Vienna, Austria—UPF-Austria, in cooperation with partnering organizations, held an online event titled “On Climate Change, Migration and the Rule of Law: Dialogue in Hell between Montesquieu and Machiavelli.”
The webinar of May 20, 2022 was held as a side event to the annual session of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ).
The title of the event came from a chapter of the book The Rule of Law in Retreat: Challenges to Justice in the United Nations World edited by Dr. Sławomir Redo, a former UN staff member. The chapter contains the script of an imagined dialogue between these great intellectuals who hold contrasting views on climate change, migration and the rule of law.
The event was organized by UPF-Austria with the support of the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations in Vienna, United Nations Studies Association, Association of Judicial History and the Rule of Law, International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges, and the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.
After welcoming remarks by Peter Haider, president of UPF-Austria, the dialogue was introduced by H.E. Alessandro Cortese, permanent representative of Italy to the UN Office in Vienna. H.E. Cortese, together with other co-sponsors and panelists/co-authors, and with Professor William Schabas as the chapter’s reviewer, highlighted challenges to the constitutionality of the domestic and international legal order as seen from the perspective of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Civil society organizations and other pro bono actors, including organizers of UN moot courts, may wish to promote this approach by involving university students or other concerned constituencies to learn about, address and overcome current challenges to the rule of law amid climate change and migration.