International law and democracy revisited : introduction to the symposium

Abstract

The European Journal of International Law was founded in 1989, coinciding with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the attendant excitement encapsulated by that well-known optimistic/hubristic End of History phraseology. Many predicted or expected that liberal democracy would become regnant in the world and a New International Legal Order would replace the old First World/Second World/Third World distinctions. Thirty years later, at the occasion of EJIL’s 30th birthday, EJIL’s Scientific Advisory and Editorial Boards considered it opportune to revisit the question of international law and democracy: in 2019, the state of democracy, whether liberal or social or any other variant, seemed to be far from sanguine. In many regions of the world, democracy seemed under assault. The stakes are high. What is the state of the scholarship on international law and democracy? What has happened to that once seemingly overcrowded bandwagon? Who is still on it? Is it still moving? And if so, in which direction? What are those who are thinking about international law and democracy concerned with? In organizing this Symposium, we did not follow the classical design of a predetermined set of topics and invited scholars. Instead, in the spirit of democracy perhaps, we issued a call for papers so as not to be locked into our preconceptions of what is important and who is important, but let the field speak for itself.