The 2025 ESIL Research Forum will take place on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 March 2025 and will be hosted by the Department of Law of the University of Catania.

The ESIL Research Forum is a scholarly conference that promotes engagement with research in progress by members of the Society in the early stages of their careers. It has a small and intensive format: no more than 25-30 paper submissions will be selected. During the Forum, selected speakers will receive comments on their presentations from members of the ESIL Board and invited experts.

The 2025 Research Forum addresses the following topic:

“International Law in the Age of Permacrisis”

Crisis-centred languages are traditionally an inherent part of international law discourses. They offer an alternative vocabulary to explore the deconstruction and rebuilding of legal systems and may have transformative effects on their constituent elements and interactions.

‘Permacrisis’ is a new concept that refers to ‘an extended period of instability and insecurity resulting from a series of catastrophic events’ (Collins Dictionary). This emerging narrative captures the current condition where overlapping crises follow one another with an increasing frequency and spread faster in a highly interconnected world. This exposes the international legal order to a permanent state of crisis characterized by a prolonged sense of emergency, high levels of uncertainty, fragility and unpredictability.

Climate change and environmental catastrophes, emerging infectious diseases, devastating armed conflicts, increasing cross-border movements of people and global governance institutional crisis, and the accompanying structural economic challenges that come with these crises, are calling for unprecedented and extraordinary responses, highlighting the inadequacy of instruments, shifting the focus towards preparedness, and triggering processes of transformation.

Against this backdrop, the 2025 Research Forum aims to reflect on the status of international law and its potential transformation in the age of permacrisis. Two underlying themes will shape the discussions: how international actors, norms and processes are deploying old and new tools and methods to face emerging challenges, and broader reflections on how permacrisis narratives gain traction and reframe international legal discourse.

Check out the call for papers (deadline 30 September 2024)