Research Workshop, King’s College London, 11 April 2025
Penumbras and Grey Zones in International Law and War
Uncertainty, or indeterminacy, about law, facts and the future together mean that international lawyers necessarily and inevitably rely on “extra-legal considerations” — politics, ethics, strategy — when dealing with legal decisions and disputes about “hard cases”. Many international actions can, by their very nature, fall into a penumbra of uncertainty between what the law clearly prohibits, or permits, or requires. Does international law require a state to wait until an armed attack has caused damage to its territory and people before it can use military force to stop it? When does international law permit states to use force against violent non-state actors in another state? What kind of support does the law prohibit states from providing to another state defending itself, or using force in an internal conflict?
Even if a decision or dispute concerns action of a kind about which the law is relatively clear, there can often be considerable uncertainty about critical current and particularly future facts relevant to that decision or dispute. Many areas of law, like the jus ad bellum, prescribe very few rules for navigating uncertainty about current and future facts. These and other kinds of uncertainty can individually, or in combination, encourage or compel lawyers to draw on politics, strategy, ethics and other extra-legal disciplines to make legal decisions — indeed, arguably, the law makes no sense without these considerations. This interdisciplinary workshop, co-designed with and co-led by the FCDO Deputy Director of Strategy, invites discussion of the nature and implications of the penumbra of uncertainty and the role of extra-legal considerations in international law.
We are particularly interested in papers examining:
- The underlying nature of legal and factual uncertainty prevalent in the jus ad bellum and other areas of international law, their causes and practical consequences.
- The ways in which international lawyers purposefully or unconsciously draw on politics, strategy, ethics and other extra-legal considerations when dealing with hard cases engaging significant legal or factual uncertainty
- The extent to which law can adapt or develop interpretive techniques to close gaps and reduce legal uncertainty,
- The potential role of extra-legal analytical techniques such as risk management, factual analysis techniques and forecasting techniques for dealing with factual uncertainty
- The problems of political and public perceptions in relation to technical and legal decisions on targeting in armed conflict — actions in Ukraine and Gaza have drawn contested attention, for instance, but questions are not limited to these examples
The organisers particularly encourage the presentation of work from post-graduate and early-career researchers, as well as from more established scholars. Abstracts (of not more than 300 words) should be submitted to shiftingsecurities@kcl.ac.uk by 11.59pm UK time, 26 February 2025 and should be accompanied by a brief biographical statement not to exceed 100 words.
Successful applicants will be notified by 3 March 2025. Refreshments will be provided. We have a limited amount of funding to support attendance, particularly for PGRs and ECRs, but otherwise and generally, successful applicants will be expected to bear the costs of their own travel and (if needed) accommodation. If you are seeking financial support to attend the workshop, please advise in your application, along with an indication of the amount sought.