LCIL Lecture: 'Spoilt for Choice? The Reparation of Non-Material Damage in International Law' - Stephan Wittich

Lecture summary: The notion of damage occupies a key role in the law of international responsibility. While it is generally accepted today that damage is not a condition or fait générateur of responsibility, it surely is important, if not decisive, for the ensuing form(s) or mode(s) of reparation. The lecture will try to identify and analyze the manifestations of non-material damage in international law as well as the various ways and means through which it may be repaired. In doing so, the focus will lie on general international law, international and regional human rights law, and international investment law as applied by international courts and tribunals in selected cases. Two questions will be the guiding themes throughout the analysis: How does the international law of responsibility concerning reparation of non-material damage relate to the law of remedies? And how does the law and practice as applied in the fields of human rights law and investment law relate to the law of responsibility under general international law? In particular it will be asked whether and to what extent the former adopt, supplement or modify the rules of the latter concerning reparation of non-material damage.

Stephan Wittich is associate professor at the Department of International Law of the University of Vienna from which he graduated as magister iuris. He also holds a PhD of the same university. In addition to teaching at the University of Vienna, he is a member of the faculty of the Vienna School of International Studies/Diplomatic Academy and also teaches international law at various other academic institutions. He considers himself a generalist of international law, and his research focuses on international responsibility, the law and procedure of international courts and tribunals, the law of immunities and international law before courts in Austria. He is a founding member of the ESIL Interest Group on International Courts and Tribunals and member of the ILA Committee on Procedure of International Courts and Tribunals and the ILA Study Group on Individual Responsibility in International Law. He has published widely on questions of international law eg in the European Journal of International Law, the Leiden Journal of International Law, the Finnish Yearbook of International Law, or the American Journal of International Law. The topic of the lecture is part of a book that is forthcoming with Brill. He also is editor-in-chief of the Austrian Review of International and European Law.

  The Lauterpacht Centre Friday lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press.

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