Eighty years ago, during the final weeks of the worst war ever fought, the United Nations Charter was signed in late June 1945, outlawing aggression and upholding universal human rights. World leaders agreed a legal edifice was necessary for the peaceful arbitration of disputes and protection of civilians after the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis and Imperial Japan. Today, however, the world is aflame in war and genocide, and some experts say international law is close to dead. In this episode, Adil Ahmad Haque, an expert on the rules and ethics of war, tells us why the rules-based order is breaking apart.

Adil Haque is a distinguished professor of law at Rutgers Law School.

Further reading:

Law and Morality at War by Adil Haque