On September 23, 2026, an academic lecture hosted by the Renmin University of China Law School, the School of Foreign‑Related Rule of Law, and the Renmin Law and Technology Institute, Renmin University of China was successfully held in Room 602 of the Mingde Law Building. This lecture featured Professor Jens Ohlin, Dean of Cornell Law School, as the keynote speaker, who delivered a report themed Two Social Contracts: The Sovereign Other. Professor Ding Xiaodong, Vice‑Dean of Renmin University of China Law School, presided over the lecture. Professor Yang Dong, Dean of Renmin University of China Law School and Dean of the School of Foreign‑Related Rule of Law, delivered opening remarks. Associate Professor Peng Yali, Assistant Professors Liu Yang, Bao Dingyurui and Lin Zhaoran from Renmin University of China Law School served as commentators.

Professor Jens Ohlin, Dean of Cornell Law School

Professor Yang Dong, Dean of Renmin University of China Law School and Dean of the School of Foreign‑Related Rule of Law

      At the outset of the lecture, Professor Yang Dong, Dean of Renmin University of China Law School and Dean of the School of Foreign‑Related Rule of Law, delivered a welcome address. He extended a warm welcome to Dean Jens Ohlin and his entourage for their visit to Renmin University of China Law School. Cornell Law School and Renmin University of China Law School have already engaged in substantial exchanges and cooperation in academic dialogue and talent cultivation. He expressed the hope that the two law schools would further strengthen their collaboration in student exchange programmes, degree initiatives, academic forums and other fields in the future.

Professor Ding Xiaodong, Vice‑Dean of Renmin University of China Law School

      Professor Ding Xiaodong, Vice‑Dean of Renmin University of China Law School, introduced the academic background of the keynote speaker, Professor Jens Ohlin. Currently serving as Dean of Cornell Law School, Professor Ohlin is a prolific scholar whose research spans four interrelated fields: criminal law, criminal procedure, public international law, and the law of war. Dean Ohlin is presently writing The Sovereign Other, a work of political and legal philosophy that explores the relationship between domestic and international social contracts.

I. Keynote Address

Professor Jens Ohlin, Dean of Cornell Law School

      Dean Ohlin’s presentation revolved around an unexamined premise: why social‑contract theorists consistently adopt the “domestic‑first, international‑second” approach. He proposed the thought‑experiment of the “international analogy”: instead of departing from the domestic social contract, one should start with the international social contract. It first clarifies the anarchic condition among states and the stable global order that may emerge therefrom, and then proceeds by downward analogy to develop theories of the domestic social contract and domestic politics. He put forward the conceptual turn of “the sovereign other”. Under the domestic‑analogy framework, the sovereign other is primarily the individual. By contrast, he argued for the primacy of sovereignty at the group level: states mutually recognise one another’s sovereignty before constructing their internal governance structures. Statehood constitutes the first‑order sovereign other rather than a product of domestic ordering. In response to the most formidable counter‑argument that “states must pre‑exist the international system”, Dean Ohlin drew on Aristotle’s argument that “the whole is prior to its parts”. A severed hand is no longer a hand in the true sense; a hand realises its essence only when it performs its function as part of the larger whole of the human body.

II. Discussants’ Comments

Associate Professor Peng Yali, Renmin University of China Law School

Assistant Professor Liu Yang, Renmin University of China Law School

Assistant Professor Bao Dingyurui, Renmin University of China Law School

Assistant Professor Lin Zhaoran，Renmin University of China Law School

III. Q&A Session: Questions, Comments and Responses

     During the open‑floor Q&A segment, four audience members spoke in succession. Dean Ohlin remarked that the comments raised by the discussants and audience were incisive and insightful, and he responded to them in reverse chronological order. Regarding the positioning of his research, he emphasised that what he offered was a structure and framework for developing legal and political theories, leaving concrete conclusions for follow‑up research or scholarship by other academics. He acknowledged one concrete attitudinal shift: adopting this reversed theoretical sequence would prompt greater respect for the value of the international system, though he conceded that entrenched conventional views would be hard to overcome. He closed by stating that the feedback he had received would inform revisions to his manuscript as well as the writing of his subsequent papers.

IV. Closing Remarks and Acknowledgements

      In his concluding remarks, Professor Ding Xiaodong thanked Dean Ohlin for his presentation and described the lecture as “merely the commencement of a grand scholarly project”. 

      On behalf of Renmin University of China Law School and the School of Foreign‑Related Rule of Law, Professor Yang Dong presented a commemorative gift to Dean Ohlin, who reciprocated with a gift of his own. The two deans posed for photographs, wishing enduring academic friendship between the two law schools.

      The lecture concluded with a group photograph of all participating faculty and students.