Category Archives: General

Access to the Audiovisual Library of International Law of the United Nations

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This week, Mr. Huw Llewellyn, Director of the Codification Division of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations invited members of the KNVIR to make use of the international law training and research materials available in the UN’s Audiovisual Library of International Law (AVL), which may be accessed here.

The AVL contains more than 600 lectures on a large number of international law subjects and in the Historic Archives you may find more than 100 legal instruments, together with introductory notes prepared by internationally recognised experts, as well as audiovisual materials.

The AVL is also available as a podcast here.

Given the outbreak of Covid-19 and the present need for online educational materials and resources, the AVL may provide very useful materials, especially for our members in academia.  Please feel free to make use of these materials and resources.  The above links also may be found under the tab “Links” on this website.

79th Session of the renowned Institut de Droit international

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Institut de Droit international

From 25 to 31 August 2019 the 79th Session of the renowned Institut de Droit international (Institute of International Law – IDI – established in 1873, Nobel Peace Prize in 1904) will be held at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Members of the KNVIR are invited to attend the following meetings of this IDI Session:

(1) World Politics: International Law First?

  • Date: Tuesday 27 August 2019
  • Time: 18:00 – 20:00 (coffee and tea from 17:30 onwards)
  • Venue: Auditorium The Hague Academy, Peace Palace
    Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague

This joint panel of IDI and the The Hague Academy of International Law will address the topic ‘World Politics: “International Law First?”’

Panel moderators are Prof.dr Marcelo Kohen (Secretary-General IDI, Graduate Institute Geneva) and Prof.dr Nico Schrijver (Curatorium The Hague Academy, President IDI, Leiden University).
Panel members include:

Prof. Hannah Buxbaum
Curatorium The Hague Academy and John E. Schiller Chair in Legal Ethics and Professor of Law at Indiana University

Judge Rosalyn Higgins
Former judge and president of the International Court of Justice and professor emerita of the University of London School of Economics

Prof. Maurice Kamto
Curatorium The Hague Academy and presidential candidate of Cameroon

Prof.dr Martti Koskenniemi
Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights

(2) Tobias Asser (1838-1913): pioneer, trendsetter, founder of The Hague tradition

Tobias Asser

  • Date: Thursday 29 August 2019
  • Time: 18:00 – 20:00 (coffee and tea from 17:30 onwards)
  • Venue: Auditorium The Hague Academy, Peace Palace
    Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague

In a period during which cooperation and attempts to reach mutual understanding were increasingly overshadowed by fighting and preparing for war amongst states, Tobias Asser (1838-1913) was one of those who stood up and came forward with a range of ideas that were new at the time and helped to shape public and private international law to what it is today.  Asser was the representative of his generation in his reliance on liberalism, free markets, and the idea of Progress.  He even upheld his international approach when, towards the close of the century, nationalism and protectionism gained the upper hand in international legal and political thought.  This is exemplified by his (co-)initiative to establish the Institut de Droit international, to start the Hague Conference on Private International Law and to conceive The Hague Academy of International Law, as well as by his role as Dutch representative at the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 and as arbitrator in the newly established Permanent Court of Arbitration and his writings in a wide range of fields.  For all these efforts he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911.

The programme of this mini-symposium, organised to commemorate Asser’s legacy will be as follows:

  • Welcome with coffee/tea (17.30-18.00 hrs)
  • Brief Introduction by Prof.dr Willem van Genugten, President KNVIR
  • Introduction to the work of Tobias Asser, by Dr Arthur Eyffinger, legal historian and former Head of the Library of the ICJ, author of an extensive biography on Asser
  • Presentation of the first copy of the Asser biography, T.M.C. Asser (1838-1913), In Quest of Liberty, Justice and Peace, 2 Vols., Leiden:  Brill, 2019, to Prof.dr Daan Asser, great-grandson of Tobias Asser.
  • Panel, chaired by Dr Hans van Loon, IDI member and former Secretary-General of the Hague Conference of Private International Law.

The panel members are:

Prof.dr Marta Pertegás Sender
Professor of Private International Law and Transnational Law, Maastricht University

Prof.dr Janne Nijman
Professor of Theory and History of International Law, Amsterdam University and Academic Director of the T.M.C. Asser Institute 

Prof.dr Jean Salmon
Professor emeritus of international law, Université libre de Bruxelles.

Dr Van Loon will interview the panel members on their views regarding the meaning of Asser’s work for their own fields of expertise.

(3) Meet Your Bookshelf and/or your Favourite Practitioner

  • Date: Monday 26 August – Friday 30 August 2019
  • Times: To be determined
  • Venue: Auditorium The Hague Academy, Peace Palace
    Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague

Researchers and lecturers in private and/or public international law will be able to have an informal round table meeting of approximately one hour with one of the participating IDI members. Click here to see the list of participating IDI members and the dates and times at which they will be available, insofar as known at this time.

Once we have received all registrations, we will organise the various meetings. There will be one meeting for each IDI member, which may mean that the IDI members will meet with more than one KNVIR-member at the same time.

REGISTRATION

KNVIR members who wish to attend the joint panel on 27 August and/or the mini-symposium on 29 August or to meet with an IDI member are required to register by sending an e-mail message to . You will receive confirmation of your registration via e-mail. If you sign up to meet with an IDI member, you will be informed of the time of the meeting.

IMPORTANT

All events will take place on the grounds of the Peace Palace. In order to be admitted to the Peace Palace grounds you will have to go through security and be able to show a valid passport or an EU identity card or driver’s licence. Without such a document you cannot be admitted.

The UN in times of global challenges; insights from the security council

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Spring Meeting, 18 April 2019
Room 2.02, Wijnhavengebouw, Leiden
University, The Hague

This year, the KNVIR devoted its Spring Meeting to the role the UN, and more particularly the UN Security Council, are playing in a world full of challenges, including attacks on multilateralism and, linked to that, fickle leadership in a broader sense. The meeting was jointly organised with the Netherlands United Nations Association (NVVN) (represented by dr Otto Spijkers), the The Hague University of Applied Sciences (HHS) and Leiden University (both represented by prof. Alanna O’Malley).

Ambassador Karel van Oosterom

Ambassador Karel van Oosterom

Introductory speeches were given by ambassadors Karel van Oosterom, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of The Netherlands to the United Nations and in 2018 the primary ‘occupant’ of the Dutch chair in the Security Council, and Peter Wilson, who was deputy UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017 and now is the UK’s Ambassador to the Netherlands and UK Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Commentators were asked to provide insights on three key topics: (1) water conflicts (dr Susanne Schmeier, TU Delft); (2) international criminal law and the Responsibility to Protect (Kirsten Meersschaert, M.A, Director of Programs of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court and the Responsibility to Protect of the World Federalist Movement Institute for Global Policy); and (3) the functioning of UN Peace Operations (Dr Jaïr van der Lijn, Director of the Peace Operations and Conflict Management Programme of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)).

The meeting attracted some 130 people. Buzz Master was engaged to allow the audience to respond to a number of questions electronically and to interact with the presenters. The screen shot below of the responses to the question asked at the outset and again at the end of the meeting gives a good idea of how well this worked.

BuzzMaster screen shot

BuzzMaster screen shot

Each of the individuals attending the event will have had his or her own ‘takeaway’s’. Some may have gained ideas that can be used for a BA or MA thesis, or benefited from the possibility to do some networking and thinking about future careers. Others may have been informed more generally about what is going on in the world and to what extent the UN are able to address these challenges.

It became clear once again that the manifold UN objectives – most prominently in the field of peace and security, development, human rights and climate change – are extremely complex and often lead to paradoxical situations. Working within

the UN is thus a process of give and take, often as regards problems for which no easy answers exist. It also became clear once again that the UN are ‘owned’ by states with totally different regimes and ambitions, that the organization has to make the best out of issues that in many ways transcend the member states’ capacities, and that even then the lack of political will regularly blocks workable solutions. And importantly: some UN member states ‘are more equal than others’ (the P5). Both ambassadors indicated they do not expect this is likely to change and that the focus should be on options bypassing that particular reform discussion, rather than accepting to be paralyzed by it. The ambassadors as well as the commentators demonstrated what it is like to work in the UN and what the main challenges are in that respect. Large parts of the discussion focused on the instruments the UN have at their disposal, including regularly the lack thereof, thus offering the audience a very interesting and multi-layered reality- check.

The UN in Times of Global Challenges

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Insights from the Security Council

On 18 April, a joint meeting with the Netherlands United Nations Association (NVVN), the The Hague University of Applied Sciences (HHS) and Leiden University was held at the Wijnhavengebouw of Leiden University’s Campus in The Hague.

Ambassadors Karel van Oosterom, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of The Netherlands to the United Nations, and Peter Wilson, former Deputy Representative of the UK to the UN, spoke for an audience of approximately 130 members en non-members.  A brief report of the meeting will be published here soon.

A successful Annual General Meeting was held on 2 November

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Climate change, the subject of this year’s Annual General Meeting, drew a large crowd to the Wijnhavengebouw of Leiden University’s The Hague campus on 2 November.  Almost 120 members and non-members came to hear prof. Ellen Hey, dr. Federica Violi, prof. Jaap Spier and prof. Fred Soons present the reports they had written and many of them participated in the lively debate that followed the presentations.

A full report of the proceedings will be published on this website as soon as it is available.

Annual General Meeting 2018 on 2 November

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CLIMATE CHANGE:
OPTIONS AND DUTIES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

Annual Meeting of the
ROYAL NETHERLANDS SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
on Friday 2 November 2018 at 1:30 P.M.

Room 3.60, Wijnhavengebouw, Campus The Hague, Leiden University

Turfmarkt 99, 2511 DP  The Hague

Looking away is no option anymore:  Climate change is a serious threat to the world and to mankind, even if we fully live up to the obligations and commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement.  The Special Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that came out this month made it clear that every effort must be made without delay to limit global warming to 1.5° C.

International law can help to realise our vitally important climate goals.  With that in mind the Board of the Society has commissioned three papers that approach climate change from different legal perspectives:  human rights, liability under private law and the law of the sea.

At the 2018 Annual Meeting the authors will present their papers.  The presentations will be followed by a debate in which the audience will have the opportunity to participate.

SPEAKERS:

Prof.dr Ellen Hey and Dr Federica Violi

The Hard Work of Regime Interaction: –
Climate Change and Human Rights

Prof.mr dr Jaap Spier

Private Law as a Crowbar for Coming to Grips with Climate Change?

Prof.mr dr Fred H.A. Soons

An Ocean under Stress:  Climate Change and the Law of the Sea

* * * * *

Mr Roger H.J. Cox

Mr Roger Cox has been invited to deliver a presentation on procedural aspects of climate related court cases, based on his personal experience as a practising lawyer.  In his book Revolution Justified (2011) Mr Cox defended the position that the state can be held liable under private law for failing to take its responsibility for the climate.  He represented Urgenda when it won its climate case against the State of the Netherlands in 2015 (the decision was upheld on appeal this month) and currently he heads the legal team of Friends of the Earth (Milieudefensie) who are preparing a case against Shell based on its obligations under the Paris Agreement.
      At 1:00 P.M. the Annual General Meeting of the KNVIR will be held, to which only members are admitted.

The presentation of the biennial François Prize will take place immediately following the members-only part of the meeting, at approximately 1:30 P.M.

Non-members interested in the subject of the meeting are welcome to attend the presentation of the François Prize, as well as the presentations and the discussion of the papers.

The presentations and discussion will be held in English.

The printed version of the papers has been published by T.M.C. Asser Press in The Hague and may be ordered by non-members by applying to .  Members have received the papers via regular mail.

Coffee and tea will be available from 12:30 P.M. onwards.

      PLEASE NOTE:  If you wish to attend the meeting, you are kindly requested to register in advance at .

The PDF version of this announcement can be found here.

 

Theo van Boven – Maastricht Human Rights Research Prize 2018

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The jury of the Theo van Boven – Maastricht Human Rights Research Prize 2018 is looking for excellent young researchers in the field of human rights law, international criminal law or international humanitarian law. Nominations must be received by 15 September 2018.

The Prize consists of 3.000 Euro and a seminar on a subject chosen by the laureate, organized together with the International Law Department and the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights of Maastricht Law faculty. The winner will be announced on Human Rights Day 2018.

The nomination must identify the PhD thesis of the nominee or other substantial academic work in this field and a motivation must be attached as to the quality of the researcher nominated. Nominations on the basis of publications in Dutch, English, French, as well as German are welcome. Self-nominations or nominations by close relatives will not be accepted.

For more info, and to nominate someone, see this website.

78th Biennial Conference of the International Law Association, in Sydney 19-24 August 2018

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The ILA Australian Branch is pleased to announce that the conference website for the 78th Biennial Conference of the International Law Association, which will be held in Sydney 19-24 August 2018 is now live. The website will be updated in coming weeks with further details on the programme, registration details and conference fees. You can also follow the official ILA 2018 Conference Facebook page.