Regional Organizations in a Multipolar World: Shaping Global Governance
Plenary Panel IV
In an era of shifting geopolitical dynamics, regional organizations are emerging as pivotal players in shaping the future of global governance. From addressing pressing security challenges to fostering economic integration, regional organizations such as the African Union, African subregional organizations, and ASEAN are redefining the principles of international cooperation. Similarly, newer regional organizations, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, spearheaded by China, are introducing alternative frameworks for regional collaboration, reflecting the evolving priorities and strategies of a multipolar world. This panel will delve into the transformative role of regional organizations in tackling global challenges. It will examine their interactions with universal organizations, their contributions to innovative hybrid models of governance, and their impact on the international legal order. By exploring the successes, risks and future potential of these organizations, the panel will provide fresh insights into how regionalism is challenging and reshaping the international order as we know it.
Convenor
Kirsten Schmalenbach is Professor of Public International Law and European Union Law at Paris Lodron University Salzburg (Austria). She serves as Vice President of the Austrian Branch of the International Law Association, was as a member of the ILA Study Group on the International Law of Regional International Organizations, and currently sits on the ILA Committee on Business and Human Rights. Reflecting her expertise in treaty law, she co edits, with Oliver Dörr, the Commentary on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, published by Springer International. From late 2024 to mid 2025, she was a Senior Fellow at the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS), conducting research on “The Legal Personality of Natural Entities”. Between 2021 and 2025, she was the Principal Investigator of a project on the United Nations’ third party liability, funded by the Austrian Science Fund.
Panelists
Anmol Gulecha is a PhD candidate at Tilburg University where she is exploring how courts evaluate scientific evidence in public interest litigation cases. Alongside her PhD, she is interning at the IAEA. She is also the managing editor of International Organizations Law Review.
Fernando Lusa Bordin is Professor of Institutional Law (Schermers Chair) at Leiden University and a College Associate Professor and Fellow in Law at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. He has served as Rapporteur for the ILA Study Group on the International Law of Regional Organizations between 2020 and 2024.
Dr. The Hon. Mme. Justice Chantal Ononaiwu is a Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and Chair of the CCJ Academy for Law. She has specialist expertise in Caribbean Community Law and International Law, including International Trade Law, and varied legal experience as an adjudicator, litigator, legal advisor and university lecturer. Justice Ononaiwu was the Director, External Trade at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, leading the coordination of CARICOM’s external trade policy and serving as a negotiator of CARICOM’s international trade agreements. She is the ILA's Diversity and Inclusion Officer, President of the ILA Caribbean Branch and was a member of the ILA Study Group on the International Law of Regional Organizations.
Emmanuel Sebijjo Ssemmanda is Dean of the Faculty of Law of the International University of East Africa, where he teaches Public International Law and International Trade Law, including EAC, AfCFTA and EU law. He is also the Executive Director at the African Institute of Regional Integration Studies, a think-tank on regional integration processes in Africa, as well as Director at the Centre for Law, Economics and Policy on East African Integration, a research centre on the process of East African integration. Emmanuel served on the ILA Study Group on the International Law of Regional Organizations, where he made research contributions on African regional economic communities.