Russia in the International Disorder

This course examines Russia’s position as a disruptor of the rules-based international order in light of its invasion of Ukraine. The course will examine Russia’s contestation of this order since the fall of the Soviet Union from the standpoints of rule-of-law and human rights, behavior in multilateral institutions, economic affairs as well as “pure” international law under the lens of comparative international law. We will also examine Western legal responses to the current conflict in the form of sanctions, exclusion from multilateral institutions, and transformation of the European energy trade. Readings will be drawn from Western scholarship on Russia, Russian scholarship published in English or translated for this class, and may also include materials from international adjudications on selected international events (Yukos, Crimean annexation, 2014 sanctions, EU energy trade).