Evening event: ‘Rebuilding the Organisational Box? New Theory, New Practice in International Institutions’

Time: 5 pm - 6.15 pm followed by drinks in the Old Library.

Register here if attending online 

Summary: From new forms of participatory governance to new 'ways of seeing' international institutional law, practitioner and scholarly interest in international organisations is experiencing a moment of resurgence. This panel discussion engages with three recent monographs on the theory and practice of international organisations ranging across philosophical, critical, and 'bottom-up' doctrinal perspectives. How has indigenous participation in international governance mechanisms emerged as a key institutional practice in recent decades? How to account for the growing managerialisation of international institutional life, including the anti-impunity project? And how to move beyond familiar theories of what international organisations are to better appreciate their communal, public dimensions? Reflecting on these questions, the panellists will bring their diverse expertise to the study of the organisational 'box' while also considering the possibilities and pitfalls associated with their own conceptual approach to studying and re-framing institutional law and governance today.

Chair: Prof Jan Klabbers

There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome.

Speakers: 

Richard Clements is an Assistant Professor in International Law at Tilburg Law School and Faculty member at the Institute for Global Law & Policy, Harvard Law School. He serves on the editorial board of the Leiden Journal of International Law, and is a series editor for the 'International Law & Society' Elements published by Cambridge University Press. His first monograph, The Justice Factory: Management Practices at the International Criminal Court was published by CUP in 2024. Richard received his PhD from Cambridge University in 2020. His areas of expertise include international criminal law and, increasingly, global health law, plastic pollution, and wildlife conservation, with a critical, even 'post-critical' focus on questions of expertise, style, and contemporary legal forms.

Orfeas Chasapis Tassinis is a Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law and a member of the Advisory Board of the European Journal of International Law. His monograph 'A Theory of International Organizations in Public International Law' was published by Cambridge University Press in 2025. Orfeas' research combines doctrinal and theoretical approaches, tackling fundamental issues of public international law and legal reasoning from first principles. He holds degrees from Cambridge (PhD), NYU (LLM), Athens (LLM) and Thessaloniki (LLB).

Natalie Jones is a Senior Policy Advisor at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), where she works on a managed transition away from oil and gas production and an end to public finance for fossil fuels. Her book, "Self-Determination as Voice: The Participation of Indigenous Peoples in International Governance", was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024 and won the 2025 American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law. She graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2021.