JIB/JAB - Ep. 43: Dill & Hakimi: The Attacks on Iran-Implications for International Law

A conversation with Monica Hakimi of Columbia Law School and Janina Dill of the University of Oxford on crisis facing the international legal order, as exacerbated by the unlawful US-Israeli war against Iran. The conversation begins with the jus ad bellum analysis of the attacks, before turning to explore whether and why the UN Charter system on the use of force is collapsing, and why states have failed to sufficiently defend it. The discussion examines what may emerge to replace the current system, and whether it would satisfy the essential requirements for the rule of law, and what states might do to develop new authority structures and institutions to preserve the most important aspects of the system. Finally, the discussion turns to explore what international lawyers and scholars should be doing in a moment when unlawfulness has given way to open lawlessness. Dill and Hakimi offer complementary but distinct perspectives on the structural causes of the system's fragility, the evolving role of legal scholarship, and the urgent need for states to take ownership of international law through forward-leaning legal positions and new coalitions.