Where ‘Falls the Shadow’: The 2025 ESIL Conference in Berlin and the Disciplinary Ambivalences of ‘Reconstructing International Law’

Abstract Reflecting on the theme of reconstructing international law as debated at the annual conference of the European Society of International Law in Berlin in September 2025, this article identifies a sense of liminal ambivalence that pervades the intra-disciplinary narratives of crisis and renewal. It argues that the constellation of reformist proposals and discursive strategies articulated across different conference panels uncovers how the calls for reconstruction do not simply warn against international law’s normative decay but also operate as discursive tools for sustaining its functional relevance. In its engagement with the intrinsic ambivalence of international law’s reconstruction, this contribution also serves as a reminder that the calls for reconstruction are essentially discursive constructs whose contingent production and development reveal much about how selectively the discipline forges its reformist agenda in response to crises.