Lauterpacht Centre for International Law

Panel: '(Non-)Defining 'Gender' in the Crimes Against Humanity Draft: Possibilities, Alliances, and Strategies'

Feminist activists, country representatives, and other civil society actors have debated how to define “gender” in international criminal law (ICL) for at least three decades. In the Rome Conference that established the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its Statute in 1998, defining “gender” was a hotly debated topic of negotiation. More recently, this debate has resurfaced in the steps leading to the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles for a Crimes Against Humanity Treaty, and continues to be discussed in the deliberations at the Sixth Committee on the Draft Articles. The CAH Convention is now expected to be negotiated between 2026-2029, and, more than a mere point of contention, the concept of ‘gender’ in its text can be crucial for prosecuting sexual and gender-based international crimes and thus fundamental to gender justice efforts worldwide. With this in mind, this roundtable gathers scholars and activists studying and working (often simultaneously) on the definition of gender in international criminal law, in an effort to learn from their specific positionalities, perceptions, and experiences about the challenges, strategies, and possibilities for (non-)defining the term. Speakers: Akila Radhakrishnan (Atlantic Council) Alexandra Lily Kather (Emergent Justice Collective) Dr Rosemary Grey (Sydney Law School) Professor Valerie Oosterveld (Faculty of Law, Western University) Moderators: Dr Juliana Santos de Carvalho (LCIL Fellow and INT ACDF Fellow at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies) Dr Lena Holzer (LCIL Fellow and Assistant Professor in Gender, Race and the Law in the Law Faculty at the University of Cambridge)

Friday Lecture: 'I’m not the Villain I appear to be: Freedom of religion or belief in human rights law' - Prof Nazila Ghanea, University of Oxford

There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome. Register here if attending online Lecture summary: The role of freedom of religion or belief in international human rights law is often overshadowed by reservations on the basis of religion or religious law, and violence or violations in the name of religion in relation to a whole host of rights. And that is before one accounts for the politicisation and instrumentalization of religion for suspect objectives. Freedom of religion or belief therefore appears as the villain and not the ally of human rights. This lecture will explore some of the ways in which freedom of religion or belief has reasserted not only its claim as a human right but as a necessary precursor to advancing other rights. Nazila Ghanea is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford, Director of the MSc in international human rights law, Governing Body Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford and Senior Teaching Fellow at New College, Oxford. She was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief in August 2022. She has also held senior management positions at the University of Oxford and was previously a visiting fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre. She served as a member of the OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2012-2019). Her OUP law monograph on freedom of religion or belief (with Heiner Bielefeldt and Michael Wiener) was awarded the Senior Alberigo Prize by the European Academy of Religion and she was awarded the Religious Liberty Prize by Notre Dame University in 2024. She has published widely in international human rights law and serves on the Editorial Board for the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion and the Cambridge Ecclesiastical Law Journal. The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

Friday Lecture: 'State Immunity: Theory and Practice' - Hussein Haeri KC is a Partner at Withers

There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome. Summary: This lecture will explore the parameters of State immunity at the international level and as reflected in different national legal systems (including England & Wales, the United States and others). It will include an overview of foundational and more recent jurisprudence in international and domestic courts, and will give particular focus to select aspects of State immunity in the context of enforcement against State assets. Hussein Haeri KC is a Partner at Withers in London and Head of the firm's Public International Law Group. He is a King's Counsel and was the only Solicitor Advocate to take Silk in 2024. Hussein has extensive experience as counsel and advocate on international dispute resolution matters for almost 20 years in London, Paris and New York, including before the ICJ, ITLOS, under ICSID and UNCITRAL arbitration rules and in national courts. He has been recognised for many years by the major legal directories including Chambers & Partners, which refers to him as an "outstanding lawyer", and Legal 500 which states that "he combines huge intellectual powers with great client handling". He is a Partner Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, a Senior Fellow at SOAS in London and has lectured at various other universities including the University of Oxford, Sciences Po in Paris and Roma Tre University in Rome. The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

Friday Lecture: 'Governing Sovereign Debt Crises: The Case for International Sovereign Insolvency Law' - Dr Karina Patrício Ferreira Lima, University of Leeds School of Law

There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome. Sovereign debt crises have surged since the end of the Bretton Woods system and currently threaten a lost decade for many countries across the world. Indermit Gill, in the World Bank Group’s 2024 International Debt Report, describes the situation in many of the poorest countries as a ‘metastasising solvency crisis that continues to be misdiagnosed as a liquidity problem’. Despite their severe socioeconomic consequences, no comprehensive legal framework exists to address these crises—arguably the most significant gap in international economic law. This lecture, based on Dr Karina Patrício Ferreira Lima’s forthcoming book Governing Sovereign Debt Crises: The Case for International Sovereign Insolvency Law (Hart Publishing), makes the case for creating such a mechanism under international law. The book challenges prevailing narratives that attribute sovereign debt crises solely to debtor states’ mismanagement or misfortunes, instead arguing that sovereign insolvency is a systemic feature of the international monetary system. Current solutions—voluntary, ad hoc, and fragmented—fail to equitably allocate losses across an increasingly diversified sovereign creditor base, leaving many creditors worse off. At the same time, debtor states and their populations remain vulnerable to macroeconomic crises and enduring austerity, which often lead to long-term economic stagnation. Dr Karina Patrício Ferreira Lima is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on the intersection of law, finance, and sovereign debt within the broader context of global economic governance. Her research portfolio covers the legal governance of sovereign debt crises, the law and policy of international financial institutions, and the macroeconomic impact of financial law and regulation. Dr Patrício advises public entities, NGOs, and leading law firms on various aspects of financial and monetary law, including sovereign debt restructuring, financial regulation, and the governance of international financial institutions. Her work has been recognised with prestigious awards, including the 2022 Society of International Economic Law-Hart Prize and the 2022 John H. Jackson Prize, conferred by the Journal of International Economic Law. She also serves as a peer reviewer for top law and social sciences journals globally. The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

Friday Lecture: 'Potential Legal Limitations on a Russia-Ukraine Peace Agreement' - Prof Gregory Fox, Wayne State University

There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome. Register here if attending online Summary: Does international law place any constraints on a possible Ukraine-Russia peace agreement? While we can only speculate about its contents, two aspects appear certain: Ukraine will be asked to relinquish (at a minimum) territory now occupied by Russia, and it will only contemplate entering into an agreement because Russia invaded its territory. Professor Fox will examine the implications of these and other factors for the validity of an agreement. Gregory H. Fox is a Professor of Law at Wayne State University School of Law, where he is the Director of the Program for International Legal Studies. Professor Fox is an elected member of the American Law Institute. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University, a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Public International Law and Comparative Public Law in Heidelberg, Germany, and a Fellow at the Schell Center for Human Rights at Yale Law School, among other institutions. The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

Evening Lecture: 'The ICJ – Its Role and Limits in the Settlement of Disputes' - Prof Alain Pellet, University Paris-Nanterre

Register to attend Time: 5 pm - 6.15 pm This is an in-person event only. Lecture summary: At no time since the Second World War has the integrity of international law been so threatened, and at no time has there been so much recourse to it. The growing recourse to the ICJ, both in contentious and advisory matters, reflects this phenomenon. The Court, imperturbably - and sometimes courageously - states the law without having the means to ensure respect for it, even if its influence must be neither exaggerated nor neglected. Alain Pellet is Professor Emeritus at the University Paris-Nanterre (Centre de Droit International (CEDIN)). He is a former member and chairperson of the International Law Commission, an honorary President of the French Society for International Law, President of the Institute of International Law and former member of the Panel of ICSID Arbitrators. He is the author of several books and many articles in international law and has appeared before the ICJ in more than 60 cases including Nicaragua v. the USA, the first “Genocide case” (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia) and the more recent “Palestine cases”. Commentator: Sir Michael Wood KCMG KC , Honorary Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre.

Lunchtime Lecture: 'Astro-environmentalism: the polycentric governance of space debris' - Prof Jean-Frédéric Morin, Laval University

Lecture: 1 pm - 2 pm This is an in person event only. Lecture summary: The pollution of Earth's orbits by artificial debris is an environmental issue as pressing as it is overlooked. Given that geopolitical factors hinder the adoption of a multilateral solution, several experts advocate for a polycentric governance system, inspired by Elinor Ostrom's work on common goods. This presentation assesses the feasibility of such a proposal by analyzing 1,831 arrangements - including treaties, MoUs, guidelines, etc.—that govern outer space. It offers conclusions relevant to the governance of other global commons, such as the climate and the oceans. Jean-Frédéric Morin is a Full Professor of Global Governance at Université Laval in Québec City. His research focuses on international institutions, with a particular interest in their innovation, interaction, and evolution. He primarily examines institutions within trade, outer space, and environmental governance. Jean-Frédéric Morin is a fellow of the Trudeau Foundation and a member of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2023, he received the university award for excellence in graduate student supervision.

A Discussion on International Law and Palestine: Responsibility, Reparations & Reconciliation

A Discussion on International Law and Palestine: Responsibility, Reparations & Reconciliation Organised by the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law in collaboration with the Cambridge Centre for Palestine Studies This event is in person only. No attendance online. 9.30 am - 1 pm. Register to attend in person Full...

Varieties of Climate Agency with a special focus on Climate Litigation - An International Workshop - Day 2

2 day International Workshop Day 1: 1.00 pm - 4.45 pm, Monday 4 November 2024 Day 2: 10.00 am - 3.30 pm, Tuesday 5 November 2024 Workshop Programme Against the background of existing scholarship on climate law and governance which has been attracting an international interdisciplinary research community (Climate Law and Governance Day @COP28), this research focuses on the global opportunity structure for climate change (Aykut, Wiener et al. 2021; Wiener et al. 2023) in order to identify under which conditions climate agents are enabled or constrained to act: what are regulatory and customary conditions of agency in a global context? The research takes account of and follows up from Professor Wiener’s current research on climate litigation and social drivers of climate change which has been conducted at the Hamburg Excellence Cluster CLICCS (Wiener 2022) and on her well-renowned work on norm contestation in international relations (Wiener 2018). The workshop will also benefit from the research done in the CCE on mapping a climate atlas of legal rules and litigation challenges and research on climate change in EU trade law (Gehring et al, 2023). It will have space for graduate researchers from Law, Land Economy, Political Science and Cambridge Zero. Supported by the DAAD Cambridge Hub This workshop is organised as part of the research project funded by the DAAD between the University of Hamburg and the University of Cambridge and hosted by the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, 5 Cranmer Road, Cambridge, UK and Hughes Hall in the University of Cambridge. The research has benefited from exchanges with our colleagues in the excellence cluster Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS), especially the subproject B2 on Climate governance and the synthesis project, as well as from reviewers of the Hamburg Climate Futures Outlooks. Acknowledgment of funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), German Government’s Excellence Strategy. EXC 2037: Climate, climatic change, and society (CLICCS), award number 390683824. If you wish to attend in person please email Jellie Molino jmm278@cam.ac.uk to register your attendance.

Lauterpacht Centre for International Law

Panel: '(Non-)Defining 'Gender' in the Crimes Against Humanity Draft: Possibilities, Alliances, and Strategies'

Friday Lecture: 'I’m not the Villain I appear to be: Freedom of religion or belief in human rights law' - Prof Nazila Ghanea, University of Oxford

Friday Lecture: 'State Immunity: Theory and Practice' - Hussein Haeri KC is a Partner at Withers

Friday Lecture: 'Governing Sovereign Debt Crises: The Case for International Sovereign Insolvency Law' - Dr Karina Patrício Ferreira Lima, University of Leeds School of Law

Friday Lecture: 'Potential Legal Limitations on a Russia-Ukraine Peace Agreement' - Prof Gregory Fox, Wayne State University

Evening Lecture: 'The ICJ – Its Role and Limits in the Settlement of Disputes' - Prof Alain Pellet, University Paris-Nanterre

Lunchtime Lecture: 'Astro-environmentalism: the polycentric governance of space debris' - Prof Jean-Frédéric Morin, Laval University

A Discussion on International Law and Palestine: Responsibility, Reparations & Reconciliation

Varieties of Climate Agency with a special focus on Climate Litigation - An International Workshop - Day 2

Varieties of Climate Agency with a special focus on Climate Litigation - An International Workshop

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