2ème table ronde Quand la puissance s’affranchit du droit

What remains of the universality of law when it no longer seems to apply to everyone in the same way? At a time when words themselves seem to be losing their shared meaning, contemporary conflicts reveal with renewed acuity the gap between proclaimed principles and their application. Depending on the wars, states and populations concerned, the same acts of violence provoke neither the same classifications nor the same reactions, creating a disturbing hierarchy of victims, crimes and sovereignties.

But is this crisis truly new? It invites us to examine the history of the universal, its legacies, exclusions and the power relations that shaped it. For although the language of law can be instrumentalized, and the institutions responsible for upholding it can be challenged or rendered powerless, it remains, for victims and civil societies, an essential means of naming violence, establishing responsibility and seeking justice.

Between the proclaimed universality of principles and the reality of power relations, the very possibility of imagining an international order founded on law is now at stake. How can we continue to defend the universal when power seems to decide which lives to protect, which violence to condemn and which sovereignties to recognize?

Recent publications

Sophie Bessis, La civilisation judéo-chrétienne. Anatomie d’une imposture, Les liens qui libèrent, 2025. Jérôme Heurtaux, Le droit international est-il mort à Gaza ?, Riveneuve, 2025. Nadim Houry, « Le Liban a besoin d’une stratégie juridique contre la violence israélienne », article published on the Arab Reform Initiative website, March 2026.