We are pleased to invite you to the Cleveringa Lecture, entitledBetween Power and Possibility: The Case for Hope in International Law.

Date: November 2, 2026
Time (Montreal): 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Location: Salon François-Chevrette and Zoom
Speaker: Jason Rudall
 
Abstract
At a time when international law is repeatedly violated, ignored and openly challenged by power, it is tempting to conclude that it has failed. This lecture argues instead that violation should not be confused with irrelevance. Those most exposed to injustice continue to invoke international law, not because they are naïve about its limits, but because it remains one of the few languages through which claims can be made against power. Across conflicts, climate litigation and struggles for accountability, individuals, communities and States continue to use international law to name wrongs, demand responsibility and insist that legal commitments mean something. Their actions remind us that international law is not simply a body of rules handed down to us, but something that is continually interpreted, contested and reshaped by those who use it. The lecture asks what room remains for hope in that space between power as it is and the possibilities that law can still open up, but also the responsibility of the next generation to keep alive the hope of what international law might yet make possible.
 
Speaker
Dr Jason Rudall is Associate Professor of Public International Law at Leiden University, where he also serves as Co-Director of Teaching at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies and Academic Coordinator of the Advanced LL.M. in Public International Law. His research spans public international law, international environmental and climate change law, investment law and dispute settlement. He is author of three monographs, including Altruism in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Responsibility for Environmental Damage (Edward Elgar, 2024) and Compensation for Environmental Damage under International Law.
 
Zoom link :https://umontreal.zoom.us/j/87521291456?pwd=t47xt38VnYD7FzQRADIEv62kwCHZaz.1
ID meeting : 875 2129 1456
Password : CRDP