Announcements: CfS Max Planck Institute; Odysseus Academic Network Annual Conference; Economic and Social Rights Tools; International Investment Law and Constitutional Law Workshop; UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

1. Call for Submissions: Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law invites the submission of proposals for a panel entitled “The Authoritarian Pushback and the Resilience of International Institutions” at the upcoming ICON Society annual conference in Hong Kong. More than a decade after the emergence of public law approaches to international institutions, such as Global Administrative Law, Global Constitutionalism, or International Public Authority, the international system has changed dramatically. The panel will address several research questions that emerge from this situation: How does the authoritarian, nationalist pushback change international institutions, including international courts, and how do these changes affect their problem-solving capacity? How does the authoritarian, nationalist pushback affect the legitimacy of international institutions, including international courts? How resilient are international institutions, including international courts, against the authoritarian, nationalist pushback, and which strategies do they adopt? Scholars of all levels are invited to submit proposals of up to 500 words by 20 January 2018 to ipa2018 {at} mpil(.)de. Successful applicants will receive financial support for their travel expenses of up to 1000 euros.

2. Odysseus Academic Network Annual Conference. The Odysseus Academic Network is organising its annual Conference on 1 February 2018 in Brussels, under the title “Conflict and Compromises between Law and Politics in EU Migration and Asylum Policies”. This event is an opportunity for academics and policy makers to exchange views on the current developments in the field of EU migration and asylum law and policy and beyond. For further information on the Conference, see here.  

3. University of Nottingham and the Equality and Human Rights Commission Tools on Economic and Social Rights. Economic and social rights is a crucial area of human rights law that has long been relatively marginalised. This is despite the fact that the rights to  housing, work, an adequate standard of living, food, social security, education, water and the highest attainable standard of health are central to human survival and development. Responding to that gap, this ESRC IAA-funded collaboration between the University of Nottingham (led by Professor Aoife Nolan) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission of Great Britain has produced a set of publicly accessible, capacity-building tools and resources on economic and social rights. They are directed towards civil society, policymakers, academics and others with a background in human rights and an interest in learning more about economic and social rights. More information on the project, the videos and supporting materials (including lists of open access resources on ESR and video transcripts) are available here, while individual episodes can be linked to from here.

4. International Investment Law and Constitutional Law – Frankfurt Investment Law Workshop 2018. This Workshop is to be held at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main in Germany on 9 and 10 March 2018. International investment law and constitutional law have, for a long time, kept maximum distance from each other. Unlike in respect of other areas of international law, constitutional courts and constitutional law scholars, in most jurisdictions, have largely ignored international investment law and its constitutional law implications. Similarly, international investment law and investor-state dispute settlement as a whole have not paid much heed to constitutional law and constitutional legal analysis. This mutual disciplinary ignorance is coming under increased pressure, as constitutional courts around the world are being called to address the constitutional limits of international investment law and investment dispute settlement. Similarly, investment tribunals increasingly face constitutional law arguments, and investment law scholarship promotes the use of constitutional legal analysis to step up to the challenges the field is facing as an instrument of global governance. This Workshop will explore the different facets of this increasing interaction and critically analyze the opportunities and challenges this interaction creates. Registration is by 20 February 2018. For further information, see here. 

5. New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. To commemorate International Human Rights Day and the upcoming 70^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Codification Division of the Office of Legal Affairs added a two-part interview with Judge Thomas Buergenthal by Professor Sean Murphy. In this interview, Judge Buergenthal shares some personal moments from his life as well as his extensive experience in international law and, in particular, his invaluable contribution to the development of international human rights law. All interested parties are invited to visit the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law to watch the interview.