China and Authoritarian International Law

Wednesday, October 7, 2020
9:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time
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About this Event

International law has mainly been a product of liberal democracies since World War II.  But democracy and liberalism are under assault from populists, economic nationalists, and autocrats. Tom Ginsburg, a professor of law and political science, asks what international law might look like if the global trend toward authoritarianism continues. He argues that today’s authoritarian regimes, including China, are using international law to promote their own survival, and may end up reshaping it in important ways. 

About the Speaker

Tom Ginsburg is the Leo Spitz Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago Law School. His research focuses on comparative and international law from an interdisciplinary perspective. He holds BA, JD, and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. His latest book, How to Save a Constitutional Democracy, was written with Aziz Z. Huq, and his earlier books include Judicial Review in New Democracies (2003), which won the C. Herman Pritchett Award from the American Political Science Association; The Endurance of National Constitutions (2009), which also won a best book prize from APSA; and Judicial Reputation (2015). He currently co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project, an effort funded by the National Science Foundation to gather and analyze the constitutions of all independent nation-states since 1789. Before entering law teaching, he served as a legal adviser at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, The Hague, Netherlands, and he continues to work with numerous international development agencies and foreign governments on legal and constitutional reform. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.