Professor Nehal Bhuta presents series of lectures at Peking University
Fri 18 September 2026
From 15-18 September, Professor Nehal Bhuta delivered a series of lecture at Peking University Law School focusing on the topics of artificial intelligence, international law and international order.
In discussion with Professor Dai Xin, Vice Dean of Peking University Law School and Professor Li Qiang, Director of the Institute of Military Law of China University of Political Science and Law, the first event, “The Global Governance of Military Artificial Intelligence” explored the challenges posed by the military adaptation of artificial intelligence. The lecture put forward the argument that international law and the concept of due diligence should have a shaping effect on the global governance of military artificial intelligence.
The second in the series, “Social Rights and the Modern State”, saw Professor Bhuta challenge the predominant notion that social rights were a conceptual by-product of the rise of the welfare state. Instead, he argued that in the 19th century, the concept of social rights emerged as "collective natural rights," used to articulate a concept of the state as a public power representing the interests of the whole of society. Bhuta argues this reinvigorated concept of social rights offers a potentially innovative lens for this transformative era of international order.
The series wrapped up with Professor Bhuta’s keynote speech, “Statecraft, Lawcraft and Soulcraft: International Law in the Interregnum” for the Conference on the State, State Theory and International Law.
Professor Bhuta holds the Chair of Public International Law at the University of Edinburgh and is the Co-Director of the Edinburgh Centre for International and Global Law. He works on a wide range of doctrinal, historical and theoretical issues in international law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and human rights law.
Find out more about Professor Bhuta’s work