Francis Lieber Lecture 2022

To mark the 200th anniversary of Francis Lieber’s doctorate and the 150th anniversary of his death, the first Francis Lieber Lecture on International Law took place on 30 November 2022 in the Großer Rosensaal at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The opening lecture in the new series was given by Prof. Dr Heike Krieger, Professor of Public Law and International Law at the Free University of Berlin, on the topic “Liberated from the shackles of international law? The role of law in the 'new world disorder'”. Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, she posed the question of whether “a realistic policy for the 21st century must free itself from the shackles of self-imposed international law dogma” (Carlo Masala). Is it politically naive to still argue for the effectiveness of an international law that has evolved since 1945 and is therefore perhaps no longer suitable for the “new world disorder”, which is characterised by competition and conflict rather than cooperation?