Raphaëlle Nollez

For researcher Raphaëlle Nollez-Goldbach, who teaches international law at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, if the organizations and principles born out of World War II are shaken, notably by the foreign policy of the United States, they still retain a certain effectiveness.

Is international law definitively obsolete, as some political leaders suggest, following the American-Israeli military intervention in Iran?

Raphaëlle Nollez-Goldbach: It is impossible to deny the failure of international law in the face of the multitude of its violations, when the world’s greatest power commits acts of aggression against several states, such as Venezuela and Iran. The violations of international law that are happening today are unprecedented since the creation of the UN, and it makes no sense to say that everything is fine. However, it is misleading to say that it is dead, in the sense that rules exist, which are still actionable and can serve as a legal and legitimate basis for responses from other states. I really liked Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the Davos summit, proclaiming that the era of an international order based on common rules to organize coexistence within the international community is over. He spoke after the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by American forces. He clearly states what law is: a “fiction” that the most powerful can ignore, but a “useful fiction.” Legal rules operate in a democratic space, where the rule of law applies, and a common will to respect them is expressed. Not when the force of an authoritarian power trumps the law.

“In the UN Security Council, five permanent members have veto power, two of whom are currently violating international law – Russia and the United States. The system has been biased since its creation”