Wilfred Jenks Lecture Series
Jan Klabbers: Change in International Organizations - The ILO and Global Political Economy
In “Change in International Organizations: The ILO in the Global Political Economy”, Professor Klabbers aims reflexively to connect change in the structures and policies of international organizations to changes in the political-economic environment. To this end, he identifies four different phases: the period 1850-1914 (creating infrastructures); 1919-1940 (securing the global economy); 1945-late 1970s (Keynesianism); and late-1970s-today (the continuing era of neo-liberalism). The contention is that these ideational changes help explain change in international organizations, and will be illustrated by briefly zooming in on the ILO’s experiences.
24 July 2025
About Jan Klabbers
Jan Klabbers is professor of international law at the University of Helsinki, and Whewell Chair-elect at Cambridge University. He obtained his doctorate in 1996 from the University of Amsterdam for The Concept of Treaty in International Law (with distinction) and is probably best-known for his work on the law of international organizations and the law of treaties. He has authored some 250 journal and book chapters and several monographs, including An Introduction to International Organizations Law (CUP, 4th edn 2023), Treaty Conflict and the European Union (CUP 2008) and Virtue in Global Governance: Judgment and Discretion (CUP 2022). He is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to International Organizations Law (CUP 2022) and International Organizations Engaging the World (CUP 2025, in press), and co-editor of The Challenge of Inter-legality (CUP 2019, with Gianluigi Palombella). He has held invited visiting positions at Sorbonne, LUISS, the Graduate Institute and New York University, among others, and in 2024 taught at the Hague Academy of International Law.
Names mentioned during the lecture (roughly in order of appearance):
- Georg Jellinek (uses the terms Staatszweck and Verwaltungszweck)
- Pierre (Pjotr) Kazansky
- Paul Reinsch
- Eric Hobsbawm
- David Morse
- Victor Hugo
- Raul Prebish
- André Gunder Frank
- Milton Friedman
- Friedrich Engels
- Francis Maupain
- Nicolas Valticos
- Ebere Osieke
- Anne Trebilcock
- Felice Morgenstern
- Sir Hersch Lauterpacht
Selected bibliography and documents
- Robert W. Cox, Production, Power, and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History (1987)
- Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital 1848-1875 (1975)
- Georg Jellinek, Die Lehre von den Staatenverbindungen (1882)
- Tarja Halonen and Ulla Liukkunen (eds.), International Labour Organization and Global Social Justice (2021)
- Pierre Kazansky, ‘Théorie de l’administration internationale’ (1902) 9 Revue Générale de Droit International Public, 353-367
- Jan Klabbers, ‘The Transformation of International Organizations Law’, (2015) 26 European Journal of International Law, 9-82
- Jan Klabbers, ‘Towards a Political Economy of International Organizations Law’, (2023) 20 International Organizations Law Review, 82-101
- Brian Langille and Anne Trebilcock (eds.), Social Justice and the World of Work: Possible Global Futures – Essays in Honour of Francis Maupain (2023)
- Francis Maupain, The Future of the International Labour Organization in the Global Economy (2013)
- Christopher Meisner, One from the Many: The Global Economy Since 1850 (2024)
- Felice Morgenstern, Legal Problems of International Organizations (2024 [1986])
- David Morse, The Origin and Evolution of the ILO and Its Role in the World Community (1969)
- Ebere Osieke, ‘The Legal Validity of Ultra Vires Decisions of International Organization’, (1983) 77 American Journal of International Law, 239-256
- Paul Reinsch, Public International Unions, Their Work and Organization: A Study in International Administrative Law(1911)
Disclaimer
The Wilfred Jenks Lecture Series is an academic initiative organized by the Office of the Legal Adviser. The views expressed in the lectures and any accompanying material are those of the lecturers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Labour Office, the International Labour Organization, or its tripartite constituents.Wilfred Jenks Lecture Series
The Wilfred Jenks Lecture Series is an initiative of the Office of the Legal Adviser of the ILO aimed at sparking academic reflection, disseminating knowledge and raising awareness about the ILO’s mandate and its legal and normative work.