The Collapse of the International Legal Order?

This article is part of the Special Issue on “The OSCE at 50: Reflections on security, cooperation and human rights”, published on a rolling basis between July and November 2025. The Special Issue was curated and edited Walter Kemp and Christian Strohal, Security and Human Rights Monitor Editorial Board members and guest editors-in chief.

Abstract

We are largely back in the world which we remember from the 19th century with its balance of-power politics, where imperialism was dominant and the major powers largely determined what was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The more sophisticated international legal order which was developed over the years in the 20th century has been seriously undermined in the first decades of the 21st century. The key question now is how to proceed from this presently disastrous situation: is the international legal order in a terminal stage? We always should keep in mind that there will come a time – hopefully sooner rather than later – that states will have to rebuild the international legal system, and it would be unwise if we would then have to restart from scratch. Therefore, we need new leadership in rescuing at least some
key components of the legal order, including preferably the OSCE Decalogue of Principles. It seems that this pivotal role rests primarily with Western states in Europe, Canada and the Pacific. However, it is both necessary and feasible to engage also a number of developing countries, in particular those which have borne the brunt of the legal order’s dramatic deterioration of the legal order in recent years.

DOI: 10.58866/MPTD5879