The EUI International Economic Law and Policy Working Group, the International Law Working Group, and the Human and Fundamental Rights Working Group co-organise a workshop with Professor Jose Alvarez and Dr. Fernando Lusa Bordin on the second edition of the book 'International Organizations as Law-Makers: International Law in the Age of Institutions' (OUP forthcoming).
Professor Jose Alvarez and Dr. Lusa Bordin will present the project, followed by comments on pending questions from our discussants and input from other participants. At the end of the event, time permitting, Professor Alvarez will share his insights on book publishing.
In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein (1818), the young scientist Victor Frankenstein creates a sapient creature from old body parts but, as soon as the creature awakens, it turns against its creator. In his seminal book International Organizations as Law-Makers (OUP 2006), José E. Alvarez linked post-World War II international organisations with a global reach to Frankenstein's monster to illustrate the uncertainties that states—creators and principals—face in relation to their creations. Challenging positivist descriptions and narratives of progress, Alvarez argued that organisations like the UN and WTO have transformed the mechanisms by which international norms are produced and, in doing so, these organisations have themselves transformed from mere agents of states to creators of new kinds of global law—with all the attendant uncertainties embedded in what Alvarez's readers labelled the Frankenstein Problem (Guzman 2013). In showing how the turn to institutions has fundamentally changed not only the sources, the content, and the makers of international law, but the very nature of that law, Alvarez inspired a generation of international legal scholars towards 'enlightened positivism'.
Since the publication of the first edition of the book in 2006, however, much has changed in the world of international organisations and law-making, as well as the scholarship studying them. The war in Ukraine and the current signs of paralysis in the UN Security Council are only the most recent developments in mounting failures to act in recent years—from Syria to climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, new theoretical frameworks have been developed in recent interdisciplinary scholarship on international law/international relations and various strands of recent legal scholarship, including Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and Global Administrative Law (GAL), to explain and to critique the impact of institutions on international law. To account for recent developments in practice and theory, and revisit the book's conclusions in this light, Professor Alvarez is now working with Dr. Bordin from the University of Cambridge as co-author to develop a second edition of International Organizations as Law-Makers.
This event is open to all. We especially encourage participation from researchers in law, political science, and history, regardless of career stage, to enrich the discussion. The event will be of particular interest to anyone working on international organisations, other global governance bodies, and their normative output. Please register via the following link by Friday, 20 October 2023, indicating whether you would like to attend the event in person or online.