Events and Announcements: 17 January 2022

Call for Papers

Call for abstracts – International Law Association British Branch Spring Conference: On Friday, 29 April 2022, the University of Surrey will host the annual Spring Conference in hybrid mode on the theme of ‘International Law and Climate Change’. The Conference will feature a mixture of invited and selected speakers on the following panels: impact of rising sea levels on migration and Statehood; climate change and international trade and investment law; human rights and climate change; and litigating on climate change. The organising committee invite abstracts of no more than 300 words from academics and practitioners on any of these panels to be sent by 1 February 2022 to: ilaconference[at]conference[dot]surrey[dot]ac[dot]uk. Full details of the call and the conference, including the list of speakers by invitation and the modes of attendance, are provided on the conference website and in the flyer attached.

Announcements

NQHR Online Workshop for Early Career Researchers: How do peer reviewers assess academic articles? How can you increase the chances of an academic article that you submit to a journal? What do peer reviewers pay attention to? What are dos and don’ts in terms of how you shape your article? These issues will be addressed in a special online workshop entitled ‘How do peer reviewers assess academic articles?’ on 9 February 2022. 

As part of its 40th anniversary, the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights (NQHR), one of the world’s leading human rights journals, organises a public online workshop on peer reviewing, geared towards starting researchers (PhD candidates and others) from any country in the world. The event aims to bring the crucial and enormous experience of those academics who review articles to those who are embarking on their academic paths of writing articles. Several peer reviewers from the NQHR’s International Board will share with early-career researchers their methods of peer reviewing, the dos and don’ts when it comes to writing and submitting academic articles for publications, and all other important insights, so that the attendees learn what they should pay attention to in an article so as to increase their chances of publication. Questions such as ‘What do peer reviewers value in articles?’ and ‘What should be avoided?’ will be introduced by ways of short pitches of three of the NQHR’s International Board Members, after which there is time for the online audience to ask questions. The workshop will be chaired by professor Antoine Buyse, editor-in-chief of the NQHR. 

The following Board Members will share their experiences with assessing academic articles: 

Ian Seiderman has served with the International Commission of Jurists from 2000-2005 and from 2008 to present. He served as Senior Legal Adviser for Amnesty International from 2005-2008. He has advised both organisations on a broad range of legal and policy questions in the areas of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. From 1994-1997, he was a legal assistant to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Sir Nigel Rodley. He also served as a researcher for the Netherlands Institute of Human rights and as a staff attorney with the US-based Central American Refugee Center. 

Elina Pirjatanniemi works as a Professor of Constitutional and International Law as well as a Director of the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi. She has among others studied asylum and immigration law, human rights in the context of criminal law, human rights and societal change as well as the relation of national and international law. She has in-depth knowledge in issues relating to the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). 

Barbara Oomen holds a chair in the Sociology of Human Rights at Utrecht University. She works at University College Roosevelt, UU’s Liberal Arts and Sciences College in Middelburg, where she was the Dean from 2012-2016. Her research concerns the interplay between law and society, with a special emphasis on human rights and cultural diversity. She leads the NWO Vici project Cities of Refuge and is involved in the Horizon2020 ETHOS research. In Utrecht, she is one of the leaders of the focus area on Migration and Societal Change. 

The event takes place on 9 February at 15.00-16.00 (CET) on Microsoft Teams. Participation is free of charge, but we would kindly like to ask you to register using the link here. The Teams link to the event will be sent a couple of days prior to the workshop to everyone who has filled in the registration form. 

Volterra Fietta Seminar on Weapons in Space: Volterra Fietta is pleased to announce a webinar on “weapons in space” on Wednesday, 19 January 2022, at 14:00 GMT / 15:00 CET / 09:00 EDT. The distinguished panel of speakers will be: Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, distinguished fellow and head of the nuclear and space policy initiative at the Observer Research Foundation; Dmitry Stefanovich, research fellow with the Centre for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Fabio Tronchetti, co-director of the Institute of Space Law and Strategy and associate Professor of the Zhuoyue Program at Beihang University, in Beijing, China; and Gunjan Sharma, Counsel at Volterra Fietta. This event will be moderated by Florentine Vos, Associate at Volterra Fietta. Participants can register by emailing events[at]volterrafietta[dot]com by noon on 18 January 2022, with your name and affiliation. For more information see here.

Podcasts

New podcast dedicated to Antonio Cassese: Antonio Cassese: The Stubborn Sparrow is a podcast series dedicated to Antonio Cassese  a ‘giant’ of international law (as the former UN Secretary General called him), to mark the 10th anniversary of his passing. The podcast revisit some of Antonio Cassese’s major impact on the following selected issues: genocide and the Commission of Inquiry on Darfur; terrorism and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon; torture and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture; human rights in the European Union; and war crimes and the Tadić case. In each episode, two of the co-hosts  – Paola Gaeta, Salvatore Zappalà, Giulia Pinzauti and Antonio Coco – interview a person who has worked closely with Antonio Cassese through different experiences, also to illustrate his working methods. This podcast is available on Simplecast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music. It could be of inspiration ‘to all citizens of the world’, as Antonio Cassese would have liked.

UN Audiovisual Library

New additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law (AVL): The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added new materials to the Lecture Series of the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law: a lecture by Professor Paolo Galizzion “Air, Atmosphere and Climate Change” and a lecture by Professor Claudio Grossman on “Reparations to Individuals for Violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law”.

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. Thank you!