LCIL International Law Centre Podcast

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.

Lecture summary: The talk will draw upon my recent report submitted to the UNHRC earlier this year. See: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Housing/Pages/CFI_20years_SR_adequate_housing.aspx Balakrishnan Rajagopal is currently a Professor of Law and Development at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). A lawyer by training, he is an expert on many areas of human rights including economic, social and cultural rights, the UN system, and the human rights challenges posed by development activities. He is the founder of the Displacement Research and Action Network at MIT which leads research and engagement with communities, NGOs, and local and national authorities. He has conducted over 20 years of research on social movements and human rights advocacy around the world focusing in particular, on land and property rights, evictions and displacement. He has a law degree from University of Madras, India, a Masters degree in law from the American University as well as an interdisciplinary doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. Prof Rajagopal served as a human rights advisor to the World Commission on Dams and has advised numerous governments and UN agencies on human rights issues. He served for many years with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia during the 1990s when he was responsible for human rights monitoring, investigation, education and advocacy, as well as law drafting in a variety of areas. He has held visiting professorships and fellowships at many prestigious institutions around the world. He has delivered many distinguished lectures on invitation such as the Lecture on “International Courts and Second and Third Generation Human Rights” at the Brandeis Institute for International Judges, Brandeis University, the Keynote on ‘Rethinking the Right to Development: Challenges and Opportunities’ at the 3nd Inter-American Conference on Human Rights, Bogota, Colombia, the Keynote on ‘Right to housing: Comparative perspectives’, Human Rights Law Resource Center, Melbourne, Australia, Special Lectures at the UN University for Peace, Costa Rica, the Rechtskulturen Lecture at the Institute for Advanced Study, Germany, the Valerie Gordon Human Rights Lecture, Northeastern University School of Law, the Annual Hansen/Hostler Distinguished Lecture on Global Justice, San Diego State University, the Annual New Frontiers Lecture at the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies and Keynotes at various conferences including the joint annual conference of the Australian and New Zealand Societies of International Law. Prof Rajagopal has published numerous scholarly articles, and book chapters and is the author/editor of four books. He has also led or contributed to field and research reports on evictions, displacement and housing and related human rights and development policy issues. He has also published widely in the media on human rights and international law and issues concerning the South including in such publications as the Boston Globe, the Hindu, the Wire, Washington Post, the Indian Express, El Universal, and the Nation, and the huffingtonpost.com.

Lecture summary: From 1995, when he arrived in Cambridge, to 2014, when he left, Roger O'Keefe witnessed first hand the evolution and expansion of the small, somewhat homespun Research Centre for International Law into the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, one of the world's leading centres for the research, teaching, and discussion of public international law. He was also privileged to work alongside two of the figures whose names will forever be associated with the Centre, its founder Professor Sir Elihu Lauterpacht and its long-time director Professor James Crawford. The passing of both, in 2017 and 2021 respectively, marks the end of an era in the Centre's history, an era on which Professor O'Keefe will share his personal recollections and reflections.Roger O’Keefe is Professor of International Law at Bocconi University, Milan and Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Laws, University College London, where from 2014 to 2018 he was Professor of Public International Law. From 2000 to 2014 he lectured in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge, was a Fellow of Magdalene College, and was a Fellow and, from 2003, Deputy Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. He is joint General Editor of the Oxford University Press series Oxford Monographs in International Law.

This lecture is part of the Cambridge Arbitration Society (CUArb)/Lauterpacht Centre for International Law lecture series.

Lecture summary: This lecture puts forward the conceptual argument that the transformative goals of the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against (CEDAW), which require states to eradicate root causes of injustice, can be made more effective not only through legislation and policy, as commonly argued, but through the judiciary. It highlights the need to develop the content and scope of transformative judicial obligations under CEDAW based on a comparative study of judicial decisions dealing with the abuse of female migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in three key MDW destinations that are CEDAW parties—Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. By engaging with scholarship on CEDAW’s positive obligations, transformative equality, and theories of adjudication, it argues that criminal law courts should not only ensure the accountability and punishment of perpetrators but also ascertain and critique the laws, policies, and practices enabling MDW abuse in judicial decisions. While there is much scholarship on the nature of MDW abuse and regulation of domestic work, there has yet to be a CEDAW-focused comparative analysis of case law dealing with such abuse. This research thus addresses a gap in academic debates on MDW rights and the types of positive obligations owed by courts under CEDAW. Dr. Cheah W.L. is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore (NUS) since 2007. She holds academic qualifications from the National University of Singapore (LL.B., LL.M.), Harvard Law School (LL.M.), and Oxford University (D.Phil). She conducts research in the core disciplines of international criminal law, transitional justice, and human rights law with a focus on the intersections of law, culture, and power. Within these areas, her research explores the diverse and complex roles performed by domestic and international criminal courts beyond their paradigm aim of adjudicating on the guilt or otherwise of those charged with criminal offences. Her work has been accepted for publication in journals such as the Leiden Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Law, Michigan Journal of International Law, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Human Rights Quarterly, and Harvard Human Rights Journal.My publications and work may be found at: https://cheahwuiling.com/ and https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1102439

Lecture summary: International law is in constant movement, and any proper account of the international legal order needs to place this movement at the centre. “The course of international law needs to be understood if international law is to be understood,” says James Crawford in the opening of his general course at the Hague Academy in 2013. Yet rarely do we find focused and systematic attention to this ‘course of international law,’ to the ways in which international legal rules change, get reaffirmed or disappear. In this paper, we take a step towards a broader account of these dynamics, and we interrogate in particular the varying roles states play in them – largely from an empirical, not a doctrinal starting point. We pay particular attention to contexts in which states take secondary roles in change processes – roles of bystanders, catalysts, or spoilers – and we outline two core factors which, we believe, can help us understand much of the variation we observe. With this, we hope to dispel some of the shadows cast by doctrinal representations and make progress on the way to on the way to developing a richer, more empirically-oriented and more ‘social’ account of the paths of international law. The paper results from a research project on “The Paths of International Law”, funded by the European Research Council, and it is co-authored with Ezgi Yildiz, postdoctoral researcher at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. Dr Nico Krisch is a professor of international law at the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies. His main research interests concern the legal structure of international organizations and global governance, the politics of international law, and the postnational legal order emerging at the intersection of domestic, transnational and international law. Prior to joining the The wInstitute, he was an ICREA research professor at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals and held faculty positions at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and the Law Department of the London School of Economics. He was also a research fellow at Oxford University’s Merton College, at New York University School of Law and at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, as well as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Columbia Law School. He holds a PhD in law from the University of Heidelberg. His 2010 book, Beyond Constitutionalism: The Pluralist Structure of Postnational Law (OUP), received the Certificate of Merit of the American Society of International Law. Dr Krisch is a member of the Council of the International Society of Public Law, and of the editorial/advisory boards of the European Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Dispute Settlement, and the London Review of International Law. In 2017, he was awarded a European Research Council Advanced Grant for a project on change and stability in international law; in 2019, he received the inaugural Max Planck-Cambride Prize for International Law.

Lecture summary: In a series of recent decisions related to same-sex relationships, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has stated that the American Convention on Human Rights does not advance a singular notion or closed conception of family. A 2017 Advisory Opinion from the Inter-American Court also concluded that the American Convention demands that same sex couples have equal access to de jure marriage. This lecture considers what is to be gained from more broadly contending with the question, ‘what is a family’ in the Americas’ regional human rights system. Even though the inter-American system now clearly rejects ‘a limited, stereotyped perception of the concept of the family’, it has only infrequently considered the question, ‘what is a family?’, across the diversity of the Americas. That question matters not only to determining the scope of various rights to family life in inter-American instruments.Rethinking the family as a ‘basic element of society’ (American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man), grounded in time, space, human mobility and our political-economic systems, could help us see more fully ‘who’ constitutes the Americas, which is an essential for a human rights system aspiring to be universally applicable across the Americas.Tracy Robinson is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law, The University of the West Indies, Mona, and serves as Deputy Dean, Graduate Studies and Research. She researches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, family law, human rights law and gender, sexuality and the law. She is a co-founder and co-coordinator (with Arif Bulkan) of the Faculty of Law UWI Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP) that led successful strategic litigation in Belize and Guyana on the criminalization of LGBTQ persons. She served on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as a Commissioner, President of the body (2014-2015), Rapporteur on the Rights of Women and inaugural Rapporteur on the Rights of LGBTI people. In 2020, she was appointed as one of three experts on the Independent Fact Finding Mission on Libya, a mandate established by the UN Human Rights Council.

Thursday, 28 October 2021 - 5.45pmThis lecture is part of the Cambridge Arbitration Society (CUArb)/Lauterpacht Centre for International Law lecture series.Speakers: Iain Mckenny, Profile Investment & Louis Young, Augusta Ventures Chair: Ibrahim Alturki