Populism's attack on multilateralism and international law : much ado about nothing

Abstract

While international lawyers have not traditionally paid much attention to the phenomenon of populism, a recent upswing in the populist movements in governments around the world has led to an increase in the fascination of international lawyers with populism. On the whole, there seems to be a view that populism has negatively affected the communitarianism and multilateralism of international law. This article interrogates this proposition. It comes to the conclusion that the proposition is based on an erroneous assumption about the state of international law. It concludes that populism is not a threat to international law, but that populist strategies against certain institutions and rules of international law are merely a reflection of international law’s own limitations.