LCIL International Law Centre Podcast

Lecture summary: How does international law change? Must international law await change by external political intervention from outside the legal system? Or does international law provide reasons for its own development to those empowered to develop it? To address these questions, we should draw on an unlikely source. Joseph Raz was one of the greatest legal philosophers of all time. But he wrote relatively little about international law until the last decade of his life. Nevertheless, we should draw on Raz’s ideas to illuminate three pathways of international legal change: in the law of treaties, in customary international law, and in international adjudication. Adil Ahmad Haque is a Professor of Law and Judge Jon O Newman Scholar at Rutgers Law School. Professor Haque writes on the law and ethics of armed conflict, and the philosophy of international law. His first book, Law and Morality at War, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. Chair: Dr Federica Paddeu

Lecture summary: What explains the persistence of the idea of international law’s systematicity in view of its decentralised nature, constantly dependent upon the shifting consent of states and the vagaries of political will? To what extent can its systemic character endure and adapt as the tectonic plates of geo-politics shift? In this lecture, Campbell McLachlan critically re-examines the evidence for the impulse to integrate the disparate elements of international law into a coherent system: the impulse that underpins the principle of systemic integration. He does so in light of the practice of states and international tribunals, which has deepened over the last fifteen years since his research on the principle for the ILC Fragmentation Study Group in 2005. He tests the fruits of this internal analytical perspective against both an increasing scholarly critique and the external disintegrative pressures that the system currently faces––pressures that appear to challenge the very value of global cooperation under law that underpins the idea of systematicity. Campbell McLachlan KC is Professor of Law at Victoria University of Wellington and 2022–23 Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science in the University of Cambridge. He is author of Foreign Relations Law (CUP 2014) and International Investment Arbitration: Substantive Principles (2nd edn, OUP 2017). His book The Principle of Systemic Integration in International Law will be published by OUP in 2023. Elected to the Institut de Droit International in 2015, he served as Rapporteur of its 18th Commission on ‘The equality of the parties before international investment tribunals’, whose resolution was adopted in 2019. He has been invited to give the General Course at The Hague Academy of International Law in 2024. He is an associate member of Essex Court Chambers and Bankside Chambers and currently serves as president of a number of international arbitral tribunals.

The Eli Lauterpacht Lecture was established after Sir Eli's death in 2017 to celebrate his life and work. This lecture takes place on the first Friday lecture of the Centre at the start of the Michaelmas Term in any academic year. The Eli Lauterpacht Lecture for 2022 will be delivered by Professor Noah Feldman.Noah Feldman is Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Chairman of the Society of Fellows, and founding director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law, all at Harvard University. He specializes in constitutional studies, with particular emphasis on power and ethics, design of innovative governance solutions, law and religion, and the history of legal ideas.A policy & public affairs columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, Feldman also writes for The New York Review of Books and was a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine for nearly a decade. He hosts the Deep Background podcast, an interview show that explores the historical, scientific, legal and cultural context behind the biggest stories in the news.Through his consultancy, Ethical Compass, Feldman advises clients like Facebook & eBay on how to improve ethical decision-making by creating and implementing new governance solutions. In this capacity, he conceived and architected the Facebook Oversight Board, and continues to advise the company on ethics and governance issues.Further information: https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/noah-r-feldman/

Judge Christopher Greenwood KC lectures on' The Future of International Law' at the celebratory event of the Dr Ivan and Francesca Berkowitz Seminar Room Opening on Thursday 6 October 2022.For more about the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, see: https://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk/

This lecture is is part of the Art, Architecture and International Law seminar series which is being launched this academic year. The series is designed to bridge the worlds of art, architecture and international law. It explores the different ways in which art and architecture and international law intersect. It also demonstrates that international law exists well beyond the written word.Lecture summary: In this talk I am inviting you on a sightseeing tour in The Hague, the ‘International City of Peace and Justice’. But it is not a tour from A to B and back. It is a tour in the form of a collage, assembled from artworks, texts, and objects from or about institutions of international law. Through a cacophony of shifting perspectives and modalities, I try to (un)make sense of international institutional sites as a spaces of encounter and exclusion.Dr Sofia Stolk is a researcher in international law at the Asser Institute in The Hague and the University of Amsterdam. Her research project 'Imagining Justice' focuses on the use of visual means by international courts and tribunals and explores how different audiences engage with international law through its representation in visual media. She has published about the intersection of international law and art, architecture, theater, and film. Her monograph ‘The Opening Statement of the Prosecution in International Criminal Trials: A Solemn Tale of Horror’ was published by Routledge in 2021. Sofia coordinates the Camera Justitia programme on law and social justice at the annual Movies that Matter Festival is co-founder of the Legal Sightseeing platform (www.legalsightseeing.org) together with Dr. Renske Vos (VU Amsterdam).

Friday, 18 March 2022 - 2.00pmThis event, divided into two panels, showcases recent scholarship in international criminal law and international humanitarian law. Transcending disciplinary boundaries and theoretical traditions whilst harnessing extensive archival research and deeper empirical data, these scholars’ work reimagines two venerable legal fields anew through more robust historicizing and bolder critiques.

The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL) and the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) held an online Rapid Response Seminar on the War in Ukraine on 7 March 2022. On the 24 February 2022 Russian troops launched a fully-fledged invasion of Ukraine after force had been used between the two countries in February 2014 with the annexing of Crimea by Russia. The UN General Assembly in its emergency session decided on 2 March 2022 that it: ‘[d]eplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in violation of Article 2 (4) of the Charter; demands that the Russian Federation immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine and to refrain from any further unlawful threat or use of force against any Member State; also demands that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and [d]eplores the 21 February 2022 decision by the Russian Federation related to the status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter.’ In this Webinar we aimed to analyse the international and EU law aspects of the war in Ukraine. Experts on international and EU law, discussed different aspects of the use of force by Russia, and the European Union’s reaction. It will brought different legal perspectives together and provided expert opinions on this new and troubling development in international law in Europe. Speakers: - Professor Marc Weller: Use of Force – UN Charter – Security Council, also Peace Treaty and International Humanitarian Law - Dr Dan Saxon: International Criminal Law – Crime of Aggression – International Criminal Court jurisdiction - Francisco-José Quintana: Human Rights in War - Professor Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger: Protection of Livelihoods and the Environment during War in Ukraine - Dr Emilija Leinarte: European Union Relations with Ukraine – EU-Ukraine Association Agreement - Dr Markus Gehring: EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, external dimension of migration and prospect for Ukraine’s EU membership For more information see: https://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk/

Lecture summary: The history of corporate human rights abuses is much older than the history of international human rights law. The activities of colonial corporations are a case in point. However, the relation between the state and corporations has changed significantly over the years. Unlike colonial corporations deriving their powers from the Royal Charters, transnational corporations (TNCs) of today are self-generating powers to take decisions affecting people, political outcomes or the planet. For example, decisions made by Facebook or its Oversight Board could impact not only the human rights of billions of people but also shape election outcomes and international crimes. In some cases, remedial mechanisms established by TNCs require affected rights holders to waive their right to seek remedies through state-based judicial or non-judicial mechanisms. What has, however, not changed much is the largely ineffective response of international law to regulate human rights abuses by TNCs. This lecture will critically examine four of such regulatory approaches: (i) the passive approach of international law regulating TNCs through states, seen again in a treaty currently being negotiated at the Human Rights Council, (ii) the peripheral approach of international criminal law to corporate liability for international crimes as reflected in the Rome Statue, (iii) the privileged approach embraced by international investment law to confer only rights on TNCs, and (iv) the pragmatic approach adopted by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to bypass difficult regulatory challenges. To remain relevant, I will argue that international (human rights) law should recognise the emergence of new sovereigns and reimagine both state-centric and non-state-centric regulatory approaches towards TNCs. Surya Deva is a Professor at the Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University, Sydney, and a member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. His primary research interests lie in business and human rights, India-China constitutional law and sustainable development. Prof Deva has published extensively in these areas, and has advised various UN bodies, governments, multinational corporations and civil society organisations on matters related to business and human rights. Prior to joining Macquarie University, he taught at the School of Law of City University of Hong Kong, the National Law Institute University Bhopal and the University of Delhi. Prof Deva is one of the founding Editors-in-Chief of the Business and Human Rights Journal (CUP), and sits on the Editorial/Advisory Board of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, the Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law, the Indian Law Review, and the Australian Journal of Human Rights. He is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Constitutional Law (2018-22). Some of Prof Deva’s publications are available on SSRN.

Lecture summary: In December 2020, the UK and five partners signed the 'Agile Nations Charter', reflecting its participants commitment to 'a more agile approach to rule-making ... to unlock the potential of innovation.' Around the same time, the World Economic Forum published a toolkit on 'Agile Regulation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution'. The aspiration for regulatory agility is everywhere. This lecture charts the ways in which the 'agility agenda' has emerged across a range of spaces of governance, including the OECD, new generation FTAs, and regulator-to-regulator agreements, and asks how this agenda is reshaping regulatory governance at the global level. What is meant by 'agility', and how is it produced? What international legal forms and techniques are amenable to agility? What questions should we be asking, to guide research into, and thinking about, regulatory agility at the global level?Professor Andrew Lang joined the Edinburgh School of Law in 2017 as the Chair in International Law and Global Governance. Prior to that, he was Professor of Law at the London School of Economics. He is an expert in Public International Law, with a specialty in International Economic Law and the Law of the World Trade Organization. He has a combined BA/LLB from the University of Sydney, where he was a double University Medallist, and his PhD is from the University of Cambridge.

Lecture summary: The legal regime for deep seabed mining in the international seabed Area is a rare example of the international community joining forces to regulate a potential new industry in the interests of humankind as a whole. As set forth under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the international seabed Area and its mineral resources are the “common heritage of mankind”, on whose behalf the International Seabed Authority (ISA), an autonomous organization established under UNCLOS, is to act. The mandate comes with concomitant obligations for the equitable sharing of financial and other economic benefits and adoption of the necessary measures to ensure the effective protection of the marine environment from the harmful effects of deep-sea mining. Despite this historic legal framework based on visions of equity, common interest, environmental health and prosperity for all, tensions are rising. In late June 2021, the Government of the Republic of Nauru called for the ISA to accelerate its work on regulations for exploitation of deep seabed minerals so that NORI, its sponsored entity, could submit an application for authorization to mine as soon as 2023. Just prior to that, hundreds of marine scientists and policy experts issued a Call for a Pause to Deep-Sea Mining, expressing concern that deep-sea mining could result “in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning that would be irreversible on multi-generational timescales.” In September 2021, members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) adopted a resolution calling upon IUCN Member States to support and implement a moratorium on deep seabed mining until specific conditions have been satisfied, including improved scientific understanding, independent review, application of precaution and institutional reforms (IUCN, 2021 WCC Motion 069). Despite recognizing the need for rigorous and binding environmental safeguards, the Secretary General of the ISA has described the rising calls for a moratorium on deep seabed mining in the Area as “anti-science, anti-knowledge, anti-development and anti-international law.” All this is happening at the same time the United Nations is developing a new agreement under UNCLOS for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national boundaries, and the UN Ocean Envoy, Peter Thomson has called on the global community to recognize the importance of ensuring “synergy between the forthcoming global conferences addressing climate change, biodiversity loss and the well-being of the ocean.” (Open letter by Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for the Ocean, to Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC). The Open Letter further stresses that “the days are gone when any one of these existential challenges can be meaningfully negotiated without bringing the other two to the table.”This presentation will explore these issues in light of the legal regime established under UNCLOS and its 1994 Implementation Agreement, modern environmental norms, procedural principles and current scientific understanding about deep sea ecosystems and the potential impacts of deep seabed mining. It will further describe prior examples of internationally declared “moratoria” or conditional pauses on specific activities. Finally, it will explore some pathways ahead for addressing the potential contradictions between deep sea mining and protection of marine biodiversity beyond national boundaries.(With many thanks to Pradeep Singh, LLM, Researcher, University of Bremen, who co-authored and assisted with this presentation)Kristina M. Gjerde, J.D., is Senior High Seas Advisor to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Global Marine and Polar Programme. Kristina received her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law with a focus on comparative and international law, and practiced admiralty law for several years in a New York City law firm. For the past 30+ years, Kristina has focused on the nexus of law, science, and policy relevant to sustaining marine biodiversity. Kristina has co-founded four science-policy partnerships: the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative, The Sargasso Sea Project, the High Seas Alliance and the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI). In addition to advancing a new UN treaty for marine life beyond boundaries, she has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications. Kristina is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences, an adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.