Between 11 and 13 September 2025, the ESIL Annual Conference took place in Berlin, Germany. This year conference unfolded on the theme "Reconstructing International Law", and it attracted an unprecedented number of legal scholars from all over the world.
The presence of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies in Berlin was wide, with several colleagues taking active part as speakers in, or co-organizers of, no less than four different ESIL interest groups.
On 11 September 2025, Sophie Starrenburg co-convened the pre-conference workshop of the International Law of Culture Interest Group. The workshop examined 'The Future and Past of "Progress" in Cultural Heritage Law', and brought together early-career and senior scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Canada, and Australia. In three thematic panels, speakers considered the historical legacies of cultural heritage law and its future challenges, exploring emerging frontiers in the field, ranging from peacekeeping and post-conflict heritage to Indigenous worldviews, ecological limits, and technological change.
In parallel, Letizia Lo Giacco presented her work-in-progress entitled "Coping with Historical Injustices: The Remedial Role of Advisory Proceedings in the International Community". The paper contributed an organic perspective on the advisory function of the International Court of Justice to the panels organized by the ESIL Interest Group on International Courts and Tribunals around the question of reconstructing the advisory function of international judicial institution.
In the framework of the same interest group, Brian McGarry presented a paper entitled "Bespoke Approaches to Scientific Evidence in International Advisory Proceedings: Is Harmony Inevitable?", which he is co-authoring with Prof. Jianping Guo of Xi'an Jiaotong University in China. Their paper was also presented in the pre-conference workshop convened by the ESIL Interest Group on International Environmental Law, and it is slated to be published in a 2026 edited volume on dispute settlement and the law of the sea.
Finally, as a member of the ESIL Interest Group on the History of International Law, Sze Hong Lam helped organize two events: a pre-conference workshop on "(De-/re-)constructions of International Law over Time and Space" (10 September); and an Agora on "(De-/re-)constructions of the History of International Law" (12 September), chaired by Professor Anne Peters of the Max Planck and featuring keynotes by David M Scott, Valentina Vadi, and Xiaohang Chen on the historiography of international law.
Back from Berlin, the question of reconstructing international law is far from exhausted and continues to nurture the discussions between international law scholars at the Grotius Centre and beyond.
