Announcements: Global Law at Reading Gandhi Research Seminar Series; EU and International Diplomatic Law and Politics Workshop; CfP Institutional Approaches to Dispute Settlement; Enforced Disappearance Legal Database; Human Right to Science Colloquium; CfP International Community Law Review Special Issue

1. Global Law at Reading: Gandhi Research Seminar Series 2023/24. Global Law at Reading (GLAR) has announced the speakers for the Gandhi Research Seminar Series 2023/24. Two of the seminars in the Autumn term will take place in-person, and one will take place online (there will be no hybrid option). All are welcome. The seminars are as follows. 1. Pål Wrange, University of Stockholm, ‘Why we need sovereignty in ‘cyberspace’, and what is problematic about it’ , 10 October 2023, 1-2pm, Palmer 111, Whiteknights Campus. 2. Christine Schwobel-Patel, ‘ Legal Pipelines of the Green Transition: Frontiers of Extractivism’, 9 November 2023, 1-2pm, Palmer 111, Whiteknights Campus. 3. Aoife O’Donoghue, Queen’s University Belfast, ‘Tyrannicide: What’s Love got to do with it?’, 29 November, 12-1pm online on MS Teams (link to join). Speakers in the Spring Term include Lt. Col. Justin Freeland (US Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps and British Army Legal Services); Dr Miles Jackson (University of Oxford); Professor Sandesh Sivakumaran (University of Cambridge) and Professor Kimberley Trapp (University College London). Dates and times will be advertised in due course.

2. The EU and International Diplomatic Law and Politics: Views From the Outside. This Jean Monnet workshop will take place on 20 October 2023 and offers an in-depth discussion of how EU diplomacy is perceived by countries around the globe and what the EU can learn from these experiences. The workshop convenes experts from different strategic partners around the world to explore EU diplomacy from the perspectives of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Singapore, South Africa as well as neighbouring countries such as Israel, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, North Macedonia, and Norway. More information can be found here. 

3. Call for Papers: Common Interests and Common Spaces – Institutional Approaches to Dispute Settlement. The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University is inviting abstracts for a workshop on ‘Common Interests and Common Spaces: Institutional Approaches to Dispute Settlement’ to be held in The Hague on Wednesday 13 December 2023. This event kicks off a new series of events hosted by the Leiden Forum on the Architecture of International Justice, and will feature a keynote from Professor Malgosia Fitzmaurice (Queen Mary University London). More info can be found here.  If you would like to participate in this workshop, send an abstract (max. 300 words) and CV (including a list of any published work) to both l.lo.giacco@law.leidenuniv.nl and b.k.mcgarry@law.leidenuniv.nl by 28 September 2023. Clearly indicate ‘CfP Institutional Approaches’ in the subject of your email. Small funding is available. 

4. EHRAC Launches New Version of Enforced Disappearance Legal Database. The European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) has published a new version of its Enforced Disappearance Legal Database (EDLD). The EDLD – the first and only resource of its kind for those seeking to litigate cases involving enforced disappearance – has been expanded to include nearly 200 case summaries, drawn from the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights, UN treaty bodies, and domestic courts. It also now provides international standards on enforced disappearances as set out in international humanitarian law and international criminal law, in addition to the previously-available information on international and regional human rights systems. The EDLD launched in August 2022, the result of a two-year research project completed with the involvement of domestic and international legal experts. Content is available in English, Spanish, French and Russian.

5. Doctoral Colloquium on Current Research on the Human Right to Science. The Chair for Public International and European Law at the University of Fribourg is organizing a doctoral colloquium on “Current Research on the Human Right to Science”, which takes place on 6 – 7 September 2024 in Fribourg, Switzerland. It invites advanced doctoral students in the disciplines of international (human rights) law, public and constitutional law, political science, philosophy of science, and political and legal philosophy to submit a proposal for a paper stemming from their current research on any aspect of the human right to participate in and enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications. An anonymized abstract (max. 1’000 words) and a short CV should be sent to katja.achermann {at} unifr(.)ch by 15 November 2023. The detailed call for papers as well as further information on the doctoral colloquium can be found here.

6. Call for Papers: International Community Law Review Special Issue – The Evolving Role of International Judicial Advisory Opinions. Guest Editors: Dr Kathryn Allinson and Beril Sogut, University of Bristol. There is currently a proliferation of requests for advisory opinions on increasingly wider-ranging issues, including three requests for advisory opinions on climate change pending before the ICJ, ITLOS and the IAHR. Authors are invited to explore what has prompted this increase in requests and question its impact. For example, how will the advisory opinions of diverse international bodies interact with one another to develop the international legal response to climate change? What is the impact of advisory opinions on addressing global issues, for example, climate change. The organisers would also ask if this proliferation signals that the legal character of advisory opinions could be evolving and how is this affecting their practical usefulness? In 2010, Aust wrote that the ICJ should exercise its discretion and refuse a request for an advisory opinion when the issue is politically controversial. Given the increasingly political nature of advisory opinion requests, what does this mean for the ICJ’s role in upholding or refusing requests? Authors may also question the nonbinding nature of advisory opinions, especially given that ITLOS has recently provided a novel interpretation of the legal effects of the ICJ advisory opinions as precedents and the recent comments from the ILC. Deadline for paper proposals: 1 December 2023. Full details can be found here.