Research Unit for Legal and Constitutional Interpretation and Theory (RULCI) and the Research Chair in Gender, Transformation and World-making
Is the World Order Breaking Down? Why International Law Still Matters
Recent events have thrown up a pressing question: what remains of the international legal order when powerful states increasingly treat law as optional? We see wars, threats of territorial expansion, renewed confrontations, tariffs, and an unprecedented open challenge of established international norms. Do these developments signal the erosion of the post-1945 legal architecture, or do they instead highlight the continuing importance of international law as a framework for structuring international relations? Does international law still provide the sources, vocabulary, structure, and limits needed to resist a descent into raw power politics?
The lecture argues that the present moment represents not only a crisis of compliance but also a crisis of legal imagination. By situating the present crises within broader debates on legitimacy, law enforcement, and the future of multilateralism, the lecture offers a critical reflection on what is at stake when international law is weakened, and revisits a central question of our age: Is the world order breaking down - or are we finally seeing why international law matters more than ever?
This seminar is the first of a series of reflections on the RULCI 2026 theme of Sources, Epistemologies, Power – (Re) search, (Re)configure, (Re) imagine
Date: Friday 20 March 2026
Time: 13h00 - 14h30 SAST
Venue: Kader Asmal Moot Court
Click here to register and secure your seat
Is the World Order Breaking Down? Why International Law Still Matters
Recent events have thrown up a pressing question: what remains of the international legal order when powerful states increasingly treat law as optional? We see wars, threats of territorial expansion, renewed confrontations, tariffs, and an unprecedented open challenge of established international norms. Do these developments signal the erosion of the post-1945 legal architecture, or do they instead highlight the continuing importance of international law as a framework for structuring international relations? Does international law still provide the sources, vocabulary, structure, and limits needed to resist a descent into raw power politics?
The lecture argues that the present moment represents not only a crisis of compliance but also a crisis of legal imagination. By situating the present crises within broader debates on legitimacy, law enforcement, and the future of multilateralism, the lecture offers a critical reflection on what is at stake when international law is weakened, and revisits a central question of our age: Is the world order breaking down - or are we finally seeing why international law matters more than ever?
This seminar is the first of a series of reflections on the RULCI 2026 theme of Sources, Epistemologies, Power – (Re) search, (Re)configure, (Re) imagine
Date: Friday 20 March 2026
Time: 13h00 - 14h30 SAST
Venue: Kader Asmal Moot Court
Click here to register and secure your seat
