What explains the persistence of the idea of international law’s systematicity in view of its decentralised nature, constantly dependent upon the shifting consent of states and the vagaries of political will? To what extent can its systemic character endure and adapt as the tectonic plates of geo-politics shift? This symposium critically examines the evidence for the impulse to integrate the various specialised sub-fields of international legal cooperation into a coherent system. It does so in light of practical experience, which has deepened over the last fifteen years since the ground-breaking work of the ILC Fragmentation Study Group in 2005. It tests the fruits of this internal analytical perspective of international law against the external disintegrative pressures that the system currently faces––pressures that appear to challenge the very value of global cooperation under law that underpins the idea of systematicity.

The sessions of the symposium were devoted to: (1) systematicity of international law in the history of ideas, (2) the legislative function: integration or competition in law generation?, (3) the judicial function: the limits of integration as an interpretative device, (4) the pressures of disintegration.

Speakers

Helmut Aust, Freie Universität Berlin; Senior Fellow, Melbourne Law School

Danae Azaria, University College London; Humboldt Fellow, Humboldt University Berlin, and former Fellow, Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Janina Barkholdt, Humboldt University Berlin and Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Lorand Bartels, University of Cambridge

Eirik Bjorge, University of Bristol

Dana Burchardt, Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Stefan Gosepath, Freie Universität Berlin and Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Andrew Hurrell, University of Oxford and Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Thomas Kleinlein, University of Jena

Heike Krieger, Freie Universität Berlin and Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Nico Krisch, The Graduate Institute Geneva (IHEID)

Julian Kulaga, Humboldt University Berlin and Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Felix Lange, Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Andrea Leiter, Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Campbell McLachlan, Victoria University of Wellington and Berlin Potsdam Research Group

Dirk Pulkowski, Permanent Court of Arbitration and Université libre de Bruxelles

Yuval Shany, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Guy Sinclair, Victoria University of Wellington

Paulina Starski, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law; University of Freiburg

Jorge Viñuales, University of Cambridge

Michael Waibel, University of Vienna

Margaret Young, Melbourne Law School

Andreas Zimmermann, University of Potsdam and Berlin Potsdam Research Group