Advancing International Law in Times of Disruption
Thursday, October 29, 2026
4:15-5:15 pm (Eastern)
VH 201 and on Zoom
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About the event
There is no question that the post-WW II international order is undergoing major challenges and disruptions. These disruptive forces have also placed enormous pressure on international law leading some to declare its death. However, there is also a growing counter-narrative which perhaps was best articulated by The Nobel Committee in announcing Navi Pillay as the 2026 Peace Prize recipient: "Nonetheless, we have seen that more and more conflicts are being addressed through diplomacy, treaties and legal mechanisms, rather than threats, violence and warfare. Leaders and populations alike have come to the same conclusion: international law is a foundation for a more peaceful world.” Nilufer Oral, director of the Centre of International Law at the National University of Singapore and a member of the UN International Law Commission, will examine how international law has constructed the foundation for peaceful order, and why it will continue to do so despite ongoing wars and attempts to dismantle the existing international institutional order conducted under the United Nations-based multilateral system.
Relevant reading:
Conference Report for the 2026 International Law for Peace Conference: Changing the Narrative
About the speaker:
Nilufer Oral is director of the Centre of International Law at the National University of Singapore and is a member of the UN International Law Commission (ILC) where she served as co-chairperson of the 74th session of the Commission, and co-chair of the ILC Study Group on sea-level rise in relation to international law. She is a member of the Hague Academy of International Law Curatorium and an associate member of the Institut de Droit International. She is also a member of the COP 31 Presidency Committee of Experts, and a member of the Committee of Legal Experts of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS). She is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the World Commission on Environmental Law of the IUCN. She has served as a legal advisor and climate change negotiator for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Oral is a distinguished fellow of the Law of the Sea Institute at Berkeley Law, senior fellow of the National University of Singapore Law School, and senior fellow of the University of Melbourne Law School, and has spoken at numerous international conferences. She has appeared before the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for advisory proceedings and contentious cases.
Dr. Oral has published extensively and edited several books. She has served as series editor of International Straits of the World and on the editorial boards of several publications, including European Society of International Law Series. She holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley; a JD from Santa Clara University School of Law; a DEA (LLM) from Paris I (Sorbonne); and a JSD from George Washington University Law School.
Professor José Enrique Alvarez will be the interlocutor