Populism and the New Foreign Relations Law

The project “The State of/ in International Relations - New Foreign Relations Law between Public International Law and Conflict of Laws", was conducted until her sudden death by Max Planck Law Fellow Professor Karen Knop in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, it is a multidisciplinary field of contemporary research. The project aims to develop broader historical, analytical and critical perspectives on the relationship between public international law, “external public law,” and conflict of laws. Historically, it will address key thinkers in a number of legal traditions with particular attention to empire and nationalism.  It will cover a range of issues relating to the domestic construction of the “foreign relations law” state as it implicates the construction of the state in international law, including the status of colonies, the participation of different branches and levels of government in the production of international law, the roles of indigenous peoples in the making and implementation of treaties, the corporate legal person created by domestic law as an actor in public and private international law, the renewed importance of comity as a tool between doctrine and diplomacy, the role of courts in foreign relations, and the assertion of state interests in private international law cases.