Why did you decide to study the relationship between “crisis” and international law?

Since my master’s thesis, I’ve been fascinated by the concept of exceptions — of moments when the normal rules seem to break down, especially during crises. To me, a researcher is a bit like a detective: we look for clues, follow patterns, and listen to our instincts. As I immersed myself in the literature on crises in international law, I kept noticing the same events being mentioned over and over: Covid-19, 9/11, the Kosovo war, etc. It made me pause and think: why these crises? Why are they so dominant in international legal scholarship, while others are barely mentioned?

It was during the pandemic, and everything revolved around Covid. But something didn’t sit right with me. I had this gut feeling that the story being told in the literature wasn’t complete. That’s when I started asking a deeper question: which crises are seen as relevant in international legal discourse, and why? What makes certain events rise to the surface while others, perhaps equally serious, fade into the background?

To my knowledge, no research had specifically addressed those questions. Therefore, I decided that my thesis would be an attempt to respond to the following research question: Which “crises” — and why these “crises” — are more likely to trigger a change in international legal discourse?

It is important to point out that there are different ways in which international legal discourses may change. For instance, changes in how legal principles and treaties are interpreted by international courts and tribunals can significantly impact legal discourse. However, for the purpose of this dissertation, I decided to focus on discursive changes in international legal discourse and scholarship. Hence, by “international legal discourse”, I refer specifically to the discursive patterns of international legal scholars.

How did you go about it, methodologically speaking?

To “measure” these discursive changes, I examined how particular concepts in international law (e.g., humanitarian intervention) have been discussed and possibly redefined by scholars in the aftermath of certain crises. Building on Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s black swan theory, I argued that unforeseen, high-impact crises — conceptualised here as black swans in international law — disrupt ongoing legal discourses, pushing international lawyers to rethink or reconceptualise norms and principles of international law. Since understanding the role of international law in times of crisis requires an analysis of the language and discursive practices of legal actors, my focus was on the discursive practice of international legal scholars. To do this, I relied not only on doctrinal sources but also on discourse and content analysis of articles published in international law journals.

In examining what kinds of crises shape international law, or more precisely, international legal scholarship, I drew on insights from philosophy and psychology to identify factors that may condition perception and misperception. My methodology thus built on theoretical frameworks from both fields. In recent years, legal philosophers have begun exploring how findings from cognitive science can inform legal theory. While legal philosophy alone cannot fully answer questions like “How does a lawyer think?”, cognitive psychology can offer valuable insights into legal reasoning.

Accordingly, I based my analysis primarily on concepts from cognitive psychology (e.g., cognitive biases) and social psychology (e.g., in-group/out-group bias and the role of media in shaping perception). Starting from the premise that law is a social process implemented by human beings, I sought to uncover the psychological mechanisms behind the perception — and misperception — of crises in international law.

In addition, my thesis is strongly informed by TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law). TWAIL challenges Western hegemony in the field and seeks to promote a legal order that reflects the interests of the Global South.

What are your major findings?

My thesis suggests that the crises most likely to trigger shifts in international legal discourse are those that both possess the characteristics of Black Swan events and are framed and perceived in ways that amplify their significance within a particular epistemic community of international legal scholars. It exemplifies this core mechanism with the case of the Kosovo crisis and its impact on international legal discourse around humanitarian intervention. This case is then contrasted with that of the Liberian civil war and the ECOWAS intervention, which had far less of an impact despite the similarity of the original constellation. This contrast allows the thesis to highlight the misperception of certain crises in the Western-dominated landscape of international legal academia. It thus questions the Eurocentric and Western character of international law, as well as the idea, often taken for granted, that international law is inherently a “discipline of crisis”, suggesting that international legal scholarship is rather a discipline of “western” crises.

Through this analysis, the thesis ultimately calls for a more reflective and nuanced approach to understanding the forces that drive change in international law, particularly in times of crisis.

*     *     *

Marzia Marastoni defended her PhD thesis in International Law, titled “To Perceive or Misperceive Crises in International Law: The Role of Black Swans in International Legal Discourse”, on 27 March 2025. Adjunct Professor Maria Neus Torbisco Casals (right) presided over the committee, which included Professor Nico Krisch (second from the left), Thesis Co-Supervisor; Professor Alexis Keller (left), University of Geneva, Thesis Co-Supervisor; and Professor Conor Gearty, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

Citation of the PhD thesis: 
Marastoni, Marzia. “To Perceive or Misperceive Crises in International Law: The Role of Black Swans in International Legal Discourse.” PhD thesis, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, 2025.

Access:
Members of the Geneva Graduate Institute can access the thesis via this page of the repository. Others can contact Dr Marastoni.

Banner image by AtlasbyAtlas Studio/Shutterstock.
Interview by Nathalie Tanner, Research Office.