The Cologne Centre for Advanced Studies in International History and Law, a new academic institution at the University of Cologne, has officially taken up its work. A high-profile symposium marked the opening event of the centre, which was founded in early 2024. In two panel discussions and a keynote speech, international academics examined the topic of "Double Standards in International Law?"
Panels and keynotes bring new impetus to the discourse
The “Double Standards in International Law’ panel, chaired by CHL founding member Claus Kress , introduced the symposium thematically. Andrew Thompson (University of Oxford), David Kretzmer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Chile Eboe-Osuji (Toronto Metropolitan University, former President of the International Criminal Court) used case studies to discuss what constitutes double standards in international law and what criteria can be used to analyse them. Thompson emphasised the importance of a historical perspective: who writes the laws and who is protected by them?
Kretzmer pointed out that legal norms are often assumed to be clear and neutral, that there is agreement on facts and that the law can be separated from politics. However, these assumptions are problematic: norms are often vague, lawyers make fine distinctions and international law, especially in the context of the use of force, is politicised. Actors also bring their own prejudices to the table, and independence does not necessarily imply neutrality. Academic lawyers must provide convincing, well-grounded arguments and point out double standards, especially vis-à-vis their own governments — a courageous step in defence of truth against power.
Angelika Nussberger, Deputy Director of the CHL, then chaired the panel on “Human Rights as a Rhetoric Device in Foreign Policy”. Jan Eckel (University of Freiburg), Shin Hae Bong (Aoyama Gakuin University) and Ruth Halperlin-Kaddari (Bar-Ilan University) discussed how double standards are used in human rights debates. Eckel pointed out that the selective and inconsistent treatment of human rights violations and double standards in Western democracies has become central to politicisation and politics of human rights, especially since the 1980s. Hae Bong emphasised the challenge of pointing to the double standards of one’s own country using the example of Japan: the unwillingness to address in depth its own violent conduct in the past with South Korea (“comfort women”) makes it impossible for Japan to be a leading player in human rights policy in Asia. Halperlin-Kaddari took a critical look at the UN’s handling of sexualized violence in the context of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 in this discussion. It was striking that the release of the Israeli hostages and Hamas’ sexual violence were hardly mentioned, while UN Women reacted much more quickly and more vehemently to attacks by Boko Haram or IS on women, for example.
In his concluding keynote “A Letter to Hans Kelsen on the Use of Force”, Samuel Moyn (Yale University) combined a personal perspective on Hans Kelsen, after whom the Landecker-funded visiting professorship at the CHL is named, with the question of double standards. Chaired by Fabian Klose, Managing Director of the CHL, Moyn presented a letter by the author, John Fried, to his uncle Hans Kelsen. In it, Fried called on Kelsen to take a public stand against the Vietnam War. Fried argued that non-UN member states, too, have a right to self-defence and could demand the support of UN member states to this end.
Partnership with the University of Cologne
The Alfred Landecker Foundation supports the Konrad Adenauer College, which is affiliated with the CHL, and the Hans Kelsen Visiting Professorship. In this way, the Foundation provides long-term support for dialogue between internationally renowned academics at the University of Cologne.
The CHL serves as an umbrella for the close cooperation between the Academy for European Human Rights Protection (Prof. Dr Angelika Nussberger), the Institute for International Peace and Security Law (Prof. Dr Claus Kress) and the Chair of International History and Historical Peace and Conflict Research (Prof. Dr Fabian Klose). The aim is to strengthen interdisciplinary cooperation between the fields of history and international law. This way, the CHL intends to create an academic dialogue that draws lessons from the past and combines them with the safeguarding of democracy and collective rights in the present.