Workshop and Symposium: The Rights of States in International Law

On April 13-14, 2015, the University of Alabama School of Law will host a workshop and symposium on "The Rights of States in International Law." Here's the idea:

The participants will workshop their papers, which are to comprise a special issue of the Cambridge Journal of International & Comparative Law, which is being organized by Professor Joyner and Dr. Marco Roscini.

This project is devoted to the question of whether fundamental rights of states, which appear to be recognized in the provisions of a number of conventional and customary sources of international law, actually exist. These purported rights include the right to self-defense, the right to existence, the right to private life/noninterference, the right to permanent sovereignty over natural resources; the right to be free from economic coercion, and the right to peaceful nuclear energy. If in fact they do exist, what is their source and legal character? What are their juridical implications – e.g. when they come into conflict with the legal obligations of the right holder, or with the actions of other states and international organisations? The papers in this special issue seek to examine these questions both theoretically and doctrinally, and to provide a framework for understanding the fundamental rights of states, and their role in the international legal system.