Board Member Spotlight: Payam Akhavan

Occupation: Professor of International Law; Human Rights Chair and Senior Fellow, Massey College, University of Toronto; Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; Associate Member of the Institut de droit international

Predominant Practice or Research Area: International Human Rights Law; International Criminal Law; International Environmental Law; Law of the Sea; International Dispute Settlement

What are the challenges and/or opportunities faced by international law and/or your area of international law?

"The planetization of humankind is already a fait accompli and the forces of integration will

only accelerate in the coming years. The norms and institutions of the international legal order however, have yet to embrace this reality of inextricable interdependence and the

accompanying need for effective global governance. This is no longer the province of naïve

idealists in pursuit of a distant utopia; it is a pressing need that is indispensable for our

common survival. The looming threat of catastrophic climate change, in particular, has

exposed the gross inadequacy of divisive ideologies that stand in the way of the common

vision and collective action necessary to avoid mass-extinction and the collapse of civilization. The current retreat from multilateralism is clearly on the wrong side of history. It will invariably fail. Sooner or later, international law and global institutions will come back with a vengeance, as painful experience teaches us that we have no choice but to move towards a unified world order."