Call for Expressions of Interest, Panel on SAARC Due Diligence Mechanism at the Indian Society for International Law Conference, October 2024

The SAARC Due Diligence Panel deliberates on the establishment of a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Due Diligence Mechanism, similar to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Committee, headquartered in New Delhi. The issue of gender-based violence (GBV) is endemic to the subcontinent with women lacking an effective redressal mechanism. Frequently the jurisdiction of crimes of GBV are lumped together with other jurisdictions like family law and property issues. This lack of a specialized mechanism results in diluted and inefficacious solutions. The Due Diligence Obligation (DDO) to the CEDAW clearly states that states have a duty to prevent, prosecute and punish all forms of violence against women. 

The SAARC Due Diligence Mechanism is intended to effectuate India’s compliance obligations under the CEDAW. Arguably India has advanced a Declaration to its CEDAW obligations in respect of safeguarding its Personal Status Laws. This raises a number of key questions. How will this impact the issue of GBV under the Mechanism? What will establishing a SAARC Due Diligence Mechanism entail for peace in the region? Arguably the relationship between India and Pakistan is characterized by Hobbesian anarchy and warfare? Does this situation make international law fundamentally incompatible in the region? Can the endemic anarchy not be replaced by a gendered peace? Is it possible to open a new channel of gendered diplomatic communication that supersedes the situation of Hobbesian anarchy? Can we present a cogent case to the Government of India to undertake this measure to subvert the situation of terrorism in the subcontinent? 

The Indian Society for International Law are currently accepting expressions of interest for its panel at its Conference on 25-27 October 2024 on the promulgation of a SAARC Due Diligence Mechanism, which will submit recommendations to the Government of India. Expression of interests should be submitted before 1 October 2024 to Shritha Vasudevan at [email protected] or +91 800 8554370.

Calls for Applications: Assistant Editors and Co-Editor-in-Chief, ILA Reporter

The ILA Reporter is calling for applications for Assistant Editors and for an Editor-in-Chief.

Assistant Editors work in collaboration with the current Assistant Editors and Editors-in-Chief of the ILA Reporter. Applications are due on Monday 30 September 2024.

What is the ILA Reporter?

The ILA Reporter is the official blog of the Australian Branch of the International Law Association (ILA). The ILA was founded in Brussels in 1873. It has consultative status, as an international non-governmental organisation, with a number of the United Nations specialised agencies. The ILA Reporter provides analysis, commentary and discussion on issues in public and private international law which have bearing on Australia and the wider region, as well as publicising relevant events and opportunities for education to its audience.

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Calls for Submissions: Nygh and Brennan Prizes and International Law and Event: Sea Level Rise Webinar, 10 September 2024

Brennan and Nygh Prizes

The Australian Branch is now calling for submissions for the 2024 Brennan Essay Prize in Public International Law and the Nygh Essay Prize in Private International Law. 

These two prizes are named, respectively, in honour of Sir Gerard Brennan, former Chief Justice of Australia and Patron of the Branch, and Dr Peter Nygh, a leading Australian scholar of private international law and former President of the Branch. 

The prizes are awarded for essays that demonstrate outstanding scholarship. The Brennan Essay Prize is awarded to the author of an essay in the field of public international law. The Nygh Essay Prize is awarded to the author of an essay in private international law (conflict of laws), including in the field of international commercial arbitration. Essays for the prize to be awarded in 2024 should be sent to the email address of the Secretary of the Australian Branch at [email protected].

Further details (including conditions of entry) are available here. The deadline for submission is: 31 July 2024.

The results will be made available on the website of the ILA (www.ila.org.au) on approximately 31 August 2024. Winners will be notified by email. 

Event: Sea Level Rise Webinar

The Final Report of the International Law Association’s Committee on International Law and Sea Level Rise was adopted at the 2024 Biennial Conference in Athens. In this webinar, the Australian members of this ILA Committee will reflect on the work of the Committee across diverse facets of international law in its encounters with the issue of sea-level rise, including with respect to statehood and the rights of affected populations. More information about the Committee’s work is available here

Speakers:

· Emeritus Scientia Professor Rosemary Rayfuse, UNSW Sydney

· Professor Donald R Rothwell, Australian National University

· Professor Clive Schofield, University of Wollongong

· Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO, UNSW Sydney

Chair: Dr Callista Harris, ILA(Australia) Director of Studies, 7 Wentworth Selborne Chambers

The seminar will be held online Tuesday 10 September at 5.30pm for ILA members. The link to register is here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/international-law-and-sea-level-rise-webinar-tickets-985097742867.

The Metamorphosis of Soft Law in Mauritius/Maldives: Part 2 – Jack McNally

In the Volume 28 of the Australian International Law Journal, I contributed an article on the preliminary objections judgment of the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (‘ITLOS’) in Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius/Maldives case).  In that article, I proposed some ideas as to how strategic litigation can be employed to ‘metamorphose’ soft law instruments into hard law, and provided some thoughts on the practical effect of a judgment rendered in favour of a Small Island Developing State over the objection of a much more powerful State.  Since that time, ITLOS published its judgment on the merits of the Mauritius/Maldives case.  In this post, I provide a brief summary of the merits judgment and reflect on how the commentary in my initial article has held up over time.

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Call for Submissions: Australian International Law Journal, 29 September 2023

The Australian International Law Journal (AILJ), published by the International Law Association (Australian Branch), is calling for papers on topics of public or private international law for its forthcoming volume. 

Papers should range from between 6,000 and 12,000 words. Case notes (2,000-3,000 words) and book reviews (1,000 words) within the areas of public or private international law are also welcome. 

The AILJ offers established and developing scholars the opportunity to publish high quality refereed scholarship on topics of public and private international law. The ILA is a global organisation, which plays a pre-eminent role in the progressive development of international law.  From a modest beginning in 1983 as Australian International Law News, the AILJ has become a peer-reviewed law journal of international standing.  

Papers on any topic of public or private international law should be submitted by email to the Editor in Chief at [email protected]. The deadline for submissions is 29 September 2023. Accepted submissions will be published in Volume 30 of the AILJ.

More information on the submission of articles, notes and reviews is available in the AILJ Guidelines for Authors.

2022 Nygh Hague Conference Internship Report

The International Law Association (Australian Branch) and the Australian Institute of International Affairs is pleased to share the Nygh Hague Conference Internship Report completed by 2022 participant Rachel Van Der Veen ahead of the pending deadline for the 2024 Internship.

Ms Van Der Veen participated in the Internship from 29 August 2022 to 27 January 2023 and worked mainly across the HCCH Conference on Commercial, Digital and Financial Law Across Borders (CODIFI Conference), the 2023 Council on General Affairs and Policy and the Special Commission on the 2000 Protection of Adults Convention.

Ms Van Der Veen’s report describing her experience is now available online. To learn more about the 2024 Nygh Internship (for which applications close on 30 September 2023) and to read the reports compiled by previous interns, please visit the AIIA’s website. Ms Van Der Veen will be presenting at the upcoming first session of the Early Career Seminar on Private International Law on 17 August 2023, on the topic Fiduciary Duties and the 1985 Trusts Convention.

ILA (AB) Early Career Seminar Series: Session 1, 17 August 2023

The Australian Branch is pleased to present the first seminar in its 2023 Early Career Seminar Series on topics in private international law. 

The event will be an online lunch time discussion on 17 August 2023 at 1:00pm AEST.

The panel will feature speakers Dr Sarah McKibbin, University of Southern Queensland, presenting The Australian Doctrine of Forum Non Conveniens in Practice and Rachel Van Der Veen, Australian Public Service, presenting Fiduciary Duties and the 1985 Trusts Convention. The commentator for the event will be Dr Brooke Marshall, UNSW Sydney and the session will be chaired by Danielle Kroon, Marque Lawyers.

To obtain further details, and to register, visit Eventbrite.

Events and Opportunities Digest: June 2023

Call for Abstracts: Symposium on ‘Russia, Imperialism, and International Law’ , 3 July 2023

The Walther Schücking Institute for International Law at the University of Kiel, Germany, will host an international symposium on ‘Russia, Imperialism, and International Law’ on 14-16 September 2023. The symposium will discuss Russia’s past and present attempts to (re-)establish its dominance and control in the post-Soviet sphere, with a specific focus on geopolitical (e.g., the concept of the ‘near abroad’), nationality-related (e.g., passportisation), and economic ‘tools of imperialism’. Abstracts should be around 1,000-1,500 words, and must be sent to Professor Andreas von Arnauld <[email protected]> in a single document that also includes a brief CV by 3 July 2023. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to present their research in panels on their respective themes, and following the symposium, to publish their paper in a special focus section in Volume 66 (2023) of the German Yearbook of International Law. Full details can be found here.

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Domestic Prosecution of War Crimes in Australia and Its Implications Abroad – Molly Thomas

On 20 March 2023, the Australian Federal Police (‘AFP’) and Office of the Special Investigator (‘OSI’) issued a press release announcing that a New South Wales man had been arrest and charged with one count of War Crime—Murder under subsection 268.70(1) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). It is alleged that the man, later identified as former SAS trooper Oliver Schulz, shot and murdered an Afghan man in a wheat field in Uruzgan Province while deployed to Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force (‘ADF’). This incident was the subject of an ABC Four Corners program in March 2020.

Division 268 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code was inserted to create offences of ‘international concern’ and to incorporate the complementarity principles of the Rome Statute, per section 268.1(1) and (2).  Section 268.70 falls within Subdivision F of this Division, which specifically focuses on war crimes which are serious violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions committed in non-international armed conflicts, of which murder is one.

This is the first war crime charge of murder to be laid against a serving or former Australian Defence Force member under Australian law. This article examines the background of this prosecution and its implications for Australia, its allies and the road ahead for domestic prosecution of war crimes.

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Book Review: ‘China and the International E-commerce and Digital Trade Law’– David Markus

This is a review of Dr. Jie (Jeanne) Huang’s China and the International E-commerce and Digital Trade Law: the case of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (University of International Business and Trade Press, August 2022, Beijing China, ISBN: 9787566323989, 262,000 words). Dr Huang is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Law School, specializing in conflict of laws and digital trade. She is the Co-chair of the American Society of International Law Private International Law Interest Group and Co-Director of the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the Sydney Law School. 

Dr Huang’s book, ‘China and the International E-commerce and Digital Trade Law: the case of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership’ is invaluable to stakeholders who are interested in E-commerce and Digital Trade (EDT) with China.  It is also a very useful resource for diplomats and delegations involved in free trade negotiations as it simplifies the four key areas where the PRC has provided simplification of its national and provincial frameworks to assist in navigating complex rules. 

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