The Crisis of Multilateral Legal Order: Causes, Dynamics and Consequences

Multilateralism has served as a foundation for international cooperation over the past several decades. Championed after the Second World War by the United States and Western Europe, it expanded into a broader global system of governance with the end of the Cold War. Lately, an increasing number of States appear to be disappointed with the existing multilateral arrangements, both at the level of norms and that of institutions. The great powers see unilateral and bilateral strategies, which maximize their political leverage rather than diluting it in multilateral fora, as more effective ways for controlling the course of international affairs.

The signs of the crisis have been visible for some time – but recent crises indicate an acceleration of the on-going disintegration of the multilateral system, such as Brexit, growing resistance on the part of States to international monitoring of compliance and the radical change in the US foreign policy during the presidency of Donald Trump which saw the US withdraw from several multilateral agreements (e.g. the Iran Nuclear Deal and the Paris Agreement), leave some international organizations or bodies (e.g. the United Nations Human Rights Council or the World Health Organization) or paralyze some others (e.g. the World Trade Organization (WTO)).

Tackling the debate surrounding the crisis of multilateralism and the related transformation of the underlying international legal order, The Crisis of Multilateral Legal Order analyzes selected aspects of the current crisis from the perspective of public international law to identify the nature of the crisis, its dynamics, and implications.

Lukasz Gruszczynski is Associate Professor (dr. habil.) of international law at Kozminski University (Warsaw, Poland) and Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Sciences - Institute for Legal Studies (Budapest, Hungary). He earned his Ph.D. from the European University Institute in Florence. In the past, he has been a visiting researcher at the University of Michigan Law School, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge (as Winiarski Fellow) and Pazamany Peter Catholic University, as well as an intern at the Legal Affairs Division of the World Trade Organization. He regularly teaches EU law, public international law, and international economic law at various Polish and foreign universities. Prof. Gruszczynski is the author of more than 50 publications, including two monographs with Oxford University Press: Regulating Health and Environmental Risks under WTO Law (2010) and Deference in International Courts and Tribunals: Standard of Review and Margin of Appreciation (2010). He is also a Managing Co-Editor of the Polish Yearbook of International Law, Editor of the European Journal of Risk Regulation (CUP) and member of the scientific committee of gLAWcal - Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (UK).

Marcin Menkes is Associate Professor (dr. habil.) and Head of Post-graduate studies of Law & Economics of Capital Markets at Warsaw School of Economics (Poland), Research Fellow at Michigan Law School, and Of Counsel in Quertius. In the past he was a visiting fellow or lecturer at Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge, Cornell Law School, Università di Torino, Università di Bologna, Università degli Studi di Firenze. He is a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Rule of Law and International Investment Law and ISDS Academic Forum. He is an author of over 90 publications, including monographs on Economic Governance in Public International Law (2016) and Economic Sanctions in International Law (2011). His research focuses on international investment and financial law, economic sanctions, and economic governance. He practices law in the area of international arbitration and litigation.

Veronika Bílková is Associate Professor (Doc) in international law at the Law Faculty of the Charles University in Prague, and serves as head of the Centre for International Law at the Institute of International Relations in Prague. She graduated from the Law and Philosophical Faculties of the Charles University and obtained the European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation. She is holder of the Diploma in International Law from the University of Cambridge. She is a member of the European Commission for Democracy Through Law of the Council of Europe and is on the Managerial Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. In the past, she was a visiting researcher at the University Paris II Panthéon-Assas, Northumbria University in Newcastle, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, and the Columbia Law School. She has authored five books and more 100 book chapters and articles in Czech, English and French on international law (mainly the use of force, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and human rights) as well as on international relations (mainly security topics and the UN).

Paolo Davide Farah is an Associate Professor (with tenure) at West Virginia University, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics and the Coordinator of the Eberly College Interdisciplinary Research Collaborative on Global Challenges and Local Response Initiatives. He is Founder, President, Director, Principal Investigator and Senior Research Fellow at gLAWcal―Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (www.glawcal.org.uk), Distinguished Professor of Law at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), Law School (China) and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of International Economic Law (IIEL), Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC, USA. In the past, he was an International Consultant and Legal Advisor for projects implemented for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), for the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and Commerce and for the OECD. He has previously worked at the Legal Affairs Division of the World Trade Organization in Geneva and was an Associate Lawyer of Baker & McKenzie Law Firm, Milan, Italy. He was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School, East Asian Legal Studies Program. He has more than 60 articles or book chapters, 9 books and 6 journal special issues published or forthcoming in English and 20 additional publications in Italian, French, Spanish and Chinese including a book published by the Law Press China.