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New juridical practices and technological advances are profoundly mutating international legal rule

Published: 23rd May 2016 Last updated: 30th April 2019

PRESS RELEASE 23 May 2016 - International law’s classical map is evolving into a quantum map of complex juridical practices that are reshaping the legal globe. The older law of nations now interacts with, rather than dominates, novel juridical practices and rules of global scale, and this has opened new possibilities for state and non-state actors to claim “legality” when they harm, profit or pollute.

How international lawyers address that transformation will determine whether society, and students, identify what we do as either curating the institutional model of 1945 or engaging the evolved complexity of legal rule today in and over the globe. That is the core message of Prof. Nikolas M. Rajkovic in his inaugural address on Friday May 27th, 2016.

At Frankfurt airport, a father departs for a holiday in Tunisia but is detained because his name appears on a no-fly list. In Panama City, leaked documents from a local law firm reveal that multinational corporations use a network of offshore tax havens to “legally” avoid billions of dollars in national taxes. In London, an arbitration panel considers whether anti-smoking policies in a South American country infringe a bilateral investment treaty. In Brussels, the European Commission unveils its Emissions Trading System, claiming universal jurisdiction over foreign airlines in order to thwart climate change.

These examples tell us that the globe, as we have politically and legally modeled it, is now in a profound state of flux. What have been defining axioms for international organization since 1945, the separation of international/domestic, public/private and law/power, are in practice either formally or informally breaking down, says Professor of International Law Nikolas M. Rajkovic in his inaugural address. The state’s role faces disruption and mutation by novel practices of socio-legal organization. The notion of legality now mobilizes unprecedented influence in global affairs, yet the pressing policy problems of our time are more often engaged by juridical practices with less reliance on multilateralism and formal international law.

Interdisciplinarity is key

In his speech Rajkovic explains that interdisciplinarity is not a choice, label or singular project owned by a particular scholarly agenda, but rather a crucial aspect for our research and teaching curriculum; pivotal for the field to grasp and remain relevant to new patterns of socio-legal organization that realign international legal rule beyond what the inter-state model has long insisted was global reality.

Prof. Nikolas M. Rajkovic was appointed to the Chair of International Law at Tilburg Law School from January 1st, 2016. His research addresses the question of how international organizations, states, and non-state actors compete to impose different types of international legal rules in an increasingly globalized world. He is both an award-winning lecturer and researcher who will draw from dual qualifications in International Law and International Relations to prepare Tilburg students for the growing complexities of international and global law in the 21st century.

Noot voor de pers

Prof. Nikolas M. Rajkovic will deliver his inaugural address on May 27th, 16.15 PM at Tilburg University. Title address: The Transformation of International Legal Rule and the Challenge of Interdisciplinarity. More information: Communications Officer Corine Schouten, tel. 013 466 2993 / email c.h.schouten@tilburguniversity.edu.