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Double Standards and International Law

Workshop II: 15-17/5/2025, Geneva, Switzerland

Programme

DAY 1: Thursday, May 15, 2025

8:00-8:30 – Registration (IHEID Petal A, S8)

8:30-8:45 – Welcome Remarks: Nico Krisch, David Hughes, Patryk Labuda, Naz Modirzadeh, Dustin Lewis (S8)

8:45-10:15 – Panel 1: Great Power Competition, Exceptionalism, and Double Standards (S8)

Discussant: Sophie Eisentraut, Munich Security Conference

1. Federica D’Alessandra, British Academy Fellow, United Kingdom – Double Standards and Great Power Competition

2. Victor Kattan & Andrea Pelliconi, Nottingham University, United Kingdom – Get Used to Double standards: Ukraine, Gaza, and the so-called Rules-Based Order

3. Congyan Cai, Fudan University, China – Double Standards in International Law as Means of Practicing Great Power Competition

4. Asaf Lubin, Maurer School of Law, United States – Shades of Legal Nuance: A Functional Analysis of Intelligence Doubletalk

10:15-10:30 – Coffee Break

10:30-12:00 – Panel 2: Double Standards and (Perceived) ‘Existential’ Threats (S8)

Discussant: Alice Pirlot, Geneva Graduate Institute

1. Prabhakar Singh, BML Munjal University, Kapriwas, India – Return of the Territorial: Third World(s) and Territorial South in Climate Change Litigations

2. Florence Shako, Nairobi, Kenya – Double Standards in the Global Response to the Climate Change and Energy Crisis

3. Eliana Cusato, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands - Injustice or Misfortune? Double Standards and ‘Climate Carnage’

4. Dalia Palombo, Tilburg University, Netherlands - Protecting Corporate Property: Is Climate Change a Game Changer?

12:00-14:00 – Lunch

14:00-15:30 – Panel 3A: Double Standards, Forced Migration & Technological Innovation (S1)

Discussant: Ana Srovin Coralli, Geneva Graduate Institute

1. Bríd Ní Ghráinne, Maynooth University, Ireland – Double Standards in Forced Migration Law

2. Mariam Hiba Malik, International Committee of Red Cross – Algorithmic Fairness or Automated Bias: How AI Asylum Systems Reinforce Double Standards in International Refugee Law

3. Safaa Jaber, Hamid Bin Khalifa University, Qatar – Digital Technologies and Humanitarian Crisis

4. Christopher Szabla, Durham University, United Kingdom - “Weaponized migration” and Prima Facie Protection on Europe’s eastern borders: the geopolitical frame and double standards

Panel 3B: Double Standards and International Legal Institutions (S12)

Discussant: Evelyne Schmid, University of Lausanne

1. Carl Emilio Lewis and Birte Annika Böök, TMC Asser Institute & Utrecht University, Netherlands – Intimations of Double Standards through the International Court of Justice

2. Lorenzo Gasbarri, University of Santa Anna Pisa, Italy - Double Standards by Design: National and International Personnel in the Law of International Civil Service

3. Peter Tzeng, Foley Hoag LLP, Washington, DC, United States – The Good Faith Presumption before International Courts and Tribunals

4. Shubham Jain, Cambridge University, United Kingdom - Double Standards off the Playing Fields: Questioning Sport Governing Bodies through notions of Neutrality, Fairness, and Law

15:30-16:00 – Coffee Break

16:00-17:30 – Panel 4: Bias, Cognition and Structures of Double Standards (S8)

Discussant: Anne Saab, Geneva Graduate Institute

1. Marizia Marastoni, Geneva Graduate Institute, Switzerland – Unveiling the Double Standards in International Legal Scholarship: Analysing Humanitarian Crisis through Cognitive Biases

2. Moshe Hirsch, Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel – “Frame Analysis and the Double Standard in the Regulation of Digital Trade in the World Trade Organization”

3. Ekaterina Yahyaoui, University of Galway, Ireland – The Function of the Principle of Equality as a Double Standard in International Human Rights Law: Legitimation of a Bias

High-Level Diplomatic Forum Part I (Chatham House Rule)

18:00-19:30 – Keynote Event (IHEID, A2)

Naz Modirzadeh, Harvard Law School, in conversation with (40 minutes each):

· Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights;

· Danilo Türk, former President of Slovenia

DAY 2: Friday, May 16, 2025

8:30-9:00 – Coffee

9:00-10:30 – Panel 5: Double Standards and Legal Argumentation (S12)

Discussant: Patryk Labuda, Central European University

1. Nico Krisch, Geneva Graduate Institute, Switzerland – Double Standards and their Limits in International Law

2. Chimène Keitner, University of California Davis School of Law, United States – In Search of Principled Constraints on Internal and External Reason-Giving in International Law

3. Yussef Al Tamimi, Central European University, Vienna, Austria – Practices of Mourning in International Law

4. Alejandro Chehtman, University Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina, title tbc

10:30-11:00 – Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 – Panel 6: The Rhetoric, Performance & Weaponization of Double Standards (S12)

Discussant: David Hughes, Trintiy College, University of Toronto

1. Timothy Waters, Maurer School of Law, United States – Ambiguous Tools: International Law’s Strategic Deployment of Hypocritical Method

2. Olga Magomedova, Russian Academy of Foreign Trade, Moscow, Russia – Context Creating: Unrevealed Mission of Whataboutism

3. Niccolò Ridi, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom – Three Views of a Secret: The Structural Embedding of Double Standards in International Law

4. Tommaso Soave, Central European University, Vienna, Austria – The Theatrics of Legal Argument: Foreground and Background Discourses in International Law

12:30-14:00 – Lunch

High-Level Diplomatic Forum Part II (Chatham House Rule) – Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Room 444

14:00-15:30 – Diplomatic Panel 1: Double Standards in Global Trade & Climate

Moderator: Joost Pauwelyn, Geneva Graduate Institute

1. Amb. Vilawan Mangklatanakul, Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs

2. Aashish Chandorkar, Indian Mission to the World Trade Organization

3. Martins Paparinskis, Member of International Law Commission

4. Gabrielle Marceau, World Trade Organization, Associate Professor University of Geneva

15:30-16:00 – Coffee Break

16:00-17:30 – Diplomatic Panel 2: Double Standards in Human Rights, Humanitarian & Criminal Law

Moderator: John Packer, University of Ottawa

1. Nada Tarbush, Advisor, Palestine Mission to the United Nations

2. Amb. Dino Patti Djalal, Former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Chairman, Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia

3. Amb. Tormod Endresen, Permanent Representative, Norwegian Mission to the United Nations

4. Cordula Droege, Chief Legal Officer and Head of the Legal Division of the ICRC, Switzerland

19:00 – Official Dinner (workshop speakers only)

DAY 3: Saturday, May 17, 2025

9:00-10:30 – Parallel Panel 7A: Conflict, Accountability, and Double Standards (S12)

Discussant: Dustin Lewis, Harvard Law School

1. Alka Pradhan, Attorney, United States – “Separate and Unequal”: The Military Commissions of Guantanamo Bay

2. Katharina Stein, Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, Germany – Lawfare and the Fragility of the Jus ad Bellum / Jus in Bello-Divide

3. Yahli Shereshevsky, University of Haifa, Israel – Equality of Belligerents and Double Standards in Armed Conflicts

4. Hendrik Simon, Peace and Research Institute, Frankfurt, Germany – Justifying War: Scandalizing Violence. A Modern Genealogy of a Central Double Standard in the History of International Law

Parallel Panel 7B: Trade, Sanctions, Unequal Application of International Economic Law (S11)

Discussant: Thomas Schultz, University of Geneva

1. Iryna Bogdanova, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg & Luigi Lonardo, University College Cork, Ireland– Unilateral Economic Sanctions: Is it Really 'the West versus the Rest’?

2. James Devaney, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom - Unilateral Sanctions, Double Standards and the Undermining of the International Rule of Law

3. Alexandr Svetlicinii and Xueji Su, University of Macao, China - International Trade Governance of Dual-Use Items: Towards a Dualist Plurilateral Solution

10:30-11:00 – Coffee Break

11:00-12:15 – Roundtable Discussion (S12)

Moderator: Nico Krisch, Geneva Graduate Institute

1. Rapporteur: Alejandro Chehtman, University Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina

2. Ardi Imseis, Queen’s University, Canada

3. Anna Dolidze, Georgian Member of Parliament, former Minister of Defense

4. Katia Papagianni, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

12.15-12:30 – Closing Remarks

Organized by the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, International Law Department and Global Governance Centre, with the support of Harvard Law School Program on International Law in Armed Conflict, Swiss National Science Foundation (Scientific Exchanges grant no. 229373) and the Nathanson Centre, Osgoode Hall Law School.

Call for papers:

Double Standards and International Law (Part II)

States, international organizations, and non-state actors profess commitments to legal principles, such as accountability, human rights, or sovereign equality, yet act in ways that contradict these ideals. In response to the perception that international law is selectively applied, claims of double standards are ever-present. Accusations of double standards serve as a rallying call to promote consistency and the equitable application of international law; alternatively, they are used to deflect criticism or avoid accountability. The resulting discussion of double standards intersects with and implicates other principles of international law, including fairness, equality, justice, and the rule of law. What is the function of the double standards critique in international law, and how is it different from other critiques of injustice?

While the debate over double standards in international law is not new, it has become more pronounced in the wake of Russia’s 2022 re-invasion of Ukraine and amid the ongoing war in Gaza. Over the past years, critiques of double standards have often invoked accusations of hypocrisy, selectivity, whataboutism, or tu quoque (‘you too’) objections, challenging the legitimacy of international norms and global-governance actors in ways that have garnered significant attention from international lawyers and the wider public. Can double standards be meaningfully discussed in a universal sense, and how do we account for nuances across various subfields of international law? What are productive methods for studying double standards? And how can insights from other disciplines enhance our understanding of double standards in relation to notions of effectiveness, authority, and legitimacy of international law?

From Ukraine and Gaza to Myanmar and Sudan, perceptions of double standards have fueled widespread criticism of an international legal system seen as structurally favoring some over others. At the same time, amid globalization's association with unequal outcomes, authoritarian and populist actors have sought influence by challenging the legitimacy of the post-Second World War legal order. To what extent can historical analogies, for instance of the post-World War II period or the decolonization process, help us understand the current moment? As governments and civil society attempt to reshape global governance and multilateralism, what is included and excluded from debates over double standards, and how does such a framing contribute to solutions or, alternatively, reinforce existing inequities?

This workshop is organized by the International Law Department of the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in collaboration with the Harvard Law School Program on International Law in Armed Conflict and the Swiss National Science Foundation (Scientific Exchanges grant no. 229373).

Full cfp here [deadline for abstract submissions has passed].

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