Events and Announcements: 4 October 2020 (Update)

Announcements

Announcing the new ANZSIL History and Theory of International Law Interest Group

We are thrilled to announce the establishment of the ANZSIL History and Theory of International Law (HTIL) Interest Group. The new HTIL Interest Group has been established in response to the sustained growth of diverse and vibrant scholarship in the history and theory of international law. Scholars inspired by the Third World Approaches to International Law movement have sought to historicise the discipline and uncover the continuing influence of imperialism on its doctrines; intellectual histories of international law have sought to better contextualise its development as a profession; and empirical studies have tried to verify and/or quantify the effectiveness of international legal instruments. The significance of international legal history and theory is even more pronounced in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, given the central role of international legal doctrines and techniques in legal and political battles surrounding settler colonialism and the ongoing negotiation of settler-Indigenous relations. Scholars based in both countries have been important contributors to these debates, and remain active in advancing academic and public conversations on related questions of decolonisation, economic relations and environmental justice. The HTIL Interest Group is open to all who research in the history and theory of international law, or are generally interested in the ways that history and theory might inform their work. 

The HTIL Interest Group is convened by Dr Ntina Tzouvala (Australian National University), Dr Guy Fiti Sinclair (Victoria University of Wellington)and Dr Cait Storr (University of Technology Sydney), with a view to rotating committee membership in future. The Interest Group can be contacted at htil.anzsil@gmail.com. If you wish to be added to the mailing list, please email with ‘Mailing List’ in the subject line.

Our event program will commence with a reading group and a series of book talks (full details below). In 2021, these will be joined by a series of seminars. All are welcome at HTIL Interest Group events, so please note the following four events for your diaries:

HTIL Book Talk Series 

To celebrate and disseminate the historically and theoretically orientated research of our members or of interest to those based in Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand, the HTIL Interest Group will host a series of book launches for recent publications. Suggestions for books to launch in the future are most welcome. 

Everyone is welcome to join us for the following events: 

-Book Talk – Humanitarian Disarmament: An Historical Enquiry by Dr Treasa Dunworth (University of Auckland), published in August 2020 by Cambridge University Press. Dr Dunworth will join us, and Dr Amanda Alexander (Australian Catholic University) has kindly agreed to act as a discussant.

Thursday 22 October 2020 at 12pm – 1.15pm AEDT (UTS +11) / 2pm – 3.15pm NZDT  

– Reading Group Session One: Tuesday 17 November 2020 at 1.00pm – 2.15pm AEDT (UTS +11) / 3.00pm – 4.15pm NZDT

• Jochen von Bernstorff and Philipp Dann, ‘The Battle for International Law: An Introduction’ in Jochen von Bernstorff and Philipp Dann (eds), The Battle for International Law: South-North Perspectives on the Decolonization Era (OUP, 2019), 1–31.

• Georges Abi-Saab, “The Newly Independent States and the Rules of International Law: An Outline” (1962) 8 Howard Law Journal, 95–121.

Contact details and mailing list

All inquiries regarding the Group, including suggestions for future book talks or readings, should be directed to our email address: htil[dot]anzsil[at]gmail[dot]com. If you wish to be added to the mailing list, please include ‘Mailing List’ in the subject line. If you want to register for the book talk or the reading group, please email the same address including ‘Event Restoration’ in the subject line. 

With our best wishes, 

Ntina, Cait and Guy

ANZSIL HTIL Interest Group Convenors

Events (Update)

Online Symposium: Civilian Casualties: The Law of Prevention and Response

Please join us for our second panel of the online symposium series, Civilian Casualties: The Law of Prevention and Response, on Wednesday, October 7, at 12:30 p.m. EDT. This event is co-sponsored by the American Society of International Law, the American Red Cross, ASIL’s Lieber Society, the Stockton Center for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Registration is free and available at the following link. Registrants will be emailed a Zoom link before the event.

This week’s topic is Civilian Casualty Prevention Measures in Next Generation Conflict: Applicability in Urban Warfare and Near Peer Conflict. It will feature the following speakers:

• Michael Pymble, Armed Forces Delegate, International Committee of the Red Cross, Washington, D.C. delegation (Moderator)
• Rob “Butch” Bracknell, Assistant Legal Advisor, NATO, Allied Command Transformation
• Professor Mitt Regan, Georgetown University Law Center
• Annie Shiel, Senior Advisor, U.S. Policy and Advocacy, Center for Civilians in Armed Conflict (CIVIC)

A short introductory video detailing what to expect from this exciting program in the following weeks is available here. We hope you can join us each week for these outstanding panels, but if not, do not despair, as the video will be available on the ASIL website for future use. 

John Hursh

Stockton Center for International Law, U.S. Naval War College

Call for Papers

The Department of Legal Studies and the PhD Programme in European Law of the University of Bologna is pleased to announce a call for papers for a doctoral workshop on the topic of ‘The Extraterritorial Application of EU Law: A Contribution to Its Global Reach’ in Bologna on 18-19 March 2021. The scope of application of EU law represents a major element of the legal discourse concerning the affirmation and strengthening of the European integration process. It firstly influences the way in which that law interacts with the municipal law of the Member States. More and more, however, the relevance of the scope of EU law goes beyond the interplay with Member States’ legal orders, contributing thus to the global reach of EU law. In this respect, a crucial role is played by the extraterritorial application of EU law. Thanks to the growing web of contractual relations put in place by the European Union with third countries and other international organisations, the widening of the Union’s competences – also in the light of the recent crises the EU and its Member States have faced – and the doctrines elaborated by the case law of the European Court of Justice (such as the ‘effects doctrine’ invoked with regard to EU competition law), the possibility to apply EU law outside the Union’s borders is a reality representing a pillar of the EU external dimension. The Workshop seeks to realize a general reflection on the extraterritorial application of EU law, by stressing its legal implications for the EU external action and the EU legal order as a whole. For the complete call for papers, go here.

The Working Group of Young Scholars in Public International Law (Arbeitskreis junger Völkerrechtswissenschaftler*innen – AjV) and the German Society of International Law (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht – DGIR) invite contributions to their joint conference titled ‘Jurisdiction – Who speaks international law?’, to be held on 3 to 4 September 2021 at the University of Bonn. The main purpose of the conference is to create an opportunity for PhD students and early career researchers to present their work. Established scholars will comment on the contributions. Anonymised abstracts in German or English (max. 500 words) must be submitted by 8 January 2021 only via the application form on the conference website. Selected candidates will be notified by 31 January 2021. Paper drafts (max. 7000 words, including footnotes) must be submitted by 1 June 2021.

UN Audiovisual Library

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added the following materials to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law website: a lecture by Professor Karine Bannelier-Christakis on “Enjeux du principe de due diligence dans la prévention et la reaction aux cyber-attaques” and a lecture by Judge Ivana Hrdličková on “Special Tribunal for Lebanon – A Tribunal of Many Firsts” in video and audio formats, accompanied by the related materials lists; as well as an introductory note by Professor Jean Allain on the Slavery Convention, 1926, and the Protocol amending the Slavery Convention, 1953, and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, 1956. 

The Audiovisual Library of International Law is also available as a podcast on SoundCloud and can also be accessed through the relevant preinstalled applications on Apple or Google devices, or through the podcast application of your preference by searching “Audiovisual Library of International Law”. 

If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact John Heieck at eventsandannouncements[at]gmail[dot]com with a one-paragraph description of your announcement along with hyperlinks to more information. Failure to provide said information may result in delayed posting of your announcement. Thank you!