Lectures

A brief explanation of the nature, remit and powers of the International Criminal Court. This podcast is in support of 'Comparative Media Law & Ethics" by Tim Crook, published by Routledge in 2009.
Companion web site for the book at http://www.ma-radio.gold.ac.uk/cmle/

The International Criminal Court

Richard Epstein looks at the legal, political, and policy implications of President Obama’s desire to launch a US strike on Syria.

Syria, International Law, and War Powers

Speaker(s): Charles Shamas | Editor's note: We apologise that the Q & A is missing from this podcast. In July the European Commission published “guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards.” This step has been variously described as a ‘political earthquake’, a sanction targeting Israeli settlements and settlement policies, and a confrontational move to save the two-State solution and the Middle East Peace Process from final collapse. But what precisely is taking place and how did we get here? What are the likely political consequences? The presentation will outline the actual processes that have actually driven EU's production of these guidelines. In this light it will examine the role of the EU as a normative power striving to respect international law and comply with its own law while intensifying EU-Israel relations. Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:30:00 GMT

Re-negotiating the Terms of EU-Israel Partnership: Normative Power and International Law [Audio]

This lecture, entitled 'Theorising International Environmental Law'', was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre on Friday 22 November 2013 by Dr Stephen Humphreys, Associate Professor in International Law at the London School of Economics, and chaired by Dr Marcus Gehring, University Lecturer in Law, Cambridge.

For more information about the series, please see the Lauterpacht Centre website at http://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk 

International environmental law raises a paradox. As the body of international law dealing with the 'natural world', it might be expected to comprise a cornerstone of the international legal system. What, after all, is more fundamental to the constitution of the world than the human relation to nature? And yet what is most immediately evident about international environmental law is how little it does, in fact, regulate. Largely unconnected to the international legal framework governing the food regime or fossil fuel use, for example, it appears primarily at the margins of international law as the quintessential 'soft law', its key cases occurring in other fora. In this paper, I will tentatively open up some theoretical perspectives on a body of law that has remained largely (indeed surprisingly, given its epistemologically rich subject matter) untheorised. I will aim to identify the constituent conceptual elements that generate its specific energy and propel its contradictions today. I find this energy and tension in two principal historical sources whose relevance might not, at first glance, appear self-evident: first, the Romantic movement of the late 18th/early 19th century; second the evolution of colonial land-use practices through to the mid-20th century.

'Theorising International Environmental Law' by Dr Stephen Humphreys

This lecture, entitled 'Complementarity in the line of fire: The Catalysing Effect of the International Criminal Court in Uganda and Sudan', was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre on Friday 15th November by Dr Sarah Nouwen, Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, and chaired by Dr Roger O'Keefe, Deputy Director of the Lauterpacht Centre and Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge.

For more information about the series, please see the LCIL website at www.lcil.cam.ac.uk

Of the many expectations attending the creation of the first permanent International Criminal Court, the greatest has been that the principle of complementarity would catalyse national investigations and prosecutions of conflict-related crimes and lead to the reform of domestic justice systems. In a book that came out this month, Sarah Nouwen explores whether complementarity has had such an effect in two states subject to ICC intervention: Uganda and Sudan. Drawing on extensive empirical research and combining law, legal anthropology and political economy, she unveils several effects and outlines the catalysts for them. However, she also reveals that one widely anticipated effect – an increase in domestic proceedings for conflict-related crimes – has barely occurred. This finding leads to the unravelling of paradoxes that go right to the heart of the functioning of an idealistic Court in a world of real constraints.

The Catalysing Effect of the International Criminal Court in Uganda and Sudan'

'Facts, Evidence and Causation: Practice of the ICJ' by Mr Robert Volterra

Few would nowadays question that, as a matter of positive law, human rights law applies to armed conflict. Once confined to human rights courts, this principle is now settled in the jurisprudence of a wide range of international and domestic courts. Law of armed conflict specialists however remain concerned about the suitability of human rights law to regulate war. Furthermore – and perhaps even more crucially – the application of human rights law to war entails a radical, although often unnoted, change in the relationship between law and war. Can human rights regulate war? Are we sure that this development is an example of moral and legal progress?

This lecture, entitled 'The Devil and the Holy Water: Will Human Rights Tame War or Will War Corrupt Human Rights?', was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre on Friday 25 October 2013 by Professor Guglielmo Verdirame, Professor of International Law at the Department of War Studies and the Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London. 

Will Human Rights Tame War or Will War Corrupt Human Rights?

The gender justice provisions of the ICC's Rome Statute provide better recognition, representation and redress for victims of sexual and gender-based violence than any prior instrument of international criminal law. These provisions have helped draw attention to an often marginalized constituency under international law. However, both in their design and interpretation these provisions have also triggered a contentious gender politics at the ICC, leading some of its other constituents to question the Court's impartiality and legitimacy. This presentation will explore the implications of this political struggle for the future of gender justice at the ICC.

This lecture, entitled 'Gender Justice and Legitimacy at the International Criminal Court', was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre on Friday, 18 October 2013 by Professor Louise Chappell, Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of New South Wales, and chaired by Dr Sarah Nouwen, Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Cambridge.

For more information about the series, please see the Lauterpacht Centre website at http://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk

'Gender Justice and Legitimacy at the International Criminal Court'

The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL), University of Cambridge hosts a regular Friday lunchtime lecture series on key areas of International Law. Previous subjects have included UN peacekeeping operations, the advisory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, the crime of aggression, whaling, children and military tribunals, and theories and practices for proving individual criminal responsibility for genocide and crimes against humanity.

This lecture, entitled 'Theorising International Environmental Law'', was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre on Friday 22 November 2013 by Dr Stephen Humphreys, Associate Professor in International Law at the London School of Economics, and chaired by Dr Marcus Gehring, University Lecturer in Law, Cambridge.

Please note, the question and answer sections of LCIL lectures are omitted to facilitate a free and frank discussion with participants. Contributors appear in their own individual capacity. Any views expressed are their own and do not necessarily reflect of the views of the Lauterpacht Centre or other related institution.

For more information about the series, please see the Lauterpacht Centre website at http://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk

This talk examines how human right treaties apply to states’ conduct outside their borders. In doing so it looks at the meaning of the concept of jurisdiction in human rights treaties, and at the policy considerations that underlie and shape the often-conflicting case law of international human rights courts. These issues frequently arise in politically very fraught and controversial situations, ranging from the use of drones by the US in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen, to the detention of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo, and the NSA and GCHQ global surveillance programmes.

The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL), University of Cambridge hosts a regular Friday lunchtime lecture series on key areas of International Law. Previous subjects have included UN peacekeeping operations, the advisory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, the crime of aggression, whaling, children and military tribunals, and theories and practices for proving individual responsibility criminal responsibility for genocide and crimes against humanity.

This lecture, entitled 'Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties', was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre on Friday 24 January 2014 by Dr Marko Milanovic, Lecturer, University of Nottingham School of Law.

Please note, the question and answer sections of LCIL lectures are omitted from the recording to facilitate a free and frank discussion with participants.

For more information about the series, please see the LCIL website at www.lcil.cam.ac.uk 

Extraterritorial Application Of Human Rights Treaties

Particularly after the European Union gave up its reluctance in late 2006 and became active in this regard, a huge number of free trade agreements have been concluded or are negotiated around the world, including some "mega" deals – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment partnership (TTIP) and the Transpacific Partnership (TPP). Such bilateral or regional initiatives are expected to largely benefit the economies at hand and to allow for progress, which has been rather poor in the multilateral setting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in recent years. However, the agreements also cause concerns. Beyond the many noteworthy details of these agreements, the question arises, what impact these agreements will have in more general terms. The recent discussion on the fragmentation of international law comes to mind in this regard. As had been observed in that context, fragmentation hardly can be understood as a purely accidental phenomenon. In many cases, it is a result of deliberation. Having said this, the further question arises, whether legal considerations or global interest set or should set limits to these new tendencies. An answer to this question requires exploring, whether there is indeed a world economic order and what it means in view of these trade agreements.

The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL), University of Cambridge hosts a regular Friday lunchtime lecture series on key areas of International Law. Previous subjects have included UN peacekeeping operations, the advisory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, the crime of aggression, whaling, children and military tribunals, and theories and practices for proving individual responsibility criminal responsibility for genocide and crimes against humanity.

This lecture, entitled 'Splendid fragmentation? The emergence of preferential trade agreements and the future of the world economic order', was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre on Friday 31 January 2014 by Professor Peter-Tobias Stoll, Professor of Public and Public International Law, Georg-August Universitaet Goettingen.

Please note, the question and answer sections of LCIL lectures are omitted from the recording to facilitate a free and frank discussion with participants.

For more information about the series, please see the LCIL website at www.lcil.cam.ac.uk 

The emergence of preferential trade agreements and the future of the world economic order

The prohibition on resort to military force may well be falling behind the advancement of other peremptory norms of international law such as the prohibitions of torture, slavery, and genocide. These Lectures take up this issue, aiming to reawaken commitment to preserving the peace through law. The approach will be through theory—not just dominant positivism but natural law, process theory, and aesthetic theory.

III. Attracting Law Compliance: The final lecture will introduce aesthetic theory and the insights it provides into attraction—specifically into increasing the attraction to compliance with current and future law against resort to force. The lecture will draw on the aesthetic theories of Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, and Allott.

he Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture series given in Cambridge to commemorate the unique contribution to the development of international law of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht. These lectures are given annually by a person of eminence in the field of international law and a revised and expanded version of the lectures is usually published in the Hersch Lauterpacht Lecture Series by Cambridge University Press. The lecture comprises three parts, delivered on consecutive evenings, followed by a Q&A session on the fourth day.

The 2013-2014 Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture series, entitled 'International Law and the Art of Peace' was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, by Professor Mary Ellen O'Connell, Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame , from Monday 17 to Thursday 20th February 2014.

This part, entitled 'Attracting Law Compliance' is the third of the three lectures given. 

'International Law And The Art Of Peace. Part III- Attracting Law Compliance'

The prohibition on resort to military force may well be falling behind the advancement of other peremptory norms of international law such as the prohibitions of torture, slavery, and genocide. These Lectures take up this issue, aiming to reawaken commitment to preserving the peace through law. The approach will be through theory—not just dominant positivism but natural law, process theory, and aesthetic theory.

Part II. Revitalizing the Practice of International Dispute Resolution: Process theory holds promise for reigniting interest in methods of dispute resolution as rational alternatives to the use of military force. Sir Elihu Lauterpacht’s writing, teaching, and practice will provide primary material for the discussion.

The Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture series given in Cambridge to commemorate the unique contribution to the development of international law of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht. These lectures are given annually by a person of eminence in the field of international law and a revised and expanded version of the lectures is usually published in the Hersch Lauterpacht Lecture Series by Cambridge University Press. The lecture comprises three parts, delivered on consecutive evenings, followed by a Q&A session on the fourth day.

The 2013-2014 Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture series, entitled 'International Law and the Art of Peace' was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, by Professor Mary Ellen O'Connell, Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame , from Monday 17 to Thursday 20th February 2014.

This part, entitled 'Revitalizing the Practice of International Dispute Resolution' is the second of the three lectures given. 

Part II- Revitalizing The Practice Of International Dispute Resolution

The prohibition on resort to military force may well be falling behind the advancement of other peremptory norms of international law such as the prohibitions of torture, slavery, and genocide. These Lectures take up this issue, aiming to reawaken commitment to preserving the peace through law. The approach will be through theory—not just dominant positivism but natural law, process theory, and aesthetic theory.

I. Understanding the Higher Norm against Aggression: The lectures will begin by drawing on the work of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht to discuss how the current law against resort to military force is a natural law norm of jus cogens. This fact has significant implications for the advocates of diluting the prohibition on resort to force.

he Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture is an annual lecture series given in Cambridge to commemorate the unique contribution to the development of international law of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht. These lectures are given annually by a person of eminence in the field of international law and a revised and expanded version of the lectures is usually published in the Hersch Lauterpacht Lecture Series by Cambridge University Press. The lecture comprises three parts, delivered on consecutive evenings, followed by a Q&A session on the fourth day.

The 2013-2014 Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture series, entitled 'International Law and the Art of Peace' was delivered at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, by Professor Mary Ellen O'Connell, Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame , from Monday 17 to Thursday 20th February 2014.

This part, entitled 'Understanding the Higher Norm against Aggression' is the first of the three lectures given. 

Part I- Understanding The Higher Norm Against Aggression'

Speaker(s): Judge Sir Christopher Greenwood | While each system of national law seeks to regulate affairs within only one society, international law concerns the entire world. Yet it has almost none of the methods of enforcement available to national legal systems. So, can it change the world? Christopher Greenwood was elected a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in November 2008. He is an authority in international law who taught at LSE for 12 years, and was a practising barrister and has been a QC since 1999. He has appeared as an advocate in several cases at the ICJ. Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:30:00 GMT

Can International Law Change the World? [Audio]

Speaker(s): Judge Patrick Robinson | Since its establishment in 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has irreversibly changed the landscape of international humanitarian law and provided victims an opportunity to voice the horrors they witnessed and experienced. Patrick Robinson is president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:30:00 GMT

Building an International Rule of Law [Audio]

Speaker(s): Professor Martti Koskenniemi | Martti Koskenniemi is director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights and visiting professor at LSE Law. Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT

Lectures

Omar Refaat 6