Established to recognise the long passion and service to International Law by The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, this year's lecture will be delivered by Professor Devika Hovell (London School of Economics).

Disarmament and World Order

Disarmament is one of those words that can still sound faintly ridiculous - until it is used to justify a bombing campaign. Treated one moment as the residue of a naïve politics of peace, and the next as the legal-political rationale for disciplining dangerous states, disarmament has acquired two public faces: sentimental and muscular. Neither captures its real significance. This lecture argues that disarmament is best understood not as moral ornament or strategic pretext, but as a constitutional principle of world order. Disarmament law allocates permissions, disabilities, exemptions, and burdens: some may possess, some must not, some promise protection, others are asked to trust it. The question is whether that unequal distribution of coercive power can be justified. The lecture approaches that question through debates in legal and political theory about authority, fear, non-domination, and public reason. Against both fatalism and nostalgia, the lecture develops a constructive account of disarmament for the contemporary world order: unequal armament is legitimate only where it is publicly justified, institutionally constrained, and directed toward reducing domination rather than reproducing dependency.

Light refreshments will be served from 5:30pm, with the lecture starting at 6pm.

If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan please contact the event organiser.

Registration is required for this event.

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