Events and Announcements: 19 March 2023

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Calls for Papers

Fairness and Selectivity in International Criminal Justice: The European Society of International Law’s (ESIL) Interest Group on International Criminal Justice is organizing a Workshop on Fairness and Selectivity in International Criminal Justice. This hybrid workshop will take place online and in-person in Aix-en-Provence on Thursday, 31 August 2023, 9:30- 12:30, immediately prior to the ESIL 2023 Annual Meeting. The call for papers is here. The deadline for submissions is 11 April 2023.

Ukraine and the Post-Liberal International Order after the Zeitenwende: University of Zurich, 15-16 June 2023: This conference will examine how states, regional actors and non-state actors have used and abused international law in responding to the war in Ukraine, and what this tells us about the state of the global legal order. Moving beyond master narratives about the ‘West v. Rest’, ‘the rise of the Global South’, or ‘the revival of the Western alliance’, this conference aims to analyse how state, regional and non-state actors have responded to the war in different areas of international law, for instance in the jus ad bellum and international humanitarian law, sanctions, food and energy security, accountability for crimes and human rights violations, migration governance, nuclear proliferation, climate change and environmental protection. In addressing these questions, the conference is an opportunity to consider questions, such as: to what extent the war in Ukraine is a transformational moment for the legal order? Will post-2022 reforms help decentralize global governance in selected areas of international law or, conversely, resurrect multilateralism? What new and old cross-regional and intra-regional alliances are likely to form? The deadline for abstracts is 16 April 2023. For details, click here.

Events

Understanding State Organs’ Activities on Social Media Under International Law: In recent years, there has been a huge rise in ‘twiplomacy’, that is, the use of social media as a means of direct diplomatic communication by states. This panel debates whether and to what extent international law governs state organs’ statements on social media. In particular, the panel will discuss whether social media posts by states can contribute, directly and in themselves, to the creation or alteration of customary international law, and whether they can be seen as form of recognition. The discussion will focus on whether there is anything inherently unique about a post on social media that would mean it should be discounted, in principle, as being a potential ‘building block’ for customary international law formation or as a form of recognition. Several related questions will be addressed, such as whose social media interactions (and from which account(s)) may be relevant; authenticity and account hacking fears; and the ‘throwaway’ nature of social media interactions themselves. The event will take place on 4 April 2023 at 5:30pm GMT at the University of Westminster.

In Celebration of a New BBNJ Agreement: A Conversation with Ambassador Rena Lee and Ambassador Tommy Koh: Moderated by the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore Director Dr. Nilufer Oral, this webinar will bring together two leading international lawyers and diplomats from Singapore who led two sets of international treaty negotiations on law of the sea more than forty years apart. The webinar will take place on Wednesday 22 March at 5pm Singapore Time. To register, click here.

Queer Liberation Under International Law: No international treaty explicitly acknowledges the rights of LGBTQIA+ persons, nor affords protections from discrimination and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Criminalization and marginalization of queer people remain pervasive worldwide, just as queer liberation, rights, and justice movements abound. This symposium will equip attendees with the understanding of how global movements, including activists, lawyers, scholars, and organizations, navigate and employ international law in pursuit of queer liberation. From an intersectional feminist framework, discussion will be rooted in the understanding that structural drivers of violence target people according to overlapping social identities. As such, the symposium will explore how international law may subjugate or protect queer populations, how domestic campaigns interact with international organizing, and how international law must evolve for more exhaustive social justice. This symposium will foreground brainstorming and challenging discriminatory systems and applications of the law, in acknowledgment that critical questions may be more fruitful than centering any one solution. The symposium, hosted by the Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review, will take place on Tuesday 28 March at 9:30-5pm EST, both online and at Cardozo School of Law. To register, click here.

Human Rights Based Approaches to Protracted Conflicts: The Endless Conflicts team, in collaboration with the University of Glasgow’s ‘International Law Under Pressure’ research programme (PI Dr. Henry Lovat), is organising an event titled ‘Human Rights Based Approaches to Protracted Conflicts: An Empowerment, or a Slow Demise of Human Rights Law?’. Aiming to bring together scholars and practitioners working on human rights based approaches (HRBA) and human rights law to facilitate dialogue on the content and promise of HRBA in protracted conflicts, the event will be spread out over two sessions and a concluding roundtable. The full programme as well as the event blurb is available below.

The event will take place on March 27th, from 12.30 to 5pm GMT at the Advanced Research Centre (ARC) of the University of Glasgow. Participants can also attend online. Lunch and coffee will be provided at the venue. Anyone attending in person who wants to have their travel and/or accommodation covered by the project should contact Héloïse Guichardaz: heloise.guichardaz@glasgow.ac.uk. Register for the event following this link (this goes for in person and online attendees).