What is the primary focus of the ICILG?

The conference focuses on the intersection of international law and globalization.

International Conference on International Law and Globalisation (ICILG)

Name: International Conference on International Law and Globalisation (ICILG)
Start: 2026-06-15T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-06-15T00:00:00Z
Location: Toronto

Jun 15, 2026Toronto, CanadaIn-person

Registration open

The International Conference on International Law and Globalisation (ICILG) is an academic event focused on the intersection of international legal frameworks and the dynamics of globalization. Hosted in Toronto, CAN, this conference serves as a platform for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to discuss contemporary challenges and advancements in international law within an increasingly interconnected world. The event aims to foster dialogue and research on how global processes shape legal norms and vice versa.

Committees & topics

Topics
Combating Transnational Organized Crime · The Evolution of Transnational Law · International Refugee Law and Protection · International Security in a Multipolar Era · Immigration Law and the Governance of Human Mobility · Foreign Policy in an Age of Strategic Competition · International Relations and the Contested Global Order · The Role of International Organizations in Global Governance

Why it matters

In an era defined by rapid globalization, the relevance of international law is constantly being re-evaluated. The ICILG provides a critical forum for examining how traditional legal principles adapt to new global realities, from digital governance to cross-border environmental issues. Understanding these interactions is crucial for maintaining stability and promoting cooperation among nations.

The conference's focus on globalization underscores the need for robust international legal mechanisms to address shared challenges that transcend national borders. Discussions at the ICILG can inform policy development and academic discourse, contributing to more effective global governance. The insights generated are vital for anyone seeking to navigate the complexities of international relations and legal practice in the modern world.

How to prepare

Participants preparing for the ICILG should consider a multi-faceted approach to their research and presentations. Engaging with the concept of 'globalization' requires an understanding of its diverse impacts across various legal domains, including human rights, trade, environmental protection, and security. A thorough review of recent case law and international agreements will be beneficial.

To maximize engagement, attendees might consider how their work intersects with the perspectives of different nations. For instance, how do emerging economies interpret and apply international legal norms compared to established powers? This comparative lens can enrich discussions and highlight areas where international law faces implementation challenges. Utilizing frameworks such as 'Dynamic Analysis' and 'Engagement Strategies' can help in structuring arguments and anticipating diverse viewpoints during sessions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Canada

Canada, as a host nation and a proponent of multilateralism, often advocates for the strengthening of international law and institutions to address global challenges.

Role in topic

Canada plays a significant role in international legal development, particularly in areas such as human rights, environmental law, and international criminal justice. Its commitment to multilateralism often sees it championing international legal frameworks as solutions to global issues.

United States

The United States has a complex relationship with international law, often balancing its commitment to global norms with national sovereignty concerns.

Role in topic

The United States is a major player in shaping international law, both through its participation in treaties and its influence on global legal discourse. Its approach often involves a pragmatic assessment of how international legal obligations align with national interests and security.

China

China increasingly seeks to influence the development of international law, particularly in areas related to economic governance and sovereignty.

Role in topic

China's growing global influence means its perspectives on international law, especially regarding state sovereignty, non-interference, and economic development, are increasingly significant. Its engagement with international legal frameworks is often viewed through the lens of its national development goals.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom, with its historical legal traditions, contributes significantly to international legal thought and practice, particularly in areas of trade and human rights.

Role in topic

The United Kingdom has a long-standing tradition of contributing to international law, drawing from its common law heritage. It remains an active participant in international legal bodies and discussions, particularly concerning global trade, maritime law, and human rights.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Combating Transnational Organized Crime

Transnational organized crime emerged as a defined international concern in the late 20th century, as globalization, container shipping, and digital finance allowed criminal networks to operate across borders with unprecedented speed. The 2000 UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Convention) and its protocols on trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling, and firearms became the principal legal framework, supplemented by the UN Convention against Corruption (2003) and the work of UNODC, INTERPOL, and the Financial Action Task Force. The core dispute today is how to balance sovereignty and due process with the need for rapid cross-border cooperation. States diverge over mutual legal assistance standards, asset recovery, extradition of nationals, and the reach of universal jurisdiction. Newer threats — synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, ransomware-as-a-service, illicit wildlife and timber trafficking, and crypto-enabled money laundering — outpace treaty regimes negotiated for an analog era. As of the mid-2020s, debate centers on a possible new UN cybercrime convention (adopted by the General Assembly in 2024 amid human-rights controversy), reform of FATF grey-listing, and how to dismantle the convergence of narcotics cartels, militias, and state-linked actors in regions including the Sahel, the Andes, and Southeast Asia's Mekong scam compounds.

Key players

The Evolution of Transnational Law

The term 'transnational law,' coined by Philip Jessup in 1956, describes legal rules that regulate activities crossing national frontiers but do not fit neatly into either public international law or domestic law. It encompasses private contracting, lex mercatoria, investor-state arbitration, transnational regulatory networks, and the soft-law output of bodies such as the Basel Committee and ISO. The post-Cold War expansion of global supply chains, finance, and the internet accelerated its growth, as private actors and sub-state regulators became co-authors of cross-border rules. The core dispute is one of legitimacy and accountability. Critics from the Global South argue that transnational legal regimes — especially investor-state dispute settlement under bilateral investment treaties — entrench corporate power and constrain regulatory sovereignty. Defenders contend that predictable transnational rules are essential to trade, climate cooperation, and human-rights due diligence in supply chains. Today, contested fronts include UNCITRAL Working Group III's reform of ISDS, the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, extraterritorial application of sanctions and export controls, and the negotiation of a binding UN treaty on business and human rights. The field is being reshaped by AI governance, data-localization laws, and competing visions of a fragmented versus integrated global legal order.

Key players

International Refugee Law and Protection

Modern refugee law was forged in the aftermath of World War II with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, which together define a refugee and codify the principle of non-refoulement. Regional instruments — the 1969 OAU Convention in Africa and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration in Latin America — broadened the definition to include those fleeing generalized violence. UNHCR was created in 1950 to oversee protection, while the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees sought to share responsibility more equitably. The regime is under unprecedented strain. By the mid-2020s, more than 120 million people are forcibly displaced — driven by Syria, Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Venezuela, and Gaza. Wealthy states have increasingly turned to externalization (the UK-Rwanda scheme, the EU-Türkiye and EU-Tunisia arrangements, Australia's offshore processing) and to narrower interpretations of asylum eligibility, raising concerns over compliance with non-refoulement. Core disputes include whether climate-displaced persons fall within refugee protection, how to allocate responsibility between front-line and destination states, the legality of pushbacks and safe-third-country designations, and how to deliver durable solutions when resettlement quotas remain a fraction of global need.

Key players

International Security in a Multipolar Era

The post-1945 collective security architecture, anchored in the UN Charter and the Security Council's primary responsibility for international peace and security, was built around great-power cooperation. The Cold War froze that cooperation; the 1990s briefly revived it through expanded peacekeeping and the Responsibility to Protect doctrine adopted at the 2005 World Summit. The 2003 Iraq War, the 2011 Libya intervention, and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine progressively eroded consensus on the lawful use of force. Today, international security is contested across multiple domains simultaneously: conventional wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the Sudan conflict, persistent tensions in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, nuclear modernization by all P5 states, and the collapse of bilateral arms control (INF, Open Skies, and the suspension of New START). Cyber operations, space-based ASAT capabilities, and lethal autonomous weapons add layers that existing treaties barely address. The central legal dispute is whether the Charter framework on the use of force — Articles 2(4), 51, and Chapter VII — can adapt to hybrid threats, proxy warfare, and AI-enabled systems, or whether parallel regimes (NATO, SCO, BRICS-plus security dialogues) will continue to displace universal institutions.

Key players

Immigration Law and the Governance of Human Mobility

Immigration law sits at the intersection of sovereign discretion and emerging international standards. Unlike refugee law, there is no single global treaty governing economic migration; instead, the field draws on ILO conventions on migrant workers, the 1990 International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers (poorly ratified by destination states), human-rights treaty bodies, and the non-binding 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). The core dispute is the tension between states' sovereign right to control entry and their human-rights obligations toward migrants, including the prohibition of arbitrary detention, family-unity protections, and the rights of children. Labor-sending states press for portable benefits, recognition of qualifications, and protections against trafficking and wage theft; destination states emphasize border control, return agreements, and selective high-skill admission. Current flashpoints include the US-Mexico border and Title 42's aftermath, the EU's New Pact on Migration and Asylum (2024), the GCC's kafala reforms, Gulf-to-Asia labor corridors, and climate-driven mobility in the Pacific and Sahel. Increasingly, immigration law is shaped by bilateral deals, biometric data-sharing, and AI-driven screening, raising new questions about due process and non-discrimination.

Key players

Foreign Policy in an Age of Strategic Competition

Foreign policy as a discipline traces its modern form to the post-Westphalian state system and was institutionalized through professional diplomatic services in the 19th and 20th centuries. The post-1945 liberal order assumed that economic interdependence, multilateral institutions, and democratic norms would gradually align state interests. That assumption has been challenged by the return of great-power competition between the United States and China, Russia's revisionism, and the assertive non-alignment of large middle powers. The central dispute today is how states should reconcile economic interdependence with security concerns — the 'de-risking' debate over semiconductors, critical minerals, and AI; the weaponization of finance through sanctions and SWIFT exclusion; and the use of tariffs and industrial policy as foreign-policy tools. Middle powers such as India, Brazil, Türkiye, Indonesia, and South Africa increasingly pursue 'multi-alignment,' refusing binary choices between Washington and Beijing. Foreign policy is also being reshaped by domestic polarization, diaspora politics, climate diplomacy, and the rise of mini-lateral formats (Quad, AUKUS, I2U2, BRICS+) that supplement or bypass traditional multilateral institutions.

Key players

International Relations and the Contested Global Order

International relations as a field emerged in the wake of the First World War, with the founding of the first IR chair at Aberystwyth in 1919 and the creation of the League of Nations. Successive theoretical schools — realism, liberalism, constructivism, and critical approaches — have sought to explain why states cooperate or fight, how institutions matter, and how identities and norms shape behavior. The bipolar Cold War, the unipolar moment of the 1990s, and the current contested multipolarity have each generated distinct policy agendas. The defining question of contemporary international relations is whether the rules-based order constructed after 1945 can survive the relative decline of Western power and the emergence of alternative governance models. Debates over UN Security Council reform, IMF and World Bank quota redistribution, BRICS+ expansion, and parallel financial infrastructures (CIPS, mBridge) all reflect this contest. New structural forces — climate change, AI, pandemics, demographic divergence between aging North and youthful South — are reshaping the agenda. Whether these challenges drive renewed cooperation or accelerate fragmentation into competing blocs is the open question of the decade.

Key players

The Role of International Organizations in Global Governance

International organizations proliferated in the 20th century, beginning with the Universal Postal Union (1874) and the League of Nations (1920), and accelerating after 1945 with the UN system, the Bretton Woods institutions, the GATT/WTO, and regional bodies such as the EU, AU, ASEAN, and OAS. Functionalist theory predicted that technical cooperation would gradually transfer authority upward; in practice, IOs operate under continuous tension between member-state sovereignty and supranational mandates. The core dispute today is one of legitimacy, representation, and effectiveness. The UN Security Council's composition reflects 1945, not 2025; the WTO's Appellate Body has been paralyzed since 2019; the WHO's authority was tested by COVID-19 and the pandemic-treaty negotiations; and IMF/World Bank governance remains skewed toward advanced economies despite quota reforms. The withdrawal or threatened withdrawal of major states from bodies such as UNESCO, the WHO, and the ICC has further strained the system. At the same time, IOs are being asked to take on expanding mandates — climate finance under the UNFCCC, AI governance, sanctions implementation, and complex peace operations — even as funding stagnates and geopolitical rivalry blocks consensus. The Summit of the Future (2024) and ongoing 'UN 2.0' reforms seek to adapt the system, but member-state appetite for deep change remains uneven.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for International Conference on International Law and Globalisation (ICILG).

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Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Policy Brief Writing

Media & Press Relations

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Canada June 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

International Conference on International Law and Globalisation (ICILG)

Jun 15, 2026Toronto, CanadaIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Combating Transnational Organized Crime · The Evolution of Transnational Law · International Refugee Law and Protection · International Security in a Multipolar Era · Immigration Law and the Governance of Human Mobility · Foreign Policy in an Age of Strategic Competition · International Relations and the Contested Global Order · The Role of International Organizations in Global Governance

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Canada

Canada, as a host nation and a proponent of multilateralism, often advocates for the strengthening of international law and institutions to address global challenges.

Role in topic

United States

The United States has a complex relationship with international law, often balancing its commitment to global norms with national sovereignty concerns.

Role in topic

China

China increasingly seeks to influence the development of international law, particularly in areas related to economic governance and sovereignty.

Role in topic

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom, with its historical legal traditions, contributes significantly to international legal thought and practice, particularly in areas of trade and human rights.

Role in topic