Sponsored Announcement

• The Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law is pleased to share with you today the newly released brochure for the 2017 Program of Advanced Studies on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. The Program will take place from May 30 to June 16, 2017 and offers 20 courses in English and Spanish taught by more than 40 world-renowned scholars in the field of human rights and humanitarian law. Professors include Special Rapporteurs from the United Nations, Commissioners, Judges and other members of the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, Judges from International Tribunals like the ICC, ICJ and ICTY and professors from all over the world. The program provides a unique opportunity to interact directly with these high profile officials who are rarely available in such a personal setting. We also welcome over 150 participants from more than 25 countries around the world, all with varying levels and areas of professional experience in human rights, providing an excellent networking opportunity. The application can be found here: https://goo.gl/WcRh0J, and the deadline to apply is May 1. We would be happy to speak to anyone who may be interested in attending the Program at our new Tenley Campus by email at hracademy [at] wcl [dot] american [dot] edu or by phone at 202-274-4295.

Announcements

• Duke Law seeks to fill a Clinical Fellow/Supervising Attorney position in its International Human Rights Clinic beginning in the Summer of 2017. The Clinical Fellow/Supervising Attorney will work closely with the Director of the International Human Rights Clinic. She or he will primarily help supervise student fieldwork in Clinic projects and participate in the planning and teaching of the Clinic advocacy seminar. The Clinical Fellow/Supervising Attorney will also work closely with the Director and other faculty to expand Duke Law’s experiential learning opportunities in international law, including through student placements in competitive summer and semester fellowships and externships in human rights and related fields. The individual appointed to the position will receive mentorship in teaching, scholarship, and human rights lawyering and will have an opportunity to work with the faculty affiliated with the Center for International and Comparative Law. Applicants should have a minimum of two to five years of relevant experience. In addition to a record of, or demonstrated potential for, clinical teaching, advocacy, and intellectual engagement, the ideal candidate will have experience: as practicing lawyers or human rights advocates, developing practice- oriented courses, supervising students in fellowships or externships, working collaboratively with faculty, and other evidence of in-depth knowledge of and practical engagement in international human rights law and mechanisms. The initial term of the appointment is expected to be two years. Salary and benefits will be commensurate with experience and competitive with similar fellowship positions at other top U.S. law schools. Applicants should send a statement of interest and CV to Ali Prince at ali [dot] prince [at] law [dot] duke [dot] edu by April 16, 2017. For more information, see here.

Last March, the ICRC released an updated Commentary on the First Geneva Convention of 1949 (GCI), the first installment of six new Commentaries aimed at bringing the interpretation of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols of 1977 to the 21st century.

The updated Commentaries serve as an interpretive compass emerging from more than 60 years of application and interpretation of the Geneva Conventions. In order to bring to light the significance of the updated Commentary on the First Geneva Convention, several blogs are hosting a joint series focusing on particular GCI provisions. This blog series is co-hosted by Intercross, Humanitarian Law & Policy, and Opinio Juris.

The first episode was launched last summer and featured posts by Jean-Marie Henckaerts on Locating the Geneva Conventions Commentaries in the International Legal Landscape, Sean D. Murphy on The Role of the ICRC Commentaries in Understanding International Humanitarian Law and Kevin Jon Heller on First Thoughts from Academia on the Updated GCI Commentary. 

Recently, we launched the second episode, focusing on the arming of military medical personnel, units and transports. To what extent can military medical personnel, units and transports be armed? When permitted, can they be armed with weaponry heavier than the so-called “light” individual weapons? When would this constitute an “act harmful to the enemy”? Which implications does arming them have in terms of the entitlement to display the distinctive emblem of the Conventions?

To kick off the series, Heather Brandon, Advocacy Counsel of National Security for Human Rights First, posted first at Intercross discussing restricting medical personnel, units, and transports to ‘light individual weapons.’

Posts in this Series:

• Restricting medical personnel, units, and transports to ‘light individual weapons’ – Heather Brandon, Advocacy Counsel of National Security for Human Rights First, February 16, 2017.

This page will be regularly updated with past and upcoming posts. 

This week, we are hosting a symposium on The Death of Treaty Supremacy: An Invisible Constitutional Change the latest book from David Sloss, Professor of Law at Santa Clara University. The book was published last fall by Oxford University Press and the American Society of International Law recently selected the book to receive the 2017 Certificate of Merit for a Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship.

A short description:

This book provides the first detailed history of the Constitution’s treaty supremacy rule. It describes a process of invisible constitutional change. The treaty supremacy rule was a bedrock principle of constitutional law for more than 150 years. It provided that treaties are supreme over state law and that courts have a constitutional duty to apply treaties that conflict with state laws. The rule ensured that state governments did not violate U.S. treaty obligations without authorization from the federal political branches. In 1945, the United States ratified the UN Charter, which obligates nations to promote human rights for all without distinction as to race. In 1950, a California court applied the Charters human rights provisions along with the traditional supremacy rule to invalidate a state law that discriminated against Japanese nationals. The implications were shocking: the decision implied that the United States had abrogated Jim Crow laws throughout the South by ratifying the UN Charter. Conservatives reacted by lobbying for a constitutional amendment, known as the Bricker Amendment, to abolish the treaty supremacy rule. The amendment never passed, but Bricker’s supporters achieved their goals through de facto constitutional change. Before 1945, the treaty supremacy rule was a mandatory constitutional rule that applied to all treaties. The de facto Bricker Amendment converted the rule into an optional rule that applies only to self-executing treaties. Under the modern rule, state governments are allowed to violate national treaty obligations including international human rights obligations that are embodied in non-self-executing treaties.

In addition to Professor Sloss’ introductory and concluding remarks, there will be posts from Carmen Gonzalez, John Coyle, David Stewart, Tom Lee, John Parry, Peggy McGuinness and Paul Dubinsky. We look forward to the discussion from our contributors and the ensuing commentary from our readers.

Here’s an extra-long edition of our Events and Announcements for the holidays. Thanks to all our readership for following us on OJ!

Calls for Papers

• The blog IntLawGrrls: voices on international law, policy, practice, will celebrate its first decade with “IntLawGrrls! 10th Birthday Conference” on Friday, March 3, 2017. The daylong event will be held at the Dean Rusk International Law Center of the University of Georgia School of Law, which is hosting as part of its Georgia Women in Law Lead initiative. Organizers Diane Marie Amann, Beth Van Schaack, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, and Kathleen A. Doty welcome paper proposals from academics, students, policymakers, and advocates, in English, French, or Spanish, on all topics in international, comparative, foreign, and transnational law and policy. In addition to paper workshops, there will be at least one plenary panel, on “strategies to promote women’s participation in shaping international law and policy amid the global emergence of antiglobalism.” The deadline for submissions will be January 1, 2017, though papers will be accepted on a rolling basis. Thanks to the generosity of the Planethood Foundation, a fund will help defray travel expenses for a number of students or very-early-career persons whose papers are accepted. For more information, see the call for papers/conference webpage and organizers’ posts, or e-mail doty [at] uga [dot] edu.
• Young scholars and PhD candidates interested in empirical methods in international law are invited to submit expressions of interest for this workshop on the use of “authorities” in international dispute settlement. The workshop will not involve the publication of papers, although works-in-progress will be discussed by the participants. By bringing together young and established scholars using empirical methods, this workshop aspires to provide inspiration and practical guidance. The workshop, funded by the British Academy, is organised by Dr Michael Waibel and will take place on 20 March 2017, at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge. Expressions of interest shall be sent to Damien Charlotin (dc655 [at] cam [dot] ac [dot] uk) by 10 January 2017 with a description of your research interests and how they relate to the theme of the workshop, plus a CV with a list of publications. The organizer will let applicants know by 20 January 2017 about the outcome of their application.
• The Minerva Center for the Study of the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa (Faculty of Law and the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies), invites proposals for research activities, aimed at analyzing the various aspects of pre, during and post-emergency resilience. For more details, see the website here.
• The Board of Editors of Trade, Law and Development [TL&D] is pleased to invite original, unpublished manuscripts for publication in the Summer ‘17 Special Issue of the Journal on Recent Regionalism (Vol. 9, No. 1). The manuscripts may be in the form of Articles, Notes, Comments, and Book Reviews. TL&D aims to generate and sustain a democratic debate on emerging issues in international economic law, with a special focus on the developing world. Towards these ends, we have published works by noted scholars such as Prof. Petros Mavroidis, Prof. Mitsuo Matsuhita, Prof. Raj Bhala, Prof. Joel Trachtman, Gabrielle Marceau, Simon Lester, Prof. Bryan Mercurio, Prof. E.U. Petersmann and Prof. M. Sornarajah among others. TL&D also has the distinction of being ranked the best journal in India across all fields of law and the 10th best trade journal worldwide by Washington and Lee University, School of Law for five consecutive years (2011-15) [The Washington & Lee Rankings are considered to be the most comprehensive in this regard]. For more information, please go through the submission guidelines available here or write to us at editors@tradelawdevelopment.com.
• We invite submissions to a one-day conference on ‘Non-universal franchise? Eligibility and access to voting rights in transnational contexts’ to be held at the European University Institute (Florence) on 3rd April 2017. Convenors: Rainer Bauböck (EUI), Derek Hutcheson (University of Malmö) and Ruvi Ziegler (University of Reading). Papers should connect to the central topic of the conference, with a focus on eligibility to electoral rights, access to the ballot, or both. We invite comparative and theoretical papers from political science, normative political theory, and comparative legal perspectives. Deadline for submission of abstracts Tuesday, 31 January 2017 (by email to derek [dot] hutcheson [at] mah [dot] se). For further details, please see the call for papers.

• Senior and junior academics and practitioners (including PhD candidates and post-doctoral researchers) are invited to participate in the call for papers of the Colloquium on ‘International Investment Law & the Law of Armed Conflict’. Authors are invited to submit by March 15, 2017,an abstract (of an original paper) which is neither published nor accepted for publication when the Colloquium takes place. Papers will be selected on the basis of submitted abstracts, subject to double-blind peer review. Only one abstract per author will be considered. Abstracts must not exceed 800 words, must be anonymous and not identify the name or affiliation of the author(s) in the abstract, the title, or the name of the document, and must be submitted to the following email addresses: agourg [at] law [dot] uoa [dot] gr; cathy_titi [at] hotmail [dot] com; and katiafachgomez [at] gmail [dot] com. In addition to the abstract, each submission should contain, as a separate file, a short (one page) author’s CV, including the author’s name and affiliation and contact details and a list of relevant publications. Authors of selected abstracts for the Colloquium will be notified by April 15, 2017. Following this, they must submit a draft paper (6,000-8,000 words) by August 15, 2017. The draft papers will be distributed to the other participants in advance to facilitate an in-depth discussion during the Colloquium – a ‘no paper – no podium’ policy applies. After the Colloquium, submission of final papers by authors is due by November 30, 2017. Selected final papers will be published by Springer, subject to peer review, in the Special Issue of the European Yearbook of International Economic Law (EYIEL) on ‘International Investment Law & the Law of Armed Conflict’.

• The international criminal justice stream at the SLSA Annual Conference contains four panel sessions and invites submissions on all areas of substantive international criminal justice, whether on theory, policy or practice. Empirical work would be particularly welcomed and papers based on “works in progress” will be considered so long as the work is sufficiently developed. Both individual papers and panel submissions (of three related papers) can be submitted for consideration. Postgraduate students are also encouraged to submit abstracts. Selected papers from the conference will be published in a forthcoming edition of The Hague Justice Journal. For an informal discussion please email the convenor, Anna Marie Brennan at Anna [dot] Marie [dot] Brennan [at] liverpool [dot] ac [dot] uk. Abstracts must be no longer than 300 words and must include your title, name and institutional affiliation and your email address for correspondence.
• Polish Yearbook of International Law (PYIL) is currently seeking articles for its next volume (XXXVI), which will be published in June 2017. Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished papers in areas connected with public and private international law, including European law. Although it is not a formal condition for acceptance, we are specifically interested in articles that address issues in international and European law relating to Central and Eastern Europe. Authors from the region are also strongly encouraged to submit their works.Submissions should not exceed 12,000 words (including footnotes) but in exceptional cases we may also accept longer works. We assess manuscripts on a rolling basis and will consider requests for expedited review in case of a pending acceptance for publication from another journal. All details about submission procedure and required formatting are available at the PYIL’s webpage. Please send manuscripts to pyil(at)inp.pan.pl. The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2017.
• Transnational organized crime is a major threat to international security. This has been recognized by the United Nations Report of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. One country’s success in limiting illicit production and flows often results in the displacement of the problem to another state, thereby signalling the need for a coordinated response. The past few decades have seen a growing number of multilateral conventions addressing questions of transnational crime. In response, the emerging field of transnational criminal law is developing with the growing recognition of the need for further research and informed dialogue about important legal questions arising in this context. On May 4-5, 2017, the Transnational Law and Justice Network at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law, invites academics, policy makers, NGOs, and individuals working on the ground to participate in a multidisciplinary regional dialogue about the most pressing transnational criminal law issues facing the Americas today. Topics may include: the suppression treaty regime generally; legal responses to specific transnational crimes such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, money laundering, corruption, firearms trafficking, environmental crimes, and other transnational organized crime; institutions and accountability for transnational crime; and mutual legal assistance, cooperation and capacity building. More information can be found here.
• The 13th Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law will take place in Naples, Italy, on 7-9 September 2017. The conference will be hosted by the University of Naples Federico II, the oldest public university in the world. The theme of the conference is ”Global Public Goods, Global Commons and Fundamental Values: The Responses of International Law”. The Call for Papers is now open. Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 January 2017. Further information is available on ESIL website.

Announcements

• The Berlin Potsdam Research Group “The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?” invites applications for three fellowships. The call is here.
• New additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law: The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added new lectures to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law website, which provides high quality international law training and research materials to users around the world free of charge. The latest lectures were given by Professor Christian J. Tams on “The Development of International Law by the International Court of Justice” and “Obligations Erga Omnes in International Law”.
• The Goettingen Journal of International Law(GoJIL) has recently released the second issue of its seventh volume.The 7.2 edition is composed of six articles on a variety of topics of International Law: the protection of the atmosphere, health, fragmentation and the European Union (EU), arms control, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the law of the sea. The contributors are Peter H. Sand & Jonathan B. Wiener, Robert Frau, Avidan Kent, Sondre T. Helmersen,Tom Coppen and Valentin J. Schatz. The journal’s latest issue can be accessed at www.gojil.eu.

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.

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• Kenya has deported a South Sudanese rebel spokesman – a registered refugee – back to his war-torn country where he could face detention and abuse at the hands of the Juba government.
• Kenya has said it is withdrawing its troops from the United Nations mission in South Sudan, a day after Ban Ki-moon sacked the Kenyan commander of peacekeeping forces in the country for failing to protect civilians.
• South Africa’s justice minister presented a bill in parliament on Thursday to repeal the country’s membership of the International Criminal Court (ICC) — which the government has said clashes with diplomatic immunity laws.
• The recent decisions by South Africa, Burundi, and Gambia to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC) are generating wide attention and speculation about a mass exodus from the court by African countries.  But think it’s clear where Africa stands on the ICC? Think again. A growing number of African governments have spoken out over the past week against withdrawal. See a selection here.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Iraqi Kurdish fighters are exchanging heavy fire with ISIL fighters as they advance from two directions on a town held by the armed group just 13km east of the city of Mosul.
• Almost 2,200 refugees and migrants have been rescued off the Libyan coast while 10 bodies have also been recovered from a rubber dinghy, the Italian coastguard said.

Asia

• The United Nations said it was investigating an incident in which more than 30 civilians were killed in US air strikes called in support of a special forces raid on suspected Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said at least 32 people had been killed and 19 wounded in the strikes in the village of Buz Kandahari near Kunduz, the vast majority women and children. US forces in Afghanistan conceded on Saturday that their air strikes in the northern province of Kunduz had “very likely” resulted in civilian killings.
• China’s parliament passed a ruling on Monday that effectively bars two elected Hong Kong pro-independence politicians from taking office, Beijing’s most direct intervention in the territory’s legal and political system since the 1997 handover.

Europe

• German prosecutors are investigating Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives following a complaint alleging the company broke national laws against hate speech and sedition by failing to remove racist postings.
• The British government is preparing legislation to trigger the procedure to leave the EU, Sky News reported on Monday, despite Prime Minister Theresa May saying she is confident of overturning a court decision that may delay Brexit. Scotland’s devolved government is expected to join a legal challenge against the British government’s plans to trigger an exit from the European Union, the lead claimant in the court case said on Sunday.
• Luxembourg’s foreign minister said on Monday that the Turkish government’s handling of dismissed civil servants reminded him of methods used by the Nazis, and that, sooner or later, the EU would have to respond with sanctions.
• Almost 700 migrants arrived at the Italian port town of Augusta on Monday after being rescued from their perilous boat journey across the Mediterranean Sea.

Americas

• On Tuesday, November 8, Americans will decide whether Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton will be handed the keys to the White House; curious to know where they both stand on foreign policy? Check here. And if you’d like a sampling of what the rest of the world thinks, have a look here.
• With the US presidential election only days away, many in the US – particularly the Muslim-American community – are bracing for the worst over fears that a win, or a loss, by Republican candidate Donald Trump could bring violence.

Oceania

• Trade ministers from Australia and Indonesia continued negotiations on Sunday to seal a trade deal between the two neighbors, despite Indonesian President Joko Widodo postponing a trip to Australia to deal with local unrest.
• Australia’s bid to hold a national vote on whether to legalize same-sex marriage was defeated on Monday in the upper house of parliament, or Senate, potentially delaying legal unions for years.

UN/World

• Thousands of Yemenis protested against a new peace proposal to end the conflict submitted by the UN envoy to the war-torn country, saying the plan would legitimise the rebels’ power grab.
• The 22nd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) kicked off on Monday at Marrakech, Morocco. There is “no turning back” from a global accord to combat climate change, Morocco’s foreign minister said on the eve of U.N. talks in Marrakesh amid fears that Donald Trump will try to pull out if he wins the U.S. presidency. 

Calls for Papers

• To mark 15 years since the coming into force of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 1 July 2002, the Journal of International Criminal Justice is pleased to announce a forthcoming symposium on ‘The International Criminal Court’s Policies and Strategies’ to be published in July 2017. The Court and its various organs have continually issued a number of documents explaining the Court’s policies on numerous distinct issues as well as its strategies for the future. The Journal’s Editorial Committee believes that the time has come to take a closer and systematic look at these documents, looking at the choices made thus far, the level of transparency and consistency, as well as suggesting avenues to strengthen the overall effectiveness and credibility of ICC investigative and prosecutorial strategies. The Journal calls for submission of abstracts not exceeding 500 words on the questions described above, or related areas of interest, no later than 15 November 2016. After the abstracts are reviewed, in early December, the Editorial Committee will invite a number of contributors to submit full papers of no more than 8000 words (including an abstract and footnotes) by 28 February 2017. For more information about the call, please visit the website here or contact the Executive Editor at jicj [at] geneva-academy [dot] ch.
• The university of Michigan Law School will be hosting its Third Annual Young Scholars’ Conference on March 31 – April 1, 2017. This year, The Michigan Journal of International Law intends to publish selected papers from the conference. More information about the call for papers and the conference can be found here.

• In advance of the 6th Conference of the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of the Society of International Economic Law (PEPA/SIEL) 2017, taking place in Tilburg, the Netherlands, 20-21 April 2017, and with SIEL’s Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network (PEPA/SIEL) being, among other things, interested in fostering collaboration and mentoring opportunities for emerging academics and professionals in International Economic Law (IEL). PEPA/SIEL fulfils these goals through various activities such as organising conferences at which emerging IEL academics and professionals can present and discuss their research in a supportive and welcoming environment, have issued a call for papers. More information can be found here.

Events

• The Centre for Business and Commercial Laws of the National Law Institute University, Bhopal in collaboration with Trilegal, is organizing the second edition of NLIU-Trilegal Summit on Mergers and Acquisitions on 25^th & 26^th February, 2017. Participating authors are expected to submit either an article or an essay on Mergers and Acquisitions within the contours of the sub-themes. Authors are required to register themselves provisionally by sending an e-mail to trilegal [dot] nliusummit [at] gmail [dot] com outlining their intention of contributing to the summit. Provisional Registration is open up to 30 November, 2016. All papers, along with an abstract (not more than 300 words), must be submitted on or before 15 December, 2016 (11.59 pm). Further details can be found in the Brochure and Submission Guidelines. The brochure can be accessed here and submission guidelines can be accessed here.

Announcements

• Fietta associates Ashique Rahman and Laura Rees-Evans, along with other public international law practitioners from within private practice and government, have established the Young Public International Law Group (YPILG).  The YPILG aspires to connect PIL practitioners to one another to facilitate knowledge-sharing in the PIL field.  The group will promote the next generation of PIL professionals.  Fietta, Debevoise & Plimpton, Clifford Chance, Matrix Chambers, Essex Court Chambers and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office are the initial co-sponsors of the YPILG.  A drinks reception to launch the YPILG will take place on 29 November 2016 at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.  Professor Vaughan Lowe will be the keynote speaker. Further information about YPILG, including how to register for the launch event, can be found on the YPILG website 
• The WZB Berlin Social Science Center’s research area International Politics and Law, unit Global Governance (Director: Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn) is seeking to appoint two research fellows to be employed fulltime (39 hours/week) for up to five years, commencing on 16th January 2017 or as soon as possible thereafter. Main tasks involve the theory-based research of transnational and international institutions, their social and political prerequisites, and the repercussions on national processes. The successful candidates are to work within the framework of the research programme of the Global Governance unit. Please see the unit’s website for more information. Applications (motivation letter, CV, list of publications, references, if applicable) should be sent to the following e-mail address in the form of a single PDF file by 21.11.2016: Barçın Uluışık: barcin [dot] uluisik [at] wzb [dot] eu.
• The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) is looking to appoint a strong candidate to the Arthur Watts Senior Research Fellowship in Public International Law (.pdf) to build on BIICL’s pre-eminence in this area. Public international law helps to address fundamental challenges facing individuals, businesses and governments, including international trade, investment, business, peace and security, armed conflict, terrorism and counter-terrorism, human rights, taxation, communications and the environment. The Fellowship and its activities are funded through the Arthur Watts Appeal,in memory of the late Sir Arthur Watts QC, one of the leading international lawyers of his generation. The Fellowship’s purpose is to ensure that the practical application of public international law remains securely at the heart of BIICL’s work. The Appeal is an active fundraising campaign led by Sir Frank Berman, KCMG, QC and Chair of BIICL’s Board of Trustees. Further details on the Appeal are available 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.

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• At least 25 people have been killed, six of them police, in two days of violence around the town of Bambari in the troubled Central African Republic, the UN force MINUSCA has said.
• Twin suicide bombings by suspected Boko Haram fighters have killed at least nine people in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, officials and witnesses said. One of the attackers was reportedly a woman.
• South Africa and Burundi’s decision to quit the International Criminal Court (ICC) and an attack by Gambia against the court’s supposed “Caucasian” justice may embolden other African states to leave the world’s only permanent war crimes tribunal.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Iraqi troops including elite counter terrorism forces resumed an offensive on the eastern front of Mosul on Monday, a military statement said, targeting the eastern bank of the Tigris river which divides the northern Iraqi city.
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant appears to be using tens of thousands of people as “human shields” in and around Mosul, where Iraqi forces are waging an offensive aimed at retaking the country’s second biggest city.
• Saudi Arabia has arrested eight people suspected of planning separate attacks targeting security forces and a World Cup qualifying football match.
• Turkey has dismissed another 10,000 civil servants and closed 15 more media outlets over suspected links with “terrorist organisations” and US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for orchestrating a failed coup.
• At least 18 civilians were killed in Yemen’s southwestern province of Taiz on Saturday by air strikes that struck several homes, local officials and residents said.

Asia

• Indonesia will resume some shipments of coal to the Philippines, a government official said on Sunday, after a months-long halt due to concerns about piracy in seas between the two archipelagos.
• A US airstrike in Afghanistan on Friday hit the home of a Taliban commander in the eastern province of Nangarhar and caused several civilian casualties, government and insurgent spokesmen said.

Europe

• The number of migrants sleeping rough on the streets of Paris has risen by at least one-third since the start of the week when the “Jungle” shanty town in Calais was evacuated.
• Germany is looking into a claim by Islamic State that one of its followers was responsible for a fatal stabbing in the German city of Hamburg two weeks ago in which a young couple were attacked.

Americas

• The European Union and Canada signed a historic free trade agreement on Sunday that is promised to generate jobs and economic growth on both sides of the Atlantic.

Oceania

• Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull defended on Monday a proposal to ban asylum seekers who arrive illegally by boat from ever entering Australia again, rejecting criticism from rights lawyers who say it would breach the U.N. Refugee Convention.

UN/World

• United Nations member states have voted overwhelmingly to start negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, despite strong opposition from nuclear-armed nations and their allies.
• The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has said that he is “appalled and shocked” by the high number of rockets indiscriminately launched by armed opposition groups on civilian suburbs of Syria’s western Aleppo in the past 48 hours.

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• South Africa is pulling out of the International Criminal Court (ICC)because its obligations are inconsistent with laws giving sitting leaders diplomatic immunity, according to government officials
• Sudan urged African members of the International Criminal Court on Friday to follow South Africain withdrawing from the ICC, insisting it was a “new colonial tool” targeting only African leaders
• Fighters from al-Shabab have seized control of yet another town in central Somalia after it was abandoned by African Union peacekeepers, according to a spokesman for the group and a local official.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• The siege and bombing of eastern Aleppo in Syria constitute “crimes of historic proportions” that have caused heavy civilian casualties amounting to “war crimes”, according to the top United Nations human rights official.

Asia

• A U.S. navy destroyer sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Friday, drawing a warning from Chinese warships to leave the area.
• Shelling across the border between India and Pakistan killed two Pakistani civilians and an Indian soldier, military officials from the two sides said on Monday, as tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors simmers.
• The Afghan Taliban has uploaded a drone footage showing a suicide bomber driving into a police base and blowing it up in the southern Helmand province.
• United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday he will return to South Korea in January after heading the world body for a decade to consider what role he can play in the future of his country amid a push for him to run for president.
• NATO forces have begun a new program to train Afghan soldiers to pinpoint ground targets for aircraft flying overhead, hoping that it will help stem militant advances in recent months and reverse a sharp rise in civilian casualties.

Europe

• Syrian refugee children have been working in factories in Turkey making clothes for British high street retailer Marks & Spencer and online store ASOS, an investigation by BBC Panorama found.
• More than 1,200 police and officials in France havebegun an operation to clear the “Jungle” migrant camp in Calais; the camp has been housing at least 7,000 people in squalid conditions.
• The leaders of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales met British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday to discuss what part the three nations will play in the Brexit process, a thorny issue that risks triggering a constitutional crisis.

Americas

• President Rodrigo Duterte has declared the Philippines’ “separation” from long-standing ally the United States during a visit in Beijing as he rebalances his country’s diplomacy towards China.
• The U.S. partnership with Turkey in countering Islamic State is “very strong,” U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at a news conference on Thursday.

Oceania

• New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Bill English canceled a meeting with two senior Hong Kong democracy supporters this week on advice from his foreign office, he said on Friday, underscoring a delicate relationship with Communist Party-ruled China.
• The Australian government has quietly lifted the threat of jailing doctors who speak out against child abuse and neglect of asylum seekers in detention, doctors’ lawyers revealed on Thursday.

UN/World

• The United States is campaigning hard against proposed U.N. General Assembly resolution banning nuclear weapons, pressuring treaty allies like South Korea, Japan and NATO members to vote against the resolution, a new report said.; the resolution, led by Austria, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, calls for the formal launch of negotiations on a nuclear ban in 2017 and the U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote on the resolution as early as next week and proponents expect it to pass easily, according to the Foreign Policy magazine.
• More than 600 United Nations staff members have signed an online petition calling on Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a professed feminist, to reconsider the appointment of the fictitious superhero as its ambassador for women’s empowerment.

Calls for Papers

• The Cambridge International Law Journal in conjunction with Monckton Chambers will be hosting the Cambridge International and European Law Conference in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge on 23 and 24 of March 2017. More information can be found on the Facebook page here. 
• Call for Papers: 2017 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum, Taipei, Taiwan. The Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law will hold the ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum on May 19-20, 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. The theme of the Research Forum is “The Geopolitics of International Law: Contemporary Challenges for the Asia-Pacific.” Paper proposals should be submitted by January 10, 2017 to ila [at] nccu [dot] edu [dot] tw. The call for papers is available here.
• Volume XXVI (2016) of the Italian Yearbook of International Law (IYIL) will include a Focus on “International Law in Regional and Domestic Legal Systems”, which will be edited in cooperation with the Interest Group on “International Law in Domestic Legal Orders” of the Italian Society of International Law. More information about the call for papers can be found here (.pdf).
  .

Events

• The Cambridge International Law Journal in conjunction with Monckton Chambers will be hosting the Cambridge International and European Law Conference in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge on 23 and 24 of March 2017.
   
  Please find attached the Call for Papers in respect of this conference. We would be very grateful if you could circulate this information on your blog.
• The New York City Bar Association presents: “International Criminal Justice and Transitional Justice: Tensions and Synergies?” on Thursday, October 27, from 3:30-5:30 pm at the New York City Bar Association (42 W 44th St, New York, NY 10036). After 20 years of international criminal trials, it is time to reassess the relationship between such trials and transitional justice. Do such trials promote the aims of transitional justice or thwart them? Are there synergies between rule of law initiatives and accountability measures or are they operating at cross-purposes? Our speakers will address these fundamental questions in the context of the latest developments in the field, such as the trial of Hissene Habré. More information can be found here.

Announcements

• iCourts – Centre of Excellence for International Courts, University of Copenhagen, is currently looking for a new professor or associate professor of international law. The Associate Professor’s or Professor’s primary duties include research and teaching, supervision of graduate – and PhD students, participation in examinations, and administrative tasks in relation to bachelor -, graduate – and PhD studies. The Associate Professor or Professor is expected to publish results of their in/with internationally highly recognised journals/publishers, exchange knowledge with relevant parts of the surrounding society, and contribute to the academic development of the research area and related study programmes for the benefit of society and the legal profession. iCourts, the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence for International Courts, is a research centre dedicated to the study of international courts, their role in a globalising legal order and their impact on politics and society. If you are interested in the position, please feel free to read more and apply via the link here.
• The University of Richmond School of law is looking for a Director of International Programs. The Director is responsible for leading Richmond Law’s international initiatives, including: the build-out of the LL.M., LL.M./M.B.A., and J.D. programs; the creation and implementation of a comprehensive strategy for increasing our international visibility, reputation, and attractiveness to international students; the initiation of co-curricular programming for international students within the law school; the development of academic and other support for international students, so as to maximize the quality of their experience at Richmond Law; and the oversight of other international opportunities within the law school for both students and faculty. The Director will be expected to travel as appropriate to meet personally with both prospective applicants and representatives from law firms, companies, and foreign universities, and will be a key partner with the Dean, the faculty, and senior leadership in identifying, assessing, and taking advantage of new international opportunities. Please apply online 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.

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• The purported leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau appeared in a video posted on social media on Sunday in which he rejected statements by the country’s military that he had been seriously wounded.
• The United Nations, the African Union and the European Union pressed Democratic Republic of Congo leaders on Saturday to urge their supporters to refrain from violence as the International Criminal Court prosecutor warned she was watching the situation.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• The United States called Russia’s action in Syria “barbarism”, while Moscow’s UN envoy said ending the war was “almost an impossible task”, as government forces relentlessly bombed the besieged city of Aleppo.
• Yemen plans to complain to the U.N. Security Council over what it says are Iran’s weapon transfers to Houthi allies fighting the internationally recognized Yemeni government, the foreign minister said on Saturday.
• Four alleged members of al Qaeda’s Yemen branch, including a local commander, were killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike on a vehicle traveling east of the capital Sanaa, two local officials said on Saturday.

Asia

• India, the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, will formally join the Paris agreement on climate change on October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.
• China’s air force says it flew more than 40 bombers and other fighter planes through a strait between Japanese islands on their way to military drills in the western Pacific.
• The planned U.S. deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea is not negotiable as part of efforts to agree new U.N. sanctions on North Korea after its fifth nuclear test, but Washington is confident tougher steps will be agreed before long, the senior U.S. diplomat for Asia said on Friday.

Europe

• French President Francois Hollande has confirmed plans to close the Calais refugee camp in northern France, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for Europe to secure deals with third countries to assist in the return of migrants.
• More than 15,000 people gathered in Helsinki on Saturday to protest against racism and violence, after the death of a man assaulted during a neo-Nazi rally in the city earlier this month.
• A group opposed to Britain’s exit from the European Union has accused the government of refusing to allow it to make public the official justification for triggering Article 50 to start the Brexit process without a parliamentary vote.
• German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said she does not expect Britain to block a Franco-German initiative to deepen military cooperation among the 27 remaining European Union members after Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.

Americas

• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist rebel leader Timochenko will sign a deal on Monday ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people, stymied the economy and made Colombia a byword for violence.
• More than 100 illegal immigrants are entering the small Central American country of Costa Rica every day, looking for “coyotes” to take them across the Nicaraguan border and on toward the United States, President Luis Solis said on Friday.
• US President Barack Obama has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the families of the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

Oceania

• The United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants will visit Australia in November, more than one year after he cancelled his visit due to concerns over immigration legislation.
• Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has criticised what he calls New Zealand and Australia’s “stark double standards” on human rights.

UN/World

• The United Nations Security Council urged China, the United States, North Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel and Pakistan to ratify a treaty (CTBT) banning nuclear explosions, which would allow the deal negotiated 20 years ago to come into force.
• The United States, Britain and France have called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the escalating violence in Syria’s second city of Aleppo following a rising civilian death toll and impending humanitarian crisis.
• A political battle should be waged to bring tax havens into the light and allow governments to receive revenue currently lost in offshore accounts, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Guillaume Long told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.

This week, we are hosting a symposium on the Protection of Civilians, a volume recently published by Oxford University Press, edited by Haidi Willmot, United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations; Ralph Mamiya, team leader, Protections of Civilians at the United Nations’ Department of Peacekeeping Operations; Scott Sheeran, Senior Lecturer, Director of the LLMs and MAs in International Human Rights, School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex; and Marc Weller, Professor of International Law and International Constitutional Studies, at the University of Cambridge, and the Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law.

The volume’s description:

The protection of civilians is a highly topical issue at the forefront of international discourse, and has taken a prominent role in many international deployments. It has been at the centre of debates on the NATO intervention in Libya, UN deployments in Darfur, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and on the failures of the international community in Sri Lanka and Syria. Variously described as a moral responsibility, a legal obligation, a mandated peacekeeping task, and the culmination of humanitarian activity, it has become a high-profile concern of governments, international organisations, and civil society, and a central issue in international peace and security.

This book offers a multidisciplinary treatment of this important topic, harnessing perspectives from international law and international relations, traversing academia and practice. Moving from the historical and philosophical development of the civilian protection concept, through relevant bodies of international law and normative underpinnings, and on to politics and practice, the volume presents coherent cross-cutting analysis of the realities of conflict and diplomacy. In doing so, it engages a series of current debates, including on the role of politics in what has often been characterized as a humanitarian endeavour, and the challenges and impacts of the use of force.

The work brings together a wide array of eminent academics and respected practitioners, incorporating contributions from legal scholars and ethicists, political commentators, diplomats, UN officials, military commanders, development experts and humanitarian aid workers. As the most comprehensive publication on the subject, this will be a first port of call for anyone studying or working towards a better protection of civilians in conflict.

In addition to Ralph Mamiya’s introductory and concluding remarks, there will be posts from Siobhan Wills, Mona Ali Khalil, Ray Murphy, Marten Zwanenburg and Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen. We look forward to the discussion from our contributors and the ensuing commentary from our readers.

The summer is coming to a close and so is our fourth annual Emerging Voices Symposium. We have featured fantastic posts from emerging scholars, practitioners and students over the course of the summer and a roundup follows of what it is that they have covered.

Alexandra Hofer started our 2016 edition off with her post on assessing the role of the European Union as an enforcer of international law in the Ukranian crisis, concluding that both the EU and Russia ought to change their practices in order to escape the stalemate in which they currently find themselves. Wolfgang Alschner weighed in on a novel approach to dealing with the complexities of international law in his post on computational analysis of international law, specifically focusing on text-as-data tools for investigating international investment agreements.

Our next post featured an analysis by Andrea Bowdren of the trial of Ahmed Al Faqi Al Mahdi before the International Criminal Court, which represented a series of firsts for international law and justice. as Al Mahdi is the first individual from Mali brought before the ICC, the first Islamic extremist to face charges at the ICC, the first individual to be prosecuted solely for cultural destruction as a war crime, and the first individual who indicated an intention to plead guilty to an ICC charge (which he subsequently did). John Coyle asked whether foreign investors can enforce international investment law in U.S. courts, and after a careful analysis concluded that the government should at least consider the possibility that an FCN treaty might impose legally enforceable limitations on its freedom of action.

The Symposium continued with Jenny Poon’s insightful contribution discussing whether the margin of appreciation accorded to European Union Member States is too wide, which may lead to violations of international law and used the topic of asylum as a lens in which to analyze this question, ultimately calling for more clarification on the margin of appreciation in order to protect the rights of the vulnerable. Myriam Feinberg weighed in with a thoughtful analysis of the role of international organizations in the context of sovereignty in the age of global terrorism, contending that this can be examined in the wider context of state sovereignty, even though a number of international law analyses consider the concept of State sovereignty obsolete or in need of reform.

Amina Adanan discussed the role of national prosecutors in the context of domestic regulation of universal jurisdiction, concluding, in particular, a balance must be struck between prosecutorial discretion and the need to prevent impunity for the worst atrocities, after a thorough analysis. Finally, Grazyna Baranowska analyzed the European Court of Human Rights and women affected by the disapperance of their relatives, positing several alternatives for action and concluding that actions that countries should take in order to address specific needs of female relatives of disappeared persons face could be included in ECtHR judgments.

Thank you again to all of our participants. We hope you have all enjoyed reading and interacting with the contributions in our fourth annual Emerging Voices Symposium.