Center for the Middle East and International Law

Few geopolitical conflicts attract as much attention as those involving Israel and its Arab neighbors – and none are as ubiquitously framed in the terminology of international law. Thus nowhere is objective academic analysis and debate about the application of international law more essential. Yet academic legal discussions of the conflict are often explicitly normative, seeking to develop “new” legal norms in the unhospitable soil of the Levant. Legal discussions of the Israeli/Arab conflict often take place in a bubble, where purported norms are not tested by applicability elsewhere. The Center will seek to foster debate and critical engagement on international law in the Middle East, with a particular emphasis on developing voices and perspectives that have largely been excluded from the academic discussion, and on challenging underexamined consensus.