures of multipolarity, nationalism, and authoritarian configurations.
Requirement: Basic knowledge of or strong interest in international law and international politics, very good command of English.
Information:The This course is complemented by the research seminar “Researching International Law in Practice: Norms, Power, and Contestation” which provides a space for in-depth discussion of student projects, methodological guidance, and peer feedback. Participation in the seminar supports the development of the final research paper and strengthens critical engagement with the course themes but is not mandatory. The final paper is accepted for both courses.
