Description

Should a private tribunal of three individuals decide whether the decisions of a foreign government on matters concerning its economy, public health and environment are lawful or unlawful under international law? Should important decisions of public policy and governance be subject to a rules-based system of independent justice?
The answer that most of us would have given to these questions forty years ago might be different from the answers that most of us might give today. For several decades, public policy decisions taken by national and regional governments have been routinely reviewed by an independent system of justice in the form of international tribunals. Currently, this system of justice is under contestation on several grounds. The broader, and possibly more potent, ground of contestation is the claim that decisions of public policy is a matter of politics; not law. Once shrinking, the empire of politics is currently expanding.
The subject of this inaugural lecture is the place of international law and justice in policy making. The lecture will raise, and aim to answer, the following questions: do we need more international law or more politics to assess decisions involving public policy matters? Do international tribunals have too much power? What is the role of the rule of law in today’s expanding empire of politics?