Annual T.M.C. Asser Lecture 2018
On 29 November 2018, Prof. Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki/Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights) delivered the Fourth T.M.C. Asser Lecture on "International Law and the Far Right: Reflections on Law and Cynicism", at the Academy Hall of the Peace Palace, The Hague.
We created a short video about the event:
A full recording of the lecture is available here:
In an exclusive interview in Opinio Juris by Asser researcher Dimitri Van Den Meerssche, Prof. Koskenniemi further elaborated on the theme of the Annual Lecture by critically reflecting on the general state of international law, as well as its role in the rise of the far right. You can read the full interview here. Prof. Koskenniemi did an interview with the NRC Handelsblad, which is available here.
About Prof. Martti Koskenniemi
Martti Koskenniemi is a Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights. He was a member of the Finnish diplomatic service in 1978-1994 and of the International Law Commission (UN) in 2002-2006. He has held visiting professorships in, among other places, New York University, Columbia University, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, and Universities of Brussels, Melbourne, Paris, Sao Paulo and Utrecht. He is a member of the Institut de droit international and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has a doctorate h.c. from the Universities of Uppsala, Frankfurt and McGill. His main publications include From Apology to Utopia; The Structure of International Legal Argument (1989/2005), The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870-1960 (2001) and The Politics of International Law (2011). He is currently working on a history of international legal thought from the late medieval period to the 19th century.
The programme can be found here.