Dictators on the docket

• Department of Law

The International Law Working Group is hosting a presentation of a book project by James Devaney and Matina Papadaki.

James Devaney and Matina Papadaki will present their book project ‘Dictators on the Docket: Autocracies and the International Court of Justice’. The book project takes as its starting point the ongoing (re)establishment of autocratic forms of governance in international relations. This development has prompted increasing consideration of potential implications for international law, international institutions and the international order more generally. Scholars in recent years have put forward a range of arguments relating to what an increase in the number of autocratic states might mean for the international order. It has been argued, for instance, that authoritarian governments erode a thick conception of the international rule of law rewrite international law to reinforce state sovereignty or promote a kind of ‘hollow multilateralism’ with procedural and substantive consequences, eroding international legal norms and excluding non-state actors. 

Dictators on the Docket’s central concern is whether the engagement of autocratic states with the International Court of Justice reflects these broader dynamics. The authors examine cases involving autocracies before the ICJ, in order to, first, assess whether they participate as much as democracies and second, and perhaps more importantly, examine whether the substance of the cases and the behaviour of autocratic states differs from that of democracies. Their empirical research challenges conventional wisdom that that autocratic states turn to the ICJ primarily to promote thin, sovereignty-based conceptions of international law.

Coffee will be served in the Salviati courtyard from 10:00 to 10:30, you are more than welcome to join!