Tēnā koutou, yumalundi, and welcome to this edition of ANZSIL Perspective.
It is a difficult time for international law as the world is gripped by the ever-shifting terrain of American economic nationalism and protectionist policies with tariffs and restrictions affective trade and sustainability and multilateral cooperation. What can ANZSIL Perspective do in the face of this?
First, I hope we can embrace the idea that legal scholarship is not just descriptive or critical, it is persuasive. As there are attempts to sideline international law by politics, it becomes even more vital to show how our scholarship can reflect shared values, serve practical ends and advocate for repair. That means writing in ways that make our work accessible without sacrificing rigour. It means summarising complex ideas in formats that travel. ANZSIL Perspective short-form commentary has real value in such times and is a platform designed to encourage early-career scholars in public engagement as well as the broader ANZSIL goal to create bridges between scholarship and practice.
Politics around strategic competition, national security, or economic self-sufficiency, challenge the very foundations of international economic law and provoke urgent questions for the future of the rules-based order. The implications are particularly stark for the Asia-Pacific, our region deeply entwined with the global trade system, and some would argue as reliant on the predictability international law provides. For scholars and practitioners of international law in Australia and New Zealand, the challenge is not just to analyse the legal consequences of these developments, but to assert the value of international legal principles in a climate increasingly hostile to them.
ANZSIL members produce robust and rigorous scholarship capable of being understood by those outside our legal community. The current wave of American protectionism may eventually subside, or it may become the norm in a multipolar, fragmented economic world. But regardless of direction, the responsibility of ANZSIL Perspective is the same: to insist on the relevance of international law in confronting transnational problems, and to keep articulating how law constrains, enables, and shapes our world.
That task will not be easy. But it is necessary. And it begins with making sure our Perspectives are published and accessible and heard. Soap box dismounted – we encourage contributions from every level of post-graduate scholarship and legal practice for review and publication.
Submissions and questions can be emailed to: anzsil@anu.edu.au. Read the submission guidelines here.
Our next deadline is 20th June 2025.
Felicity Gerry KC
Dr Felicity Gerry KC is on the lists of counsel for the ICC and KSC, recently on the defence team for Mr Al Hassan at the ICC and leading the defence for Mr Bahtijari at the KSC. She is admitted in England and Wales and Victoria, Australia and specialises in homicide, terrorism and war crimes trials and appeals. She has a particular interest in complicity law. She led amicus briefs in the Radovan Karadžić appeal on the lack of foundation for JCEIII and in the Dominic Ongwen appeal on the non-punishment principle. She is a Professorial Fellow at RJ4All, an Hon Prof at the University of Salford and formerly Professor of Legal Practice at Deakin University. She has a long history of teaching topics around contemporary international legal challenges such as terrorism, modern slavery law, climate change law and war crimes. She is widely published in areas including women & law, technology & law and reforming justice systems.
