The International Law Association returns to Vienna, seventy-eight years after its first Vienna Conference of 1948, for a week of Committee reports, Study Group findings and parallel panel sessions on the questions reshaping the international legal order.

About the conference

The 82nd Biennial International Law Conference of the International Law Association is organised by the ILA Austrian Branch, hosted by the Department of European, International and Comparative Law at the University of Vienna, and convened around the theme ‘Contours of International Law: Encounters and Evolutions’. The programme runs from 17 to 21 August 2026 and combines the Association’s flagship business – Reports and Resolutions from Committees and Study Groups – with a substantial series of parallel panel sessions on the questions reshaping the international legal order.

The organisers’ framing is direct. Challenges to international law have not receded. The international legal system, and more than eighty years of United Nations efforts to constrain the use of force, are being tested. Conflicts over territorial integrity and self-determination have re-emerged; multilateral institutions struggle to respond effectively; basic principles have become contested. Newer terrains – climate change, artificial intelligence, global health – demand closer cooperation and renewed collective commitment. The Vienna conference aims to hold the possibility of dialogue open and to help the international lawyer of today engage with the contours of a legal order that is neither fixed nor linear, but shaped by historical legacies, geopolitical shifts and evolving normative aspirations.

‘The contours of international law are neither fixed nor linear: they are shaped by historical legacies, geopolitical shifts and evolving normative aspirations.’ – Vienna 2026 Local Organising Committee

ILA GCC Branch delegation

The GCC Branch will be represented in Vienna by its President, Mr Ahmed E Al Sulaiti, and its Secretary General, Ms Elena I Athwal, together with delegates and members from across the region. The Branch will host a Members’ Reception during the conference for members of the ILA Management Committee and friends of the Gulf legal community; the date and venue will be circulated to registered attendees closer to the conference.

GCC Branch members intending to travel to Vienna are warmly invited to notify the Secretariat by email at info@ilagcc.org, so that the Branch may coordinate travel, panel attendance, and the reception invitation list.

Committee and Study Group reports

The programme includes the following Reports and Resolutions from ILA Committees and Study Groups, each of which will be discussed at Vienna. Full documents are available from the ILA Headquarters conference page.

Registration, travel and accommodation

Registration, travel and accommodation are handled by the Local Organising Committee at the University of Vienna. Full details, including early-bird and student rates, are available from the conference website, and questions about registration or hotel reservations may be directed to the Event Management office of the University of Vienna at congress@univie.ac.at or on +43 1 4277 176 77.

Questions about the academic programme should be addressed to the Local Organising Committee at the Department of European, International and Comparative Law, University of Vienna, at ilavienna2026@univie.ac.at.

Looking further ahead

Vienna marks the eighty-second Biennial of the Association. The Association will next convene for its eighty-third Biennial in 2028; hosting proposals for later biennials, including the 2032 Biennial, will be discussed by the Management Committee in Vienna. The ILA GCC Branch encourages members and supporters of the Gulf legal community to attend.