The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL), University of Cambridge hosts regular lectures 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. 

For more information about the series, please see the Lauterpacht Centre website at http://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk 

LCIL International Law Seminar Series

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lectures

Law Courses

Lectures

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'

Vocaloid Hatsune Miku sings Luka's Just Be Friends

Just Be Friends
English Lyric Adaptation by 『rockleetist』

Just Be Friends
All we gotta do is Just Be Friends.
It's time to say goodbye, Just Be Friends.
All we gotta do is Just Be Friends.
Just Be Friends, Just Be Friends.

Early morning yesterday it finally occurred to me.
Just like a puzzle where I had placed every single piece.
And now I don't know what to do-
Now that I see what we're both moving to-
Is this the point in time where we both prayed and hoped we'd be?

Somehow I knew that from the deepest reaches of my heart.
The hardest choice would be the choice that tears us both apart.
And now I know I can't ignore-
All the feelings that I've felt before-
I wonder why I never tried to tell you from the start?

Here in the world of ours that's slowly falling all around us
We're trying to move on, but it's the best we can do.
Our happiness fading- And smiles evading-
The truth within the lies.

Now all I hear are screams between us
resounding and bouncing the echoes throughout my mind.
Nothing is left, nothing remains at the end of the line.
At the end of our chain, we've both run out of time.
So was it fate that brought us together
only to remind us that love's not forever?
I said, 'You know, that's how it goes.'
'That's just the way that life is.'
So no regrets, baby don't fret.
You know I hate to see you cry.

Last Night a quiet moment helped me bring my thoughts around.
No sense in picking fallen petals up from off the ground.
This flower's past its bloom-
And you know that we can both assume-
Our time is gone, let's move along.
It was never meant to be.

Don't you remember the first summer it was all worthwhile?
Every moment that we spent together made you smile.
Arguments we won't recall-
With no regard to how we felt at all-
Our words were cruel we played the fool.
The end is on out minds.

And with every single day that passes slowly by us.
There's nothing I can do, nothing I can do for us.
I will always love you and I'll always think of you.
But I have to tell you now.

Oh, somewhere deep in my heart it's raining.
The clouds are remaining to drown me away from you.
I'm driven, but I've had enough.
Our broken heartache's still here.
It seems that no matter what, it simply won't disappear.
The bond between us has finally broken.
There's too much unspoken, we're falling so far apart.
Goodbye my love, it's done sweetheart.
Sayonara, it's the end.
It is time to depart and we will never look back, my friend.

Oh, this one time, just this one time.
If I could make a wish upon a fallen star.
If it came true, I'd stay with you.
Always forever you and I together~

Now all I hear are screams between us
resounding and bouncing the echoes throughout my mind.
Nothing is left, nothing remains at the end of the line.
At the end of our chain, we've both run out of time.
The bond between us has finally broken.
There's too much unspoken, we're falling so far apart.
Goodbye my love, it's done sweetheart.
Sayonara, it's the end.
It is time to depart, but you will always be my best friend.

Baby it's over for us now~
Just Be Friends~

Hatsune Miku - Just Be Friends

De la charte des droits de l'Homme, de la charte du manden et des violations du droit international

Should the United States join the International Criminal Court? The US is one of the outliers - including China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar and Yemen - which do not recognize the court's authority. Does this posture harm international peace and security? I wrote, directed and coproduced this hour-long special for NPR's Justice Talking. We won a bunch of awards with this, and it's among the best things I've done in any medium. Executive producer was Katherine Kolbert, and coproducers Kara McGuirk and Erin Mooney.

And Justice for Some: The U.S. and the International Criminal Court

Speaker(s): Luis Moreno-Ocampo | The Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was adopted in Rome on 17 July 1998 by 120 States. The first prosecutor of the ICC, Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, took office on 21 April 2003. His mandate is to investigate and prosecute the most serious crimes, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Tue, 7 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

The International Criminal Court ten years on: An appraisal [Audio]

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