News - Page 5

Postdoctoral Fellow Michelle Q. Zang is on a three-months research stay at the Lauterpacht Centre at the University of Cambridge. She hopes to benefit of the specialized research community and receive valuable input for her ongoing work in the field of trade law.

Professor James Nickel (University of Miami) visits PluriCourts on 28 September - 2 October 2015. He is one of five permanent PluriCourts Research Fellows and contributes substantively to the research under the MultiRights project.

PluriCourts supports the GQUAL campaign, which promotes gender parity in international courts and tribunals. A recent survey reveals that 32,5% of all members of international tribunals and monitoring bodies are women. Taking only into account courts, the proportion of women decreases to 17,6%.

After the panel debate on The Refugee Crisis: The European Response at the ESIL Conference, international lawyers initiated an open letter. They condemn the failure to offer protection to people seeking refuge in Europe, and the lack of respect for the human rights of those seeking refuge.

PluriCourts Director Geir Ulfstein published a response to a current debate about the lessons learned from the military intervention in Libya in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. He states that the public and political discussions lack focus on the international law aspects of the use of force. This weakens the authority of international law and the UN Security Council. Read the op-ed (in Norwegian).

Research Assistant Tori Loven Kirkebø published an op-ed in the Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende. She argues that the Norwegian government should abandon its plans to conclude bilateral investment treaties. Read the entire article (in Norwegian).

From 21 September - 2 October, Professor Tania Voon (University of Melbourne) will strengthen the trade team at PluriCourts.

400 international law scholars and practitioners gathered in Oslo on 10-12 September to discuss the judicialization of international law. The webcasts and photos from the 11th ESIL Annual Conference are available online.

Three guests will contribute to our larger projects this week: Oran Young (University of California), Jeffrey Dunoff (Temple University) and Erik Voeten (Georgetown University).

PhD Candidate Rosa Manzo cautions against too high hopes for the climate  negotiations in Paris in December. The world community struggles to reach an agreement on how to tackle climate change. It is yet unclear how strong the commitments will be, and whether it will be possible to sanction those who do not fulfil their climate goals?

Two new researchers will bolster the international criminal law research at PluriCourts. Joanna Nicholson and Kjersti Lohne will both contribute to the edited book The Legitimacy and Effectiveness of International Criminal Tribunals.

Professor Alec Stone Sweet (Yale Law School) will be at PluriCourts this week to participate in several seminars and workshops.

Svalbard has been a part of the Kingdom of Norway for 90 years. On this occasion, Thor Bjørn Arlov and PluriCourts director Geir Ulfstein published an op-ed in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. Read the full article (in Norwegian). 

Tarald Laudal Berge was interviewed by the Norwegian newspaper, Dagens Perspektiv,on his views regarding the negotiations of Norway's new draft model agreement.

Two guest researchers join PluriCourts on 3 August: Andrew Mitchell (Melbourne University) and Gus Van Harten (York University, Canada).

The next climate agreement will be adopted in December 2015. It should not uphold the current division between developed and developen countries' responsibilities for climate change. Economy and society have changed, calling for a new interpretation of equity, writes PhD Candidate Rosa Manzo. 

MultiRights PhD candidate Nino Tsereteli successfully defended her PhD thesis. The topic was "Legal Validity and Legitimacy of the Pilot Judgment Procedure of the European Court of Human Rights".

PluriCourts coordinator Ole Kristian Fauchald and co-director Andreas Føllesdal published an op-ed in the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. Read the full text (pdf., in Norwegian).

"The states parties must have intended that the Convention should serve its purpose of protecting human rights under changing circumstances and developments in societal values", PluriCourts director Geir Ulfstein said at a conference organised by the European Court of Human Rights. View the video (starting at 02:30) or read the text of the presentation (SSRN).

Submit a paper for the international symposium on ‘The Present and Future Role of Investment Treaty Arbitration in Adjudicating Environmental Disputes’ (Oslo, 5-6 November 2015). The submission deadline is 15 July 2015. Go to the symposium page or read the full call.

PluriCourts coordinator Ole Kristian Fauchald was interviewed by the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen. The Norwegian government's proposal for future investment agreements between Norway and other states may limit the Norwegian politicians' scope of action, he says.

Directors of PluriCourts, Geir Ulfstein and Andreas Føllesdal disagree with the critics of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Klassekampen. Read the article here (in Norwegian, pdf).

On 22 April, PluriCourts Coordinator Cecilia Bailliet took part in a panel debate on the topic "The Greatest Threat to World Peace – and what we need to know more about to face it". The event was organized by the Research School on Peace and Conflict, and took place at the University of Oslo Library. For more information, see the event page at PRIO's website.

Scholars are invited to submit paper proposals for the workshop "The European Court of Human Rights: Promoter or Predator of Democratic Transitions?", which takes place 19-20 September in Istanbul. The deadline for submitting an abstract is 1 August, and the deadline for submitting a full paper is 1 September.

Karen Alter's book The New Terrain of International Law received the American Society of International Law's highest award for a book published in 2014: The Certificate of Merit for a Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship.