On May 2025, the FGV Centre for Global Law (CPDG) and the FGV Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on EU–South America Global Governance, co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Programme, in partnership with the FGV Rio Law Graduate Programme, held an In-house Research Seminar on sociological approaches to international law.

The seminar featured presentations by CPDG researchers Lucas Vollers and Vitor Furtado De Melo and was moderated by Professor Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida, Coordinator of the CPDG and CEJM.

Lucas Vollers opened the session with an analysis of Oscar Schachter’s concept of the Invisible College of International Lawyers, examining the dual role of international lawyers as both scholars and practitioners within formal legal and institutional settings. His presentation discussed Schachter’s view of international law as a unified discipline and the “quasi-legislative” function of international legal actors. He further developed the discussion through sociological perspectives, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of ethos, habitus, and capital, as well as the “practical turn” in International Relations scholarship.

Vitor Furtado De Melo responded by engaging with Santiago Villalpando’s critique of Schachter’s framework in The “Invisible College of International Lawyers” Forty Years Later, focusing on the increasing fragmentation of international law, the proliferation of international courts and tribunals, and the growing importance of soft law instruments. He then discussed Akbar Rasulov’s The Discipline as a Field of Struggle, highlighting its analysis of international law as a site of ideological contestation and knowledge production shaped by structural power relations and academic labour.

The seminar concluded with an exchange of ideas on the sociological and political dimensions of international legal scholarship, fostering reflection on the production of knowledge within the discipline.

The Centre for Global Law and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence sincerely thank the speakers and participants for their valuable contributions to this interdisciplinary discussion.