Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law
22nd Annual Conference
Canberra, 3-5 July 2014
Towards International Peace through International Law
The 22nd Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) will take place from Thursday, 3 July 2014 to Saturday, 5 July 2014 at University House, The Australian National University, Canberra, hosted by the Centre for International and Public Law, ANU College of Law. The Conference Organising Committee now invites proposals for papers to be presented at the Conference.
Call for Papers - Deadline 7 March 2014
The theme of ANZSIL’s 22nd Annual Conference has been chosen to resonate with the commemorations taking place around the world in 2014 to mark the centenary of the beginning of World War 1. The conference will provide an opportunity to reflect upon the project of achieving international peace through international law that has shaped the past century. Horror at the scale and destructiveness of World War 1 spurred a new political commitment to preventing future wars. The League of Nations Covenant signed in the war’s aftermath expressed the commitment of the High Contracting Parties to achieving international peace and security through accepting obligations not to resort to war, establishing international law ‘as the actual rule of conduct among Governments’, and maintaining ‘justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations’. The dream of achieving perpetual peace was an old one, but the emphasis on doing so through international law and international institutions was new. Despite the subsequent disenchantment with the failures of the League, reflected famously in the skeptical reactions of realists such as EH Carr and Hans Morgenthau to the ideal of achieving ‘peace through law’, the United Nations Charter expressed an ongoing determination ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’ through the maintenance of international peace and security and the peaceful settlement of international disputes in conformity with international justice and international law. Today the commitment to settling disputes by peaceful means continues to underpin many developments in international law. Public and private international law initiatives in the fields of trade, investment, and financial regulation aim to secure peace through economic stability and commercial relations, while the language of security continues to inform internationalist projects, from the maintenance of collective security to human security, food security, energy security, climate security, and cyber security.
The conference will explore the role that international law and international lawyers have played in the pursuit of international peace and security over the past century, and the role that they might play in the century to come. How have changing definitions or visions of peace and security informed the development of international law? How do the trauma and memory of war shape international law as an ideal, a set of institutions, a commitment, or a project? What contribution have Australians and New Zealanders made to the realisation of peace through law, whether on the Security Council, in peace operations, as judges and arbitrators at the Peace Palace and beyond, as civil society activists, as scholars, or as ‘norm entrepreneurs’? How do international legal doctrines and practices respond to changes in the nature of war and new threats to peace and security? What happens when the pursuit of peace and security comes into conflict with other values, such as justice, equality, or self-determination? What mechanisms and techniques for achieving the peaceful settlement of disputes have been developed by international lawyers, and what innovations are today being developed to address contemporary disputes and potential conflicts?
The Conference Organising Committee invites paper proposals on a broad range of international legal issues. Possible topics for papers and panels specifically related to the conference theme include:
• the relationship of international law to pacifist traditions
• the legacy of World War 1 and the development of international law
• the role of trauma and memories of war in shaping international law
• shifting visions of peace and security in international law
• utopianism in international law – and its realist critics
• international institutions as guardians of peace: from the League of Nations to the International Criminal Court
• mechanisms, techniques, and conditions for the peaceful settlement of disputes
• trade, investment, and environmental agreements as vehicles for achieving peace
• the relation of human rights to peace and security
• defining aggression and threats to peace and security
• international criminal law and the ‘peace versus justice’ debate
• the role of Australia and New Zealand in the maintenance of peace and security
• assessing the expanding mandate of the Security Council: civilian protection; counter-terrorism; women, peace and security; the responsibility to protect
• international law and revolution
• new wars and international law
• disarmament and international law
• proliferating forms of security and the ‘securitisation’ of international law – state security, collective security, human security, energy security, food security, systems security, climate security, cyber security
In the tradition of ANZSIL Conferences, the Organising Committee also invites and welcomes proposals on international law topics not connected to the conference theme.
Submission of Paper Proposals
Those proposing papers for presentation at the Conference should submit
• a one page abstract
• and brief one page curriculum vitae
• 150-200 words of bio-data (for possible inclusion in the conference program)
by email to the Conference Organising Committee [anzsil@law.anu.edu.au] no later than Friday, 7 March 2014. Please include the heading on your email message ‘ANZSIL Conference 2014 Paper Proposal: [Your Name]’. The Conference Organising Committee will inform applicants of the outcome of their proposals by late March 2014. Further information about the Conference, including program and registration details, will be available on the ANZSIL website (http://law.anu.edu.au/anzsil/conferences.html).
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POST GRADUATE RESEARCH STUDENTS WORKSHOP
CANBERRA, WEDNESDAY 2 JULY 2014
CALL FOR PAPERS: Deadline: 7 March 2014
The Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) Postgraduate Research Students Workshop will be held on Wednesday, 2 July 2014, from 9.30am until 5.00pm. The Workshop will take place at the ANU College of Law, The Australian National University in Canberra. The aims of the Workshop are to provide postgraduate degree research students with an opportunity to present their research to their peers, to discuss their experiences of postgraduate research and to make academic and professional connections. There is no registration fee. Morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea will be provided.Postgraduate Students undertaking research in international law are encouraged to submit a one-page abstract and brief one-page curriculum vitae by email to anzsil@law.anu.edu.au (marked ‘2014 PG Research Workshop’) by no later than Friday, 7 March 2014. Successful applicants for the Workshop will be offered free registration at the Conference. Participants will be asked to provide a brief contribution on their work for a report on the Workshop, for inclusion in the ANZSIL Newsletter.
The Coordinators of the Postgraduate Workshop are Dr Adam McBeth (Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Monash University, Australia).and Dr Petra Butler (Law Faculty, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
