ESIL Annual Conference 2025

RECONSTRUCTING
INTERNATIONAL LAW

11 - 13 September 2025

Berlin, Germany

Register Now !

About

ESIL conference

The ESIL Annual Conference serves as the flagship event of the European Society of International Law (ESIL), bringing together scholars, practitioners and students from around the world to discuss and debate the most pressing issues at the intersection of international law and global affairs.

Henry-Ford-Building,
Garystraße 35 - 14195 Berlin

Thursday to Saturday

11.09. - 13.09.2025

IG pre-conference workshops on 10./11.09.2025

6 fora

12 agorae

#ESIL2025

About

ESIL conference

The ESIL Annual Conference serves as the flagship event of the European Society of International Law (ESIL), bringing together scholars, practitioners and students from around the world to discuss and debate the most pressing issues at the intersection of international law and global affairs.

Henry-Ford-Building,
Garystraße 35 - 14195 Berlin

Thursday to Saturday

11. - 13.09.2025

6 fora

12 agorae

Theme

reconstructing international law

For the last decade, international law has gone through a period of turbulence. In response, it is time to move beyond crisis narratives and adopt a forward-looking approach. For such an undertaking, the year 2025 offers an appropriate context. It will mark the 80th birthday of the United Nations, the institutional centre of the international legal order. At the same time, 2025 is just five years away from 2030 when the future direction of the current blueprint for global social order, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will need to be decided.

The theme of “reconstructing international law” will be brought to life on various levels:

Reconstruction will be a pressing issue on a practical level. The collective security system of the United Nations has had limited success in realizing its purpose in the war of aggression against Ukraine, the ongoing war in Gaza as well as in many other contexts. Reconstructing the authority of the UN's institutional structure will require creative thinking on the interplay of UN organs and the role of international law. Challenges of institutional reconstruction are not confined to the UN but also invite us to rethink institutional arrangements of other international organisations, including the WTO, the WHO, and the EU as well as their relationship with more informal governance arrangements.
The SDGs have contributed to changing the understanding of what development requires, but their true potential of transforming our world in the Global South and beyond remains unrealized. Reconstructing the promise of international development without replicating earlier mistakes and without giving in to powerful new actors with wide-ranging conceptions for global development will require thinking about the role of international law in realizing a just future for the world's population. The conference will offer a venue to critically accompany as well as support other political processes leading to a new blueprint for development in 2030.
How has international law fared after past major systemic crises? At various moments in the history of international law, it was necessary to embrace a new form of international law. What can we learn from institutional and normative projects of (re-)constructing "new" international law in the past?
Reconstructing international law cannot mean a return to outdated progress narratives. The insights from Critical Legal Studies and Third World Approaches cannot and should not be unlearnt. This implies that the authority and legitimacy of international law need to be reconstructed in a manner as inclusive as possible and with input from a wide variety of theoretical approaches.

Theme

reconstructing international law

For the last decade, international law has gone through a period of turbulence. In response, it is time to move beyond crisis narratives and adopt a forward-looking approach. For such an undertaking, the year 2025 offers an appropriate context. It will mark the 80th birthday of the United Nations, the institutional centre of the international legal order. At the same time, 2025 is just five years away from 2030 when the future direction of the current blueprint for global social order, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will need to be decided.

The theme of “reconstructing international law” will be brought to life on various levels:

Reconstruction will be a pressing issue on a practical level. The collective security system of the United Nations has had limited success in realizing its purpose in the war of aggression against Ukraine, the ongoing war in Gaza as well as in many other contexts. Reconstructing the authority of the UN's institutional structure will require creative thinking on the interplay of UN organs and the role of international law. Challenges of institutional reconstruction are not confined to the UN but also invite us to rethink institutional arrangements of other international organisations, including the WTO, the WHO, and the EU as well as their relationship with more informal governance arrangements.
The SDGs have contributed to changing the understanding of what development requires, but their true potential of transforming our world in the Global South and beyond remains unrealized. Reconstructing the promise of international development without replicating earlier mistakes and without giving in to powerful new actors with wide-ranging conceptions for global development will require thinking about the role of international law in realizing a just future for the world's population. The conference will offer a venue to critically accompany as well as support other political processes leading to a new blueprint for development in 2030.
How has international law fared after past major systemic crises? At various moments in the history of international law, it was necessary to embrace a new form of international law. What can we learn from institutional and normative projects of (re-) constructing "new" international law in the past?
Reconstructing international law cannot mean a return to outdated progress narratives. The insights from Critical Legal Studies and Third World Approaches cannot and should not be unlearnt. This implies that the authority and legitimacy of international law need to be reconstructed in a manner as inclusive as possible and with input from a wide variety of theoretical approaches.

important dates

abstract & papers

abstract submission by 31 January 2025
notification of acceptance by 31 March 2025
full paper submission by 1 July 2025
final paper submission (optional) by 1 November 2025

conference

early bird registration until 1 June 2025
Interest Group pre-conference workshops on 10 September 2025 (afternoon) and 11 September 2025 (morning)
ESIL Annual Conference on 11 - 13 September 2025

The European Society of International Law is an independent scholarly association that serves as a platform for academics, researchers, practitioners, and students interested in international law. It aims to foster dialogue, exchange knowledge, and contribute to the development of international legal scholarship. ESIL organizes various events, including conferences, seminars, and workshops, to facilitate discussions and promote research in the field.

Freie Universität Berlin is one of Europe’s leading research universities. An international focus has been an integral part of its history since 1948 and is reflected in its research and teaching.

Freie Universität Berlin’s Department of Law is one the most popular and international places to study in Germany. Research at the Department covers the law from ancient times until today in a national, European and global perspective. The Department maintains a global network of partnerships and has hosted an array of research projects with an international and interdisciplinary outlook.

Hosts

organisers

Helmut Philipp Aust is a Professor of Public and International Law at Freie Universität Berlin. He is the Co-Chair of the ILA Committee Urbanisation and International Law – Potential & Pitfalls and currently a member of the board of ESIL as well as a member of the International Advisory Panel of the American Law Institute’s project on the Restatement on the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. He is also an Associate Fellow of the German Council on Foreign Relations. He has published widely on questions of public international law and comparative constitutional law. His publications include Complicity and the Law of State Responsibility (CUP 2011), Encounters between Foreign Relations Law and International Law (CUP 2021, co-edited with Thomas Kleinlein) as well as the Research Handbook on International Law and Cities (Edward Elgar 2021, co-edited with Janne E. Nijman) which was awarded the 2022 Nijman) which was awarded the 2022 inaugural ESIL Collaborative Book Prize.

Heike Krieger holds the Chair for International and Public Law at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is Vice-President of the German Society of International Law and a member of the Senate of the German Research Foundation. She has acted as chair of the interdisciplinary Berlin Potsdam Research Group (Kollegforschungsgruppe) ‘The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?’ (funded by the German Research Foundation) between 2019 and 2024 and was a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, between 2017 and 2021. Heike Krieger is Editor-in-Chief of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (T.M.C. Asser Press and Springer). Her recent publications include the edited volumes ‘Tracing Value Change in the International Legal Order’ (OUP 2023, co-edited with Andrea Liese); ‘Law-making and Legitimacy in International Humanitarian Law’ (Edward Elgar Publishing 2021, editor) and ‘Due Diligence in the International Legal Order’ (OUP 2020, co-edited with Anne Peters and Leonhard Kreuzer).

Main organizers on the side of Freie Universität Berlin are Professor Heike Krieger and Professor Helmut Aust.

Prof. Helmut Aust

Prof. Heike Krieger

The 2025 ESIL Annual Conference is organized by the Institute of International and European Union Law at Freie Universität Berlin.

Partners

supporters

Furthermore, we thank for individual contribution(s) from Jutta von Falkenhausen, ...

Helmut Philipp Aust is a Professor of Public and International Law at Freie Universität Berlin. He is the Co-Chair of the ILA Committee Urbanisation and International Law – Potential & Pitfalls and currently a member of the board of ESIL as well as a member of the International Advisory Panel of the American Law Institute’s project on the Restatement on the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. He is also an Associate Fellow of the German Council on Foreign Relations. He has published widely on questions of public international law and comparative constitutional law. His publications include Complicity and the Law of State Responsibility (CUP 2011), Encounters between Foreign Relations Law and International Law (CUP 2021, co-edited with Thomas Kleinlein) as well as the Research Handbook on International Law and Cities (Edward Elgar 2021, co-edited with Janne E. Nijman) which was awarded the 2022 Nijman) which was awarded the 2022 inaugural ESIL Collaborative Book Prize.

Heike Krieger holds the Chair for International and Public Law at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is Vice-President of the German Society of International Law and a member of the Senate of the German Research Foundation. She has acted as chair of the interdisciplinary Berlin Potsdam Research Group (Kollegforschungsgruppe) ‘The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?’ (funded by the German Research Foundation) between 2019 and 2024 and was a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, between 2017 and 2021. Heike Krieger is Editor-in-Chief of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (T.M.C. Asser Press and Springer). Her recent publications include the edited volumes ‘Tracing Value Change in the International Legal Order’ (OUP 2023, co-edited with Andrea Liese); ‘Law-making and Legitimacy in International Humanitarian Law’ (Edward Elgar Publishing 2021, editor) and ‘Due Diligence in the International Legal Order’ (OUP 2020, co-edited with Anne Peters and Leonhard Kreuzer).

Prof. Helmut Aust

The 2025 ESIL Annual Conference is organized by the Institute of International and European Union Law at Freie Universität Berlin.

The European Society of International Law is an independent scholarly association that serves as a platform for academics, researchers, practitioners, and students interested in international law. It aims to foster dialogue, exchange knowledge, and contribute to the development of international legal scholarship. ESIL organizes various events, including conferences, seminars, and workshops, to facilitate discussions and promote research in the field.

Freie Universität Berlin is one of Europe’s leading research universities. An international focus has been an integral part of its history since 1948 and is reflected in its research and teaching.

Freie Universität Berlin’s Department of Law is one the most popular and international places to study in Germany. Research at the Department covers the law from ancient times until today in a national, European and global perspective. The Department maintains a global network of partnerships and has hosted an array of research projects with an international and interdisciplinary outlook.

Main organizers on the side of Freie Universität Berlin are Professor Heike Krieger and Professor Helmut Aust.

Prof. Helmut Aust

Prof. Heike Krieger

Hosts

the organisers

Prof. Heike Krieger

Schedule

conference programme