Events and Announcements: October 12, 2014

Events

• The Minerva Center for Human Rights at Tel Aviv University is pleased to invite the public to the conference “Lessons for Transitional Justice in Israel-Palestine”, to be held on November 16-17, 2014 at Tel Aviv University. The conference builds on an academic collaboration between Israeli, Palestinian and South African students and researchers who participated last summer in an intensive two-week Transitional Justice Workshop at the University of Johannesburg. At the conference, international and local scholars will share perspectives on current theories and practices that can shed light on possible transitional justice processes for Israel/Palestine, and students will present papers based on their research during the workshop. The conference program available here. For further information please contact minerva@tauex.tau.ac.il.
• The Rethink Rebuild Society in Manchester will hold a conference on October 17: ‘Syrian Conflict in Regional Crises: Complications, Implications, and the Way Forward’. This conference represents a critical forum through which policy makers, NGOs, academics and activists can together identify and discuss the most appropriate British domestic and international policy towards Syria in light of current research and developments on the ground, specifically the emergence of IS (formerly ISIS) and the impact that this will have on British domestic and international policy, as well as action by the international community. Conference speakers include Dr. Christopher Phillips (Queen Mary, University of London), Dr. James Pattison (University of Manchester), Asim Qureshi (Research Director of CAGE Prisoners), Anas Al Abdah (Syrian National Coalition), and Raffaello Pantucci (Royal United Services Institute). The conference deliberations will focus on the following themes: The situation in Syria: misconceptions vs. realities; The emergence of IS (formerly ISIS): British jihadists, media coverage, and national policy; Where is Syria heading? Decoding the future of Syria and the region; Is British policy on the right track?; The role of the international community. Further conference information and registration can be found at conference website.

Calls for papers

• The Human Rights Essay Award Competition sponsored by the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law seeks to stimulate the production of scholarly work in international human rights law. Awardees receive a full scholarship to attend the 2015 Program of Advanced Studies in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Washington D.C. This year’s topic is “Transitional Justice, International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law” and the deadline to submit is February 1, 2015. Participants have the flexibility to choose any subject related to the assigned topic. The best articles may be published in the American University International Law Review. For detailed guidelines about the award please visit the website or e-mail the Academy.
• The Texas International Law Journal will be celebrating its 50th year in 2015. They are publishing a special 50th anniversary issue to commemorate the occasion. The Journal is seeking submissions from scholars in all areas of international law. These submissions can address any topic in international or comparative law, but should be focused on significant developments in international law over the last 50 years and their future implications. They invite you to submit an article or brief comment as detailed in the call for papers.

Announcements

• Professor S.I. Strong of the University of Missouri School of Law is conducting an anonymous electronic survey as part of a research project entitled “Perceptions and Use of International Commercial Mediation and Conciliation.”  International commercial mediation and conciliation has recently made the news as a result of a decision by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) to give further consideration to a proposal from the U.S. Department of State regarding an international convention on international commercial mediation and conciliation.  Those who wish to participate in this survey can do so by clicking on this link or pasting this e-address into their browser <https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JH6VHQT>.   The survey should take approximately ten minutes to complete and will remain open until 11:59 p.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) on October 31, 2014.  Those with questions about this project can contact Professor Strong at +1-573-882-2465 or strongsi@missouri.edu.  Questions about participants’ rights as a research subject can be directed to the University of Missouri Campus Institutional Review Board at +1-573-882-9585.
• The Goettingen Journal of International Law, which is Germany’s first open-access international law journal, has recently released the first issue of its sixth volume. Issue 6.1 contains, inter alia, two articles on the role of developing countries in WTO law and two on the forms of responsibilities of States in international law, whereof one is by Otto Spijkers and based on one of his blog posts on this blog. The article, as well as the whole issue can be accessed at the journal’s website.

Last week’s events and announcements can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us with a one-paragraph description of your announcement along with hyperlinks to more information.