Welcome to Law in Crisis!
What It’s About
As 2025 comes to a close, we are confronting an alarming number of crises of ever increasing severity: from a spreading decline of democracy and the rule of law, increasing numbers of armed conflicts and humanitarian crises, to the growing risk posed by artificial general intelligence, and an ever deepening climate change catastrophe. Law will play a crucial role in humanity’s efforts to respond to these escalating crises, though reasonable people may disagree over precisely how and in what form.
At the same time law itself is in crisis, both in terms of the erosion of the rule of law in many countries around the world, and in the severe weakening of the modern international legal system that has operated relatively effectively since World War II. Humanity must respond to this crisis too, for international cooperation and coordination is essential for dealing with the other crises—but again reasonable people may disagree on precisely how and in what form.
The Motivation
As a legal scholar who tries to understand the various issues arising from these related sets of crises in law, I thought it would be helpful to create a space here in which to try to work on and share my my thoughts about them—at least those that relate to the areas of law that I have some expertise in, which include the international law on the use of force and armed conflict, climate change and security, AI and security, human rights and constitutional rights, and the rule of law more generally.
The Intended Benefits
I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I do think that the collective sharing of our ideas and efforts to work through these issues may be helpful—both within the community of experts and within the broader society. And I also think that it is important that the public develop a better understanding of these issues, and thus speaking to a broader public is important too. Given these two related but different objectives, at times the posts may get deep into the weeds in a way that will appeal to experts in the field, while at other times they may try to explore the issues in a way that helps explain complex issues to lay readers. The depth and breadth may vary, but I hope over time both audiences will find the sharing helpful.
Why Subscribe?
The intention is to post at least one free post a week. If you would like to upgrade to a paid subscription, for the price of a latte you will have access to all publication archives, some bonus posts and other research material that I will be compiling, as well as some curated lists of recommended reading on the issue of the week each week. I hope you will give the free version a try, and if you like what you see, please consider supporting with the paid subscription.
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