Announcements: Call for Papers and Panels, ICON-S Conference (NY); BIICL Seminar on Interpretation in International Law; ILA British Branch (Spring Conference); Doctoral Grants (Brussels); New Additions to UN AV Library; CfP on Ecology of Governance (NY); CfP Irish Journal of European Law

1)  ICON-S 2015 Conference in New York City, July 1-3, 2015—Call for Papers & Panels—Public Law in an Uncertain World. I-CONnect is pleased to announce the Call for Papers & Panels below for the 2015 Conference of ICON-S: the International Society of Public Law. ICON-S, a new international learned society now entering its second year, is guided by a Pro Term Executive Committee featuring many of the world’s leading scholars in the field of public law. This edition of the ICON-S Conference will be held in New York City, on July 1-3, 2015, at the New York University School of Law. The conference will feature plenary and concurrent panels. Scholars–both senior and junior, including graduate students, as well as practitioners–are invited to submit papers and/or fully-formed panels for the conference. The full call for papers and panels is here.

2) On 14 May 2015, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) will host a seminar on ‘Interpretation in International Law: The Object, the Players, the Rules, and the Strategies’. This is the next event in the Temple Garden Chambers Seminar Series in International Adjudication. Interpretation in international law is usually referred to as an art or a science. These perspectives imply that interpretation is a static exercise, tied to the rules in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). However, in today’s international legal reality, characterised by the proliferation of international judicial bodies and a variety of participants before them, such understandings have become too narrow. Although the VCLT remains the primary legal source, there is no doubt that interpretation in international law has become a complex and purposeful process, which involves numerous players (litigators, judges, academics, NGO counsels, legal advisers) who devise various strategies to bring a case to a persuasive conclusion. This event will explore the dynamic understanding of interpretation of international law before international and English courts. Speakers will include: Professor Andrea Bianchi (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva); Professor David D. Caron (The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London); Shaheed Fatima (Blackstone Chambers) and Professor Larissa van den Herik (Leiden Law School). The event will be chaired by Rodney Dixon QC (Temple Garden Chambers).  Find out more and book online on the BIICL website. Download the Event Flyer here .

3) The University of Essex is hosting the Spring Conference of the International Law Association (British Branch) on 29^th – 30^th May 2015, on the theme of ‘International Law as a Mechanism for Justice’. The keynote speakers will be: Howard Morrison CBE QC, Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Professor Francesco Francioni, European University Institute. The provisional programme and information on registration and accommodation are available at here. Please ensure that you register by 14th May.  Should you have any queries about the conference, please feel free to get in touch at the following address: ilaconference2015 {at} essex.ac(.)uk.

4) Université libre de Bruxelles – Faculty of Law, ARC “Strategic Litigation: Using Courts to Achieve Social Change? Fighting Poverty and Impunity in Judicial Arenas.” Call for applications for two doctoral grants in law (Deadline: 15 June 2015). More details available here.

5) Announcements: New additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added new lectures to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law  website, which provides high quality international law training and research materials to an unlimited number of recipients around the world free of charge. The latest lectures were given by Professor Guy S. Goodwin-Gill on “Migrants’ Rights”, Professor Bing Bing Jia on “The Regime of International Straits: Current State of the Law” and by Professor Lea Brilmayer on “The Problem of Secession in International Law”.

6)  Call for Papers, Indicators and the Ecology of Governance. On July 6-7, 2015, the Institute for International Law and Justice (IILJ) at New York University School of Law will convene a conference on indicators and the ecology of governance. This conference has three objectives: to take stock and analyze key ideas from very recent work in the field; to bring together interested scholars and celebrate the launch of several recent books on indicators in global governance; and above all to explore promising directions in current and future research, with a particular focus on the dynamics or ecology of governance in which indicators are one of several competing technologies. More details are available here.

7) Irish Journal of European Law, Call for Papers: Reminder. The Irish Society for European Law recently re-launched the Irish Journal of European Law as an e-journal. The Journal, which has been published since 1992, is a leading international journal on European law edited by Irish scholars and practitioners. The 2014 volume is now available on the Society’s website. The Journal – which is blind peer-reviewed – is now issuing a call for original papers for its 2015 volume. The call is available here. Submissions are to be sent to ijel.submissions {at} gmail(.)com by Friday 15^th May 2015.