On 1 October 2025, the FGV Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme, in partnership with the FGV Centre for Global Law, was honored to welcome Prof. Frédéric Mégret, Professor of Law at McGill University. The class was part of the third edition of the Rio School on Global Governance, Democracy and Human Rights.

Prof. Mégret highlighted the issue of interference in sovereign affairs: while there has been a lot of focus in international legal scholarship on intervention, usually related to the use of armed force, interference is potentially just as problematic, even if more diffuse. Many of its current manifestations, such as election interference, are a consequence of the inter-dependence of societies. There is no longer a very clear distinction between domestic affairs, international affairs and other states’ affairs, especially with the use of social media, which malevolent actors can easily manipulate.

A big problem when dealing with interference is that it is not always clear if an act is unfriendly but legal or illegal. While a lot of the concerns are legitimate, it is not always clear why. Hence, while interference is a real problem, its scope is at times ill-defined, which can lead to panic and over-reaction that may be self-destructive – for instance, jeopardizing academic freedom. The risk is that, in the process of resisting the threat, states end up empowering it. Prof. Mégret concluded that non-interference measures should not be worse than the ill they seek to address.

We sincerely thank Prof. Frédéric Mégret for sharing his expertise and insights on this timely topic.