Michigan Law School Academic Dean Monica Hakimi Presents ‘What’s the Point of International Law?’ at Recent Chapman Dialogue

On Thursday, February 19, 2015, Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law welcomed Monica Hakimi, Associate Dean for Academic Programming and Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. Dean Hakimi presented a thought-provoking discussion, What’s the point of International Law? as the featured guest for our Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series. The event was moderated by Professor Deepa Badrinarayana, who teaches International Environmental Law and International Trade Law at the Fowler School of Law.

University of Michigan Law School Associate Dean Monica Hakimi

Dean Hakimi examined the purposes and defining features of international law and challenged the conventional view that the principle purpose of international law is cooperation. Instead, she explained, international law has as one function cooperation but it also serves to enable and structure conflict, in part because it creates a common, shared set of standards against which states can act and within which states can debate the lawfulness of action. She explained that we should not embrace the sharp distinctions that many make between international law as relevant to cooperation and international politics as relevant to conflict. She concluded that international law plays an important role in both spheres. In fact, the conflict enabling and structuring function of international law, she posited, can help us better appreciate the role of international law and help rebut some of the claims that international law is deficient or dysfunctional.

“The question whether international law with its limited enforcement mechanisms constitutes ‘law’ has vexed scholars, students, and practitioners alike for years. Several respected scholars have theorized on the question, with limited success. Dean Monica Hakimi scaled this complex issue with a veteran’s ease and discussed the limits of existing theories on international law and presented an alternative framework, which is likely to emerge as the next important theory on international law. It was a treat to have as a Chapman Dialogue speaker a scholar with such depth of knowledge, clarity, and innovative insights.”

— Fowler School of Law Professor Deepa Badrinarayana

From left to right: Fowler Law Associate Dean Donald Kochan, Fowler Law Professor Deepa Badrinarayana, University of Michigan Law School Associate Dean Monica Hakimi, and Fowler Law Dean Tom Campbell.

The Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series is a series of distinguished lectures by innovative and forward-thinking legal scholars as well as some of the nation’s most prominent legal practitioners. Invited speakers present their research and ideas to a wide audience of faculty, students, alumni and special guests.