International Law for Whom?
Monday, September 29, 2025
3:00 - 4:00 pm (Eastern)
Furman Hall 120 and on Zoom
Register
About the event:
International law and the international order are currently challenged on two fronts: externally, by the Global South; and internally, by the United States under its own leadership. What does this mean for the future? In his new book, The Law and Politics of International Legitimacy (Cambridge University Press, 2025), Jean-Marc Coicaud explores this question by examining the role of legitimacy in international life. Drawing on his first-hand experience in Asia, where he lived for nearly a decade, Coicaud also considers how regional powers—particularly China and Japan—may influence the reshaping of international law and the global order.
About the speaker:
Jean-Marc Coicaud is a distinguished professor of law and global affairs at Rutgers University, New Jersey; an elected member of Academia Europaea; a distinguished chair professor at Fudan University, Shanghai, and a distinguished visiting professor at Tsinghua University (Schwarzman College), Beijing. Before joining Rutgers, Coicaud worked for the United Nations in New York as a speechwriter for the secretary-general and in Tokyo as a senior academic officer/director of studies at the United Nations University, a UN think tank. Earlier, he served as a legislative assistant in the European Parliament and a cultural attaché with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has held fellowships at NYU School of Law, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and was a visiting scholar at Academia Sinica in Taipei. Coicaud has authored, co-authored, or co-edited 18 books and published over 100 articles in law, politics, and international affairs. He is currently working on a book about the future of globalization for Oxford University Press. Coicaud studied at Harvard University, Sciences Po Paris, and the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. He holds a Ph.D. in comparative law/political science, a doctorat d’etat in legal and political theory, and additional graduate degrees in law, philosophy, political science, and literature.
José Enrique Alvarez will be the moderator.