Announcements: Job Openings at Max Planck Luxembourg, Law of the Sea Conference in Ghent, Call for Rapporteurs for Refugee Law Conference

1.  The Max Planck Institute Luxembourg announces openings for Research Fellows and Senior Research Fellows in public international law and procedural law. Research Fellow (PhD candidate) (m/f): The Institute would like to appoint highly qualified candidates for 5 open positions as “Research Fellow” with Professor Hélène Ruiz Fabri. The research fellow will conduct legal research (contribution to common research projects and own publications), particularly in the field of public international law and international procedural law (including European law and all kinds of international arbitration). Candidates are expected to write their own dissertation (PhD thesis) in one of the aforementioned fields of research, while participating in in-depth knowledge exchange and support among other research fellows. Details available here. Senior Research Fellow (Postdoc) (m/f): The Institute would like to appoint highly qualified candidates for 2 open positions as “Senior Research Fellow” with Professor Hélène Ruiz Fabri. The senior research fellow will conduct postdoctoral research (own publications and contribution to common research projects), particularly in the field of public international law and international procedural law (including European law and all kinds of international arbitration), while playing a central role in undertaking and developing team-driven projects within the Institute and in partnership with international collaborators. Details available here.

 2.  On 13-14 November 2014, Ghent University (UGent) will be hosting an international two-day conference at the occasion  of the twentieth anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The conference, organized in partnership with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Université catholique de Louvain – Mons (UCL-Mons) and the Université libre de Bruxelles, will pause at the success of the Montego Bay Convention in governing the use of the oceans. At the same time, it will look ahead and examine to what extent the Convention is properly equipped to withstand the various challenges ahead, including, for instance, competing territorial and maritime claims in the South and East China Seas and in the Arctic, the fight against piracy, future exploitation of the deep sea bed, ocean pollution, the increased recourse to the UNCLOS dispute settlement regime, etc. The conference will bring together expert scholars from within and without Europe, as well as practitioners and civil servants (e.g., ITLOS, International Seabed Authority, FAO), to broach the underlying issues from a legal as well as a more policy-oriented perspective. Four different panels will respectively address the importance of UNCLOS for the maintenance of international peace and security; its importance for the global economy; for the protection of the marine environment, and; the Convention’s compulsory dispute settlement mechanism. A keynote lecture will tackle the United States position vis-à-vis the Convention. Detailed information (including programme, venue and registration details) can be found on the conference website.

3.  Call for rapporteurs for the (2^nd) Symposium on the Protection of People Fleeing Armed Conflict. The Law Faculty of the University of Luxembourg and the UNHCR are seeking rapporteurs for the (2^nd) Symposium on the Protection of People Fleeing Armed Conflict, which will take place on 20 October 2014 in Luxembourg.  The subject of the symposium will be the legal protection of people fleeing armed conflict and other situations of violence, examined in the context of the UNHCR’s new Guidelines for the Protection of People Fleeing Violence and Conflict Across Borders, and recent developments in the case law of European regional and national courts. Rapporteurs will assist the editor of the conference report.  The main responsibilities are the following:

• Write summaries of selected Symposium sessions
• Assist the facilitator during the Symposium to ensure the event runs smoothly.

We invite junior scholars (PhDs, post-docs, and fellows) with research interests in the field to submit their CVs (in English) and a sample of their work (ideally on refugee law) to matthew.happold {at} uni(.)lu before 31 August 2014. The Fonds National de la Recherche – Luxembourg will cover the costs of travel and accommodation for the rapporteurs.