« The Fullerton Roundtable »

Idea and Politics of Global Justice

Interdisciplinary debate on the predicament of justice under 21^st-century realpolitik

 

Singapore, 11 September 2026
RE/30721c-is

At a roundtable consultation convened by the International Progress Organization (I.P.O.) at the Fullerton Hotel in the City of Singapore, an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners from Australia, Austria, Germany, Iceland, India, Israel, Singapore, Türkiye, United Kingdom, and the United States of America discussed the challenges to global justice in the emerging multipolar world. Perspectives provided by scholars from China, Denmark and Kazakhstan were also taken into account. The meeting addressed, inter alia, philosophical notions of justice and law, problems of normative universalism in the context of power politics, the pragmatic idea of global justice, North-South asymmetry in international criminal justice, the role of the UN Security Council, the lessons from hybrid justice in the case of the Cambodia trials, “pre-trial justice” at the International Criminal Court, and the weaponization of accountability.

In his opening statement, the President of the International Progress Organization, Dr. Hans Köchler, highlighted the role of Singapore as global knowledge hub, recalling the organization’s cooperation with institutions in Singapore since 1974. Evoking the Singapore War Crimes Trials after the Second World War and referring to the post-Cold War projects of international accountability, often plagued by double standards, Professor Köchler summarized the main challenge, stating that “the global community has not yet found the magic formula for firmly establishing international criminal law in a world of sovereign states – so that it could be more than just a few ad hoc steps taken here and there whenever national interests permit.”

Upon conclusion of the roundtable, the President of the International Progress Organization hosted a gala dinner at the East India Room of the Raffles Hotel. The guest of honour, H.E. Professor Walter Woon, former Attorney-General of Singapore, delivered the keynote address on “Remembrance and Reconciliation: The Danger of Historical Amnesia.” Distinguished guests at the dinner included Mr. Jason Subler, Global General Manager at Reuters, the world’s largest multimedia news provider, and Mr. Jonathan Boonzaier, Asia Bureau Chief of TradeWinds, the leading international shipping and maritime news service.

The meeting in Singapore was the fourth in a five-year series of roundtable consultations initiated by the I.P.O. on the occasion of its 50^th founding anniversary: Vienna 2023 (“Responsibility in International Relations”); Istanbul 2024 (“Sovereignty and Coercion”); Malta 2025 (“Maritime Order in the Global Era”). The International Progress Organization will publish the papers presented at the roundtable consultation as Volume 42 in its series "Studies in International Relations."

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* Introductory Remarks by the President of the International Progress Organization   

* Exposé

* Documentation

* Participants   

* IPO anniversary roundtables

* Hans Köchler, Global Justice or Global Revenge? (2003) 

* IPO Observer Missio9n at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands (2000-2002) 

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