Announcements: Critical Perspectives on Race and Human Rights Conference; UN Audiovisual Library of International Law; Judicial Power of Africa’s Supranational Courts Conference; Politics and the Histories of International Law Conference

1. Critical Perspectives on Race and Human Rights Conference. UCLA’s Critical Race Studies Program, Promise Institute for Human Rights, International and Comparative Law Program and Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs are planning a one-day conference at UCLA School of Law on Friday, 8 March 2019. Critical Perspectives on Race and Human Rights: Transnational Reimaginings will explore critical topics in contemporary international human rights law from the joint perspectives of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL). The deadline for submissions is Monday 1 October, 2018, by 5pm Pacific Time.  The call for papers is available here. 

2. New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs has added the following lectures to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law website: Dr. Hussein Hassouna on “The International Law Commission: Challenges and Achievements”, Mr. Pavel Šturma on “Succession of States and State Responsibility” and Mr. Yacouba Cissé on “La problématique de la délimitation des frontières maritimes: généralités et contexte africain”. The UN Audiovisual Library of International Law provides high quality international law training and research materials to users around the world free of charge.

3. The Judicial Power of Africa’s Supranational Courts Conference. Africa boasts a high number of supranational courts, but at the same time there appears to be a widespread lack of willingness among Member States to comply with rulings issued by these courts. The conference will address this paradox and investigate which forms of judicial power are being favoured by African States on the one hand and African supranational courts on the other. The conference will be held at the University of Luxembourg on 21 September 2018. It will analyse to what extent approaches of activism or, conversely, restraint, are being considered as legitimate and effective by these actors. The conference will address dynamics that are potentially common to supranational institutions operating in different fields of law, such as the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Court of Justice and Arbitration of the Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires (OHADA), and the East African Court of Justice. Further information is here. 

4. Politics and the Histories of International Law Conference. On 15 and 16 February 2019, an international conference will be held at the Max Planck Institute for International Law in Heidelberg, Germany, under the auspices of the Journal of the History of International Law. The conference deals with the correlation of politics and international law and its implication for the writing of the history of international law. Scholars from all over the world will discuss their thoughts on the subject in a variety of panels. The conference organizers encourage interested scholars to apply for participation as engaged listeners. More information can be found here.