Last Friday, WashU Law hosted the symposium “From Promise to Precarity: Rethinking International Law After a Quarter-Century,” presented by the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute and the Global Studies Law Review. The event convened experts from around the country and abroad, including participants from France and Canada, and opened with remarks from Dean Stefanie Lindquist and Professor MJ Durkee, William Gardiner Hammond Professor of Law and Director, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute.
The symposium marked the 25th anniversary of the Harris Institute, celebrating a quarter century of advancing international legal scholarship, teaching, and public engagement. Since its founding, the Institute has convened leading voices from around the world to examine accountability, justice, and emerging challenges in international law, while supporting students and faculty committed to global engagement.
The program featured three panel discussions: To the Hague and Beyond: The Shifting Terrain of International Criminal Justice, moderated by Professor Leila Sadat, James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law; After Doha, After WTO? Rethinking Trade and Economic Law in a Fragmented World, moderated by Associate Professor Lawrence Liu; and Who Governs the Global Commons? Technology, Private Power, and the New Architectures of Authority, moderated by Professor MJ Durkee. Together, the panels explored how international law is adapting to geopolitical change, technological innovation, and new forms of authority.
The symposium also highlighted the Global Studies Law Review’s 25 years of publishing scholarship on international, comparative, and transnational law. Since 2000, the journal has fostered sustained dialogue among scholars, judges, and practitioners through symposia and special issues, with alumni now serving across courts, law firms, international organizations, startups, and public service worldwide.
