From Promise to Precarity:Rethinking International Law After a Quarter-Century

Washington University Global Studies Law Review & Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute 2026 Symposium

From Promise to Precarity: Rethinking International Law After a Quarter-Century

At the turn of the 21st century, international lawyers may have imagined a future of increased coalescence around shared values, more effective rule-based problem solving, and international organizations serving as orchestrators and facilitators of an increasingly open and democratic world society. That imagined future has not materialized. Instead, we see a landscape marked by fragmentation, contestation, and new centers of power.

Private actors, corporations, and algorithms now shape transnational governance in ways that outpace traditional legal regulation, challenging us to rethink authority and responsibility in the digital age. International economic law struggles to adapt as the World Trade Organization falters and states turn inward, forcing difficult choices about how trade rules can be reshaped to meet the demands of a fractured, multipolar economy. International criminal justice faces crises of legitimacy and uneven enforcement, raising questions about the future of accountability.

The 2026 Symposium asks how international law should respond in this moment of disruption. Are we witnessing the erosion of the legal order painstakingly built over the last century, or the emergence of new forms of legitimacy and cooperation? What lessons can be drawn from the past quarter-century, and how might they help us imagine a more responsive, resilient, and just international law for the decades ahead? This reflection is especially timely for Washington University School of Law, which in 2025 is celebrating the 25th anniversaries of both the Washington University Global Studies Law Review and the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. Over the past twenty-five years, these institutions have fostered scholarship and dialogue on the most pressing issues in international law. Looking ahead, WashU Law seeks to carry this legacy forward by convening critical debates and helping shape the agenda for international law’s next quarter century.

Panel 1: To the Hague and Beyond: The Shifting Terrain of International Criminal Justice

International and national criminal courts and tribunals have, over the past thirty years, offered some accountability for perpetrators of international crimes. Mechanisms have included ad hoc tribunals created by the Security Council and by treaties with States, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and national prosecutions taking place as a matter of transitional justice or as universal jurisdiction prosecutions. More recently, with the creation of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression by the Council of Europe, regional alternatives appear to be emerging. Yet mass atrocities continue to occur in every region of the world, and this panel asks what can be done to ensure that accountability and justice can become more effective in the future. What have hybrid tribunals, ad hoc courts, and domestic prosecutions taught us about legitimacy and effectiveness? How should international criminal justice adapt in an era of geopolitical contestation, declining multilateralism, and ongoing atrocities in real time?

Panel 2: After Doha, After WTO? Rethinking Trade and Economic Law in a Fragmented World

Global economic law once centered on the World Trade Organization’s promise of multilateralism. Today, that system falters: the Appellate Body remains paralyzed, regional trade agreements proliferate, and economic nationalism resurges. Meanwhile, new issues, such as climate trade measures, digital commerce, and supply chain resilience, demand urgent legal responses. This panel revisits international economic law’s evolution since 2000 and looks forward. Should the WTO be reformed or bypassed? How can trade law reconcile free exchange with security, sustainability, and sovereignty?

Panel 3: Who Governs the Global Commons? Technology, Private Power, and the New Architectures of Authority

The last quarter-century has seen the rise of non-state actors as de facto governors of global order—private tech firms regulating speech and data across borders; AI systems reshaping decision-making from commerce to security; and public-private partnerships managing everything from space exploration to pandemic preparedness. Traditional treaty law and state-centered institutions struggle to keep pace. This panel explores how privatization, digitization, and AI are reconfiguring governance. Are corporations and algorithms the new “sovereigns”? What frameworks—legal, ethical, or hybrid—could ensure accountability, equity, and transparency in this emerging order?

The Symposium is meant to grapple with questions that cut across disciplines and institutions. Rather than offering tidy answers, it seeks to spark debate, reimagine trajectories, and push boundaries. Contributions will appear in a dedicated Global Studies Law Review Symposium Issue. In marking the 25th anniversaries of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute and the Global Studies Law Review, the event also underscores WashU Law’s commitment to shaping the conversations that will define international law’s next quarter century.