Alina Matei: Thank you, esteemed Professor Iulia Motoc, judge at the International Criminal Court, former ECtHR judge, former Constitutional Court  judge. You recently became a full member of the Institute of International Law and, according to the Institute’s website, you are the only Romanian who is a member of the Institute of International Law. I would like you to tell us how you became a member of the Institute.

Iulia Motoc: The Institute of International Law is a professional organization founded in 1873 in Ghent by a group of exceptional professors of public and private international law, to promote the development, codification and progress in public and private international law. Already in 1904, this institution was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

It is considered that the election as a member of this institution represents the most selective procedure in the field of law associations. In many associations, even in the prestigious ones, such as the European Society of International Law, the American Society of International Law, the International Society of Public Law ICON-S, it is enough to fulfill a few criteria to be admitted, the most important being that of being a researcher in the respective field. In other words, all the other professional societies that I know are open.

Regarding the selection procedure for members of the Institute of International Law, nominations may only be made by members of the institution, and the nominees must be lawyers with an exceptional professional reputation in the field of public international law, distinguished by both theoretical and practical activity. They are voted on in the biennial sessions by the members. In most cases, the essential element is the specialized works, analyzed with rigor and responsibility by the members, long before the vote. The maximum number of members is 132 and, most of the time, the vote is so demanding that this number of places is never filled. This year, for example, the available places were not filled even after four rounds of voting.

The first Romanian member of the Institute was Professor Dimitrie Negulescu, the first Romanian judge at the Permanent Court of Justice, the precursor of the International Court of Justice. Little has been written about his personality, although he made an essential contribution to the development of international law. He was elected a member of the Institute of International Law in 1923.

I was elected an associate member in 2021, and this year, 2025, I became a full member. I remember that at each session I was amazed by the level of detail with which my colleagues — or les confrères et les consœurs, as we are still called — knew my published works, even those published by lesser-known publishers. An example is my first doctoral thesis, dedicated to the use of force in international law. Although the French jury at the Paul Cézanne University, Aix-Marseille, recommended that I publish it in France, I did not have the patience to wait and published it in French in Romania. My first surprise came when I arrived in the US and discovered how many important libraries had it in their collections. The second surprise was to find that these confrères and consœurs already knew it.

Alina Matei: What are your impressions after the Rabat Institute meeting in August 2025?

Iulia Motoc: My impression after the sessions of this Institute is the same: that of having the privilege of being in an organization that is also an aristocracy of the spirit. I belong to a “Borgesian” generation and I believed in the perhaps truistic expression for our generation, “I always imagined that Paradise would be a kind of library.” I never imagined that a human company could equal, from an intellectual point of view, a library. However, it has proven to be possible, and the company of the members of this Institute is comparable to that of a library.

The 82nd session of the Institute of International Law also marked a significant return to Africa after almost four decades since the Cairo session in 1987. The event was held at the Agdal Faculty of Law, Economic and Social Sciences, and the opening ceremony was held at the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco. The Institute adopted four resolutions: one on preventing damage to the global commons and establishing rules for the prevention of environmental damage in areas beyond national jurisdiction, another on intellectual property and pandemics, highlighting the role of international intellectual property law in ensuring equitable access to medicines during pandemics, and a fourth resolution on the status and functions of conferences of parties to multilateral agreements.

Alina Matei: The Institute brings together, as you said, the greatest specialists in Public and Private International Law recognized throughout the world. What is the theoretical and practical dimension of this Institute?

Iulia Motoc: Members study the fundamental principles of international law, including treaties, state sovereignty, human rights, international criminal law and the law of the sea. The Institute contributes to the clarification of ambiguous legal concepts and proposes theoretical frameworks for emerging legal issues, such as the law of artificial intelligence or environmental law. It produces academic papers, resolutions and recommendations on international law topics to guide states and international organizations. It helps to systematize customary international law and contributes ideas for the codification of law. In practice, the Institute provides recommendations to governments, international organizations and courts, which can influence international treaties and conventions, expertise in legal disputes between states or organizations, which can be used in negotiations or arbitration, helps to clarify legal principles in disputes (e.g. territorial conflicts, maritime boundaries, diplomatic relations) by providing authoritative opinions. It organizes conferences and seminars to train diplomats, judges and legal specialists, improving the practical understanding of international law.

Alina Matei: The Institute’s sessions – since its founding (1873, the first session taking place in 1874 ) are available on the Institute’s website. Thus, we can discover the topics that have preoccupied international law specialists, the way they have been treated, their evolution over time – a proof of extraordinary continuity. What is the Institute’s contribution to the development/promotion of Public International Law?

Iulia Motoc: The history of the institute is long and dual. The institute, as I said, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, brings together the brightest minds in international law. I could give many examples in which the institute has excelled, but I will give only three. Law of the Sea: The institute worked to clarify the rules on territorial waters, navigation rights and maritime boundaries, influencing subsequent treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Diplomatic and consular relations: It developed principles defining the rights, privileges and immunities of diplomats, which later guided the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961). State Responsibility and the Use of Force: The institute clarified when a state is legally responsible for wrongful acts and promoted rules restricting the use of force, contributing to the principles underlying the United Nations Charter. Another narrative is that described by the brilliant Professor Martti Koskenniemi, himself a member of the Institute. He shows in “The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870–1960” how the IDI exemplified the “civilizing mission” of international law. IDI members aim to improve international relations through legal norms. The institute promoted the idea that law could moderate conflicts, reduce violence, and create a rational order between states. Koskenniemi criticizes the IDI as part of a larger historical pattern in which international law was both aspirational and instrumental. Aspirational, insofar as it is concerned with promoting peace, civilization, and codifying rules, and Instrumental, because it implicitly contributes to the consolidation of the interests of dominant states, often European powers, under the guise of legal argumentation. Koskenniemi refers in particular to the colonial period of international law.

Alina Matei: The members of the Institute come from different countries and cultures, the languages of communication being French and, recently, English, and, perhaps, the perspective on Public International Law, subtly, is also influenced by these factors. How is a consensus reached in sessions, with so many variables?

Iulia Motoc: Quite simply. It is one of the rare environments where people know each other’s cultures very well, it is the essence of a specialist in international law at this level. And, then, it is a world of aristocracy, a truly educated person does not just talk; he communicates meaningfully and seeks understanding, not just persuasion, as Plato wrote in the famous “Phaidros” or in the language of Wittgenstein “ What can be said, can be said clearly; and what we cannot speak we must pass over in silence .”

Alina Matei: Without DCDs or RILs, the Institute uses the norms of international law that it tries to place between the “no” of the reality from which it starts and the “yes” of the power to interpret them. As a professor who teaches “Ethics in International Law” at the Hague Academy of International Law, you being the first Romanian in the last 50 years to be invited to teach here, how does the Institute deal with ethical dilemmas in the life of states?

Iulia Motoc: It’s already good to have ethical dilemmas. We’ll discuss this issue in a future interview.

Alina Matei: At the Faculty of Law of the University of Timișoara, you are, together with Professor Valentin Constantin, the coordinator of doctoral programs in Public International Law. Why should doctoral students choose to study Public International Law?

Iulia Motoc: First of all, it must be said that our daily life is increasingly influenced by international law and the branches that have emerged from it – European law, international economic law and others. Therefore, even if I have always been naturally attracted to theoretical and philosophical reflection, I believe today that a specialist in public, constitutional or international law must also have a good understanding of criminal, civil and administrative law. Otherwise, they risk remaining on the surface of things, in a beautiful discourse, but empty of content. It is a conclusion that I have also reached through my experience as a judge at the Constitutional Court and the ECHR.

At the same time, I do not believe in sovereignist approaches, regardless of the branch of law we are talking about. It is obvious that criminal law can no longer be understood without European law, and civil law is increasingly viewed in direct connection with private international law and comparative law.

Let me give a definition that paraphrases the Upanishads: As international law dreams, so it becomes.

Alina Matei: Please name your favorite book, favorite magazine, favorite city, and a contemporary Romanian jurist.

Iulia Motoc: Let me start with contemporary Romanian jurists: The Timișoara School of International Law. I will explain. Public law was the field most deeply affected by totalitarianism; indeed, public law professors were the first on the lists drawn up by students to be expelled from the few law faculties that existed in 1989. Unfortunately, for many of the disciples of these professors, breaking away from the influence of their masters was difficult. Many retained either an authoritarian teaching style or a schematic vision of law – often also as a result of the fact that research activity was not a priority in their professional career. In Timișoara, the faculty recruited a professor with a solid general culture, a broad knowledge of international law, as well as the theory and philosophy of law – but, above all, with an authentic vision, formed through his own intellectual and experiential filter: Valentin Constantin. The Timișoara School of International Law is characterized by a rationalist and humanist approach to international law – emphasis on values, correlation of the legal dimension with the moral and philosophical – reflection on the ethical foundations of international and European law, interdisciplinarity – dialogue between law, philosophy, political science and international relations. I am referring here to professors Raluca Bercea, already known on a European level, and Diana Botău, a university professor at UBB, as well as to professors Lucian Bojin and Sorina Doroga.

On a par for me, but in a different context, the international judges – more precisely, European ones – Sebastian Rădulețu and Octavia Spineanu-Matei, jurists renowned in Europe, and with a university professor whom I do not yet know personally, but whose depth of thought I noted in an interview given to juridice.ro: Professor Marian Nicolae.

My favorite books: Of all the readings that have marked my path, I will try to focus only on literature and philosophy – and even so, the selection proves difficult: Albert Camus, “The Stranger”; Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”; Faulkner, “The Sound and the Fury”; Sabato, “On Heroes and Tombs”; Elfride Jellinek, “Women as Lovers”; Annie Ernaux, “Years”; Mircea Cărtărescu, “Nostalgia”; Mario Vargas Llosa, “Conversation at the Cathedral”; and the philosophers Plato, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein.

My favorite city:

If I were to compose an ideal city, it would start with a Museum District – a synthesis of the world’s greatest museums: Louvre, MET, MoMA, Frick Collection, Musée d’Orsay, Musée Nissim de Camondo, Uffizi Gallery, Prado.

Next, a Spiritual Quarter would be built, where the Romanian Patriarchate, the memory of my childhood, would stand alongside St. Peter’s Basilica, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the New Synagogue in Berlin, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. Then, the city would continue with concert halls and art streets, like those in Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Boulevard Saint Germain, Gion in Kyoto where culture and memory meet in harmony. Somewhere not too far away one could reach Llasha, the capital of Tibet.

Alina Matei: A message, please, for JURIDICE readers and for those who do JURIDICE.

Iulia Motoc: We should try to return as much as possible to classical and humanistic culture – to literature, music and painting – because, in my opinion, this is the only way to truly understand law, but also existence itself.

Alina Matei: Thank you for talking to me!

Iulia Motoc: Thank you!

:: Versiunea în limba română