Prof. Steiger will give a lecture on the following topic "Is the World Order Breaking Down? Why International Law Still Matters"

Recent events have thrown up a pressing question: what remains of the international legal order when powerful states increasingly treat law as optional? We see wars, threats of territorial expansion, renewed confrontations, tariffs, and an unprecedented open challenge of established international norms. Do these developments signal the erosion of the post-1945 legal architecture, or do they instead highlight the continuing importance of international law as a framework for structuring international relations? Does international law still provide the sources, vocabulary, structure, and limits needed to resist a descent into raw power politics?

The lecture argues that the present moment represents not only a crisis of compliance but also a crisis of legal imagination. By situating the present crises within broader debates on legitimacy, law enforcement, and the future of multilateralism, the lecture offers a critical reflection on what is at stake when international law is weakened, and revisits a central question of our age: Is the world order breaking down - or are we finally seeing why international law matters more than ever?

When: Friday 20 March 2026, 13h00-14h30

Where: Kader Asmal Moot Court (Hybrid event), University of the Western Cape, Cape Town (South Africa)