Willing states must act to save international legal order, warns top academic

November 11, 2025

Patrick Wintour 

A coalition of states is needed to stop the international legal order falling apart, a distinguished international academic has warned.

Oona Hathaway, the president-elect of the American Society of International Law and a former Pentagon legal adviser, said the core of the postwar global order – the prohibition on taking land by force – was under unprecedented challenge in a “scary moment” for the world.

Oona Hathaway, a Yale professor, said people might not realise the value of international law until it started to break down.