IRSS continues with Talk on Juridification and de-juridification of International Law
This semester’s second IRSS seminar was delivered by Asst. Prof. Dr. Elena Cirkovic on 24 February 2015. Dr. Cirkovic’s engaging seminar was well attended by both faculty members and undergraduate and graduate students. It was entitled: “Juridification and de-juridification of International Law: Responsibility to Protect and the question of intervention in Syria and Northern Iraq”.The presented problem is one of the immanent political and legal urgencies of our times that has legal, political and operational
dimensions. In her presentation, Dr. Cirkovic elaborated on two emergent principles in international law through their application in Syria and Northern Iraq: the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and the unable and unwilling’ test for self-defense against non-state actors. More broadly, the presentation also engaged with the literature on the judicialization or de-juridification of the international community. The discussion that followed focused on the importance of extralegal influences in this situation, and especially the geopolitical power struggles affecting it. The concluding remarks pointed to the continuing importance of the ‘exceptional or the notion of emergency’ in international law.
