Challenges to international law have not receded. Quite to the contrary, the international legal system, including more than 80 years of United Nations efforts to ban the use of force, is increasingly eroded. Conflicts over territorial integrity and self-determination have re-emerged with unsettling force. Multilateral institutions struggle to respond effectively to violations of fundamental norms and the hopes for enhanced cooperation that accompanied the end of the Cold War have long faded. Even basic principles of international law have become contested. In addition, new areas, such as climate change, artificial intelligence, and global health, require closer international cooperation and renewed commitment to collective solutions.

Nevertheless, the 2026 biennial ILA conference, organised by the University of Vienna, aims at keeping the possibility of dialogue and cooperation open. Recent developments require us to reconsider the resilience of existing norms of international law and to help further develop international law in light of the challenges the international community faces. The contours of international law are neither fixed nor linear: they are shaped by historical legacies, geopolitical shifts, and evolving normative aspirations. International lawyers need to engage with these contours and understand how international law evolves through its encounters with new realities, actors, and forms of power.