The Interim Report of the ILA Committee on Urbanisation and International Law Is Now Available

We are pleased to announce the publication of the Interim Report of the ILA Committee on Urbanisation and International Law – Potential & Pitfalls, which will be presented at the International Law Association's Biennial Conference in Vienna.

The Report marks the first major output of the Committee since its establishment in 2023 and offers a comprehensive assessment of one of the most significant developments in contemporary international law: the increasingly dynamic relationship between cities and the international legal order.

For much of the history of international law, cities have been viewed primarily as places where international norms are implemented. Today, however, urban authorities are playing a far more active role. Through transnational cooperation, engagement with international organisations, and innovative local policies, cities are increasingly contributing to global governance, while international law continues to shape urban decision-making, local autonomy, and everyday life.

Drawing on research across a range of fields—including climate change, migration, human rights, and investment law—the Interim Report identifies key legal and institutional developments that illustrate this evolving relationship. It argues that urbanisation is not simply changing the context in which international law operates; it is also influencing how international law is interpreted, implemented, and progressively developed.

A central feature of the Report is the Committee's City Report Series, which adopts a comparative, bottom-up methodology by treating individual cities as research laboratories. The newly completed reports on Amsterdam and Milan demonstrate how different urban contexts reveal both the opportunities and the challenges associated with the growing international role of cities.

Among the Report's principal findings are four broad conclusions:

• Cities are emerging as significant participants in addressing global challenges, particularly through the implementation of international commitments and engagement in transnational governance.

• International law can reinforce local autonomy, supporting municipal responses to issues such as climate change, migration, and the protection of human rights.

• The growing recognition of the "right to the city" is reshaping international legal thinking on urban space, housing, and collective rights.

• The relationship between international law and urbanisation is reciprocal: international law increasingly shapes cities, while cities themselves contribute to the interpretation, implementation, and progressive development of international legal norms.

As an interim product, the Report also identifies priorities for the Committee's future work. In particular, it calls for further research into how international law creates and regulates urban legal spaces, how different actors shape urban governance, and how cities can serve as laboratories for understanding emerging questions of international law in an increasingly urbanised world.

We hope that the Interim Report will contribute to ongoing scholarly and policy debates and encourage further comparative research on the role of cities in international law.

The Report is now available on our website. We warmly invite academics, practitioners, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of international law and urban governance to read it and join the conversation.