East v West: Russia, International Law and Transformation of the International Legal Order

This project to be carried at Stanford University focuses on Russia and its role in regionalization of international law, and on the impact that this process exerts on stability of the existing international legal order. With Russia’s increasing geopolitical ambitions, there has been a surge of scholarly interest in how Russia justifies under international law some of its actions condemned by the West. The project focuses on the emerging narrative of international law that Russia has been promoting to lend legitimacy to its military actions abroad and foreign policy decisions. It examines Russia’s attempts to refute universality of the Western doctrine of international law by paving the way for its alternative sovereignty-centred concept of international law in close alliance with China.