International law and international legal scholars are under pressure. Climate change, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, nationalism, populism and authoritarianism in all world regions, a global power-shift, the propagandistic exploitation of collective emotions and aversion against science and rationality are global challenges. Grave concerns about the universalist claim of international law are increasingly voiced. At the same time, the international community has high expectations for the ordering force and problem-solving potential of international law and advocates for stronger international institutions.
All this requires international legal scholars to continuously adapt, innovate their work while balancing diverse national interests and perspectives. A reappraisal of the scholarly ideal of an intersubjective (universal) comprehensibility of legal arguments and reasoning is urgent.
The project, led by Anne Peters and curated by Alexandra Kemmerer (in collaboration with Lisa Pitz and Laura Kraft), seeks to explore the possibilities of universalism in international legal scholarship with a group of seven leading international law scholars from various regions of the world.
The Global Seven is a laboratory where intersubjective understanding is cultivated and fostered in experimental forms of collaboration, exchange and confrontations beyond comparison. The format seeks to improve self-understanding and reflexivity, and provides an infrastructure and forum for outreach, visibility and impact on teaching and research.
Global Seven brings together seven experienced scholars of international law from various regions of the world. Their diverse profiles are shaped and influenced by their nationalities, legal-cultural formations, their educational and regional backgrounds, professional roles, gender, political preferences, fields of expertise, methodologies, institutional affiliations, and publication strategies. Representing international law as a profession in the broadest sense, their professional roles include, besides academia, functions as international judge, lawyer, and legal advisor to governments or international organisations. Their fields of expertise cover areas such as human rights, international humanitarian law, EU law, international labour law, and global animal law. Methodologically, they employ diverse approaches, from doctrinal analysis and comparative legal studies to empirical approaches, historical and theoretical reflections, to a broad scope of interdisciplinary methods. Their publication strategies also vary, often in accordance with their primary peer groups, networks, and reputational preferences. Some focus on academic journals, while others prefer monographs, edited volumes and even novels to reach broader audiences.
Since 2018, the group has convened multiple times to discuss methodological questions using samples of their own work. These confidential and intense small-group meetings created an environment for exploring new methodological and hermeneutical approaches, laying the groundwork for enhanced inter-subjective comprehensibility in international law. The most recent workshop, held in July 2023 in Berlin, featured a series of semi-structured interviews conducted by Alexandra Kemmerer and Laura Kraft with the Global Seven on questions of methods and approaches in international legal scholarship. The discussions were initiated by analysing several pre-read works of the participants to identify the applied methods and paradigms. This analysis led to meta-reflections on international law and scholarly practices. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and are currently being developed into a co-authored book.
Cooperation partners:
Prof. Yifeng Chen LL.D.
Peking University Law School, Associate Professor/ Assistant Dean (international), https://en.law.pku.edu.cn/faculty/faculty1/21717.htm
Prof. Monica Hakimi
Columbia University Law School, New York, William S. Beinecke Professor of Law, https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/monica-hakimi
Prof. Evelyne Lagrange
Université Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, Professor of Public Law, https://www.pantheonsorbonne.fr/page-perso/lagrange
Prof. Flávia Piovesan
Catholic University of São Paulo, Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights, https://enciclopediajuridica.pucsp.br/autor/568/flavia-piovesan
Prof. Takao Suami
Waseda University Law School, Tokio, Professor of Law, https://w-rdb.waseda.jp/html/100000383_en.html
Prof. Dire D Tladi
University of Pretoria Law School, Professor of International Law, https://www.up.ac.za/public-law/article/2243888/prof-dire-d-tladi-
Anne Peters: “Introduction to the Series: Trialogical International Law”, in: Anne Peters/Christian Marxsen (Series eds), Self-Defence against Non-State Actors – Max Planck Trialogues on the Law of Peace and War Vol. 1 (Mary-Ellen O’Connell/Christian Tams/Dire Tladi, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2019), XI-XXV.
