This lecture reflects on the enduring division between public and private international law within legal education and its broader implications for society's prosperity and well-being. It examines how this division, rooted in historical legacies of empire, shapes our understanding of the role of law in governing relationships between states, corporations, and individuals. By exploring the evolving concept of corporate mobility and its institutionalization in modern legal doctrine, the lecture raises questions about the adequacy of legal frameworks in addressing contemporary challenges posed by global corporate power. Taking inspiration from Lord MacDermott’s idea that the health of a society is closely tied to the quality and relevance of its legal concepts, the lecture invites a critical re-examination of how international law is taught and practiced. It suggests that rethinking these foundational divisions could better equip future jurists to meet the complex demands of a rapidly changing global landscape, ultimately fostering legal systems that serve the common good more effectively.

Sundhya Pahuja is the Director of the Australian Research Council Laureate Program in Global Corporations and International Law at the Melbourne Law School. Her work centres on the history and theory of international law, particularly as it relates to the relationship between states in the global North and South, and the question of global inequality. She is the prize-winning author of Decolonising International Law: Development Economic Growth and the Politics of Universality (Cambridge, 2011) as well as the author or co-editor of books on the Cold War and International Law, International Law and the Humanities, International Law and Development and International Law and legal theory. She is the winner of the Max-Planck-Cambridge Prize in International Law, and has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Harvard, Leverhulme Professor at Cambridge and convenor of the Public International Law Stream at the Hague Academy. She is Melbourne Laureate Professor, and ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellow.