LECTURES 2

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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Law Courses

Lectures

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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'

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

Language about ‘plague’ rather than – say – ‘epidemic’ introduces elements of moral and theological interpretation into our view of a situation: plague is something ‘inflicted’, and is conceived against the background of certain kinds of biblical and classical narratives (the plagues of Egypt, Oedipus at Thebes, etc.). While this is by no means defunct (with some very unpleasant recent applications) the overall climate has changed. But it is still possible to reach for this language as a metaphorical structure – Camus, Garcia Marquez – which highlights aspects of the moral urgencies and ambiguities of a situation. The lecture will look at both the background usage and its modern transformations so as to draw out some thoughts on the nature of human limits and human responsibilities.

Biography

Dr Williams is Master of Magdalene College. He was educated at Dynevor Secondary Grammar School in Swansea, he came up to Christ’s College in 1968. He studied for his doctorate at Christ Church and Wadham College Oxford, working on the Russian Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky. His career began as a lecturer at Mirfield (1975-1977). He returned to Cambridge as Tutor and Director of Studies at Westcott House. After ordination in Ely Cathedral, and serving as Honorary Assistant Priest at St George’s Chesterton, he was appointed to a University lectureship in Divinity. In 1984 he was elected a Fellow and Dean of Clare College. During his time at Clare he was arrested and fined for singing psalms as part of the CND protest at Lakenheath air-base. Then, still only 36, it was back to Oxford as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity for six years, before becoming Bishop of Monmouth, and, from 2000, Archbishop of Wales. He was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2003. He was awarded the Oxford higher degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1989, and an honorary DCL degree in 2005; Cambridge followed in 2006 with an honorary DD. He holds honorary doctorates from considerably more than a dozen other universities, from Durham to K U Leuven, Toronto to Bonn. In 1990 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Dr Williams is a noted poet and translator of poetry, and, apart from Welsh, speaks or reads nine other languages. He learnt Russian in-order to read the works of Dostoevsky in the original. This led to a book; he has also published studies of Arius, Teresa of Avila, and Sergii Bulgakov, together with writings on a wide range of theological, historical and political themes.

Plagues & Metaphor

Royal Society Fellows are the most the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists in the UK and Commonwealth and Fellowships have been awarded annually since 1660. Six new Cambridge researchers were made Royal Society Fellows in 2013. Tonight we are delighted to welcome immunologist Professor Gillian Griffiths from Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, biochemist Dr Phillip Hawkins from The Babraham Institute and computer scientist Professor Jon Crowcroft from the Computer Laboratory to the Festival to introduce us to their research

Cambridge stars: Professor Gillian Griffiths

Today, more people live in cities than in rural areas and, by 2050, this ratio is predicted to rise to 7 out of every 10 people. Can we rethink how we design and live in cities? What will the impact of increasing numbers of people living in cities be on society, or biodiversity, or on food, water and energy security? A panel of distinguished speakers focuses on some of these most pressing challenges faced by our cities. 

Sustainable Cities

Social Science, Small worlds and Big Data

Matthew Jackson - Research Directions: Networks and their Roles in Economics

European policy-makers have some vitally important decisions to make in the coming weeks, believes Simon Deakin. The June meeting of the European Council is due to consider the role of social policy in the wider context of economic and monetary union (‘EMU’). The background to this process consists, firstly, of the adoption in November 2012 of the Blueprint for a deep and genuine EMU which referred to the need for greater policy coordination in the ‘field of employment’. Then in May 2013 the Commission Vice-President and Commissioner for Monetary Affairs informed the European Parliament that he was ‘working on preparing proposals to strengthen the social dimension of EMU’ and on ‘finding ways to better integrate the social dimension in the current structures for economic governance’, including ‘strengthening the surveillance of employment and social developments within the European Semester framework’.

Social policy will be critical to a sustainable economic and monetary union (EMU)

Club 80's _ Cinta dan Luka

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

Alexa -Jangan Kau Lepas- ramon

The news tends to focus on the antagonism between India and Pakistan. A distinguished panel of academics – Dr Kamal Munir, Dr Ornit Shani, Dr  Bhaskar Vira and Professor Joya Chatterji –
look at the common ground between the two countries. 


India-Pakistan: the common ground at Hay Festival

First Single from 2015 album 'Dulu, Kemarin, Sekarang'

Pulang

Ideas about states of emergency go back to Ancient Rome in which it was said that necessity knows no law. This idea took on different meanings during the early modern period and was employed again in 1848 to justify emergency rule in Paris. The idea was inverted by Marx. It was no longer emergency that justified dictatorship—dictatorship was posited as a desirable outcome in a transition to new forms of society.

The genesis of 20th C political authoritarianism by Prof Gareth Stedman Jones

In 1815, two large armies faced each other at Waterloo. Unknown either to Napoleon or Wellington, the battle would be decided by a small, ordinary group of British and German troops.

Did the Germans win the battle of Waterloo? by Professor Brendan Simms

In the age of Charlemagne, Rome was not just associated with the glory of classical and late antique empire, but above all with an authentic Christianity. North of the Alps, rulers and aristocrats created a virtual Rome by importing relics as well as liturgical practices that were thought of as typically Roman.

Charlemagne, Rome and the management of sacred space by Professor Rosamond McKitterick

Despite recent assertions to the contrary, Prof Matthew Kramer argues that there can never be any moral justification for torture.

Torture, morality and law by Professor Matthew Kramer

Europe's Hypocrisy and the Migrant Crisis

with 
Benjamin Fricke
IWP Class of  2013

October 22, 2015
The Institute of World Politics

This event is part of a series on the Intermarium sponsored by the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies.

This presentation will focus on EU internal economic, financial and ideological difficulties and their impact on security and cooperation. It will address what role the EU assumes in this current crisis and what the causes are for the unregulated and unchecked streams of refugees coming to Europe and Germany in particular.

Mr. Fricke will focus on political developments in Germany and contextualize attitudes towards immigration in a historic context.  He will take a look at the PEGIDA movement in Germany. A divide between post-communist and post-1968 socialization is becoming increasingly apparent in Germany and the European continent as a whole. Mr. Fricke will argue that it is a failed geopolitical, economic and security strategy internally and towards the Middle East and Africa which triggered this mass influx of migrants and the paralyzed inaction of European countries and the EU institutions.

The EU as an ideological post-nation state construct was not designed to cope with a crisis as it is currently occurring, and therefore the presentation will examine short- and medium-term solutions, effects on Europe, and political alternatives.

Benjamin Fricke received his M.A. in Statecraft and International Affairs from The Institute of World Politics in 2013, and he was one of the first participants in IWP's Oxford study abroad program in 2012. Ben was awarded his B.A. in Political Science from Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH with two years of study at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He has done several high profile internships, such as at the U.S. Consulate General in Leipzig, Germany, the U.S. Senate, the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the German diplomatic mission in New York. After graduation from IWP, Mr. Fricke returned to Europe in October 2013, where he spent a few months studying in France and started working for a private sector energy management and software company close to his hometown, Lutherstadt Wittenberg. His long term goal is to work in consulting and academia in North America.

Europe's Hypocrisy and the Migrant Crisis

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

Histories of International Law: dealing with Eurocentrism [Audio]

DemocracyNow.org - As European leaders scramble to address the sovereign debt crisis, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz argues the austerity measures pushed by Germany, the United States and international creditors are only "going to make the countries weaker and weaker." If European economies contract, Stiglitz predicts that "our economy [will] go down further into the hole. ... Those policies then increase the probability of our weak economy tipping over into recession." Stiglitz's new book is "The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers our Future." Stigliz continues: “Occupy Wall Street was a reflection of a lot of American's perspective that our economic system is unfair. … There was a hope after the crisis, that government would fix things, it didn't. Or didn't do enough, and that combination of economic unfairness and a political system that doesn't seem capable of correcting these injustices, I think is what motivated a lot of the Occupy Wall Street.”

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