Workshop: The International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion in Chagos

On April 11, 2019, the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law will host a workshop on "The International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion in Chagos." The program is here. Here's the idea:

On 25 February 2019, the International Court of Justice delivered its eagerly awaited Advisory Opinion in the case Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965. The two-day workshop at the Lauterpacht Centre is devoted to an in-depth discussion of the Advisory Opinion.

A first workshop was organized at the University of St. Gallen immediately after states and others had given their statements in the case of Chagos in The Hague in the fall 2018. In anticipation of the Advisory Opinion, a dozen articles has been published in the wake of this first workshop in a Questions of International Law “Zoom Out”. Now that the Opinion is out, we organize a second workshop, this time at the Lauterpacht Centre. The aim is to discuss the Advisory Opinion in depth, incl. in the perspective of our own previous work.

Day 1 of the workshop is open to the public. It begins with a keynote by Dr. Stephen Robert Allen, Queen Mary University of London, on “Self-Determination and the General Assembly after the Chagos Advisory Opinion”, followed by an academic discussion on the Advisory Opinion and the Chagossians. The aim of the discussion is to shed light on what the Advisory Opinion means for the Chagossians, an aspect that did not take center stage in the proceedings in The Hague. While this part of the event is public, there is only limited space at the Lauterpacht Centre. You may send a prior e-mail to the organizers.

During Day 2 we will have a discussion among international law experts. Structured around three round tables we will discuss the implications of the Advisory Opinion for Chagos, the Court, international law in general, and third cases. Free discussion among participants is the aim, but brief input will be provided by select experts, including Professor Zeno Crespi Reghizzi (Università degli Studi di Milano), Catherine Drummond (University of Cambridge), Dr. Johannes Fahner (University of Amsterdam) Professor Marcelo Kohen (IHEID Geneva), Dr. Peter Sand (LMU Munich) and Dr. James Summers (University of Lancaster). While Day 2 is open to anyone interested in discussion among experts, please register via e-mail with the organizers for Day 2 (space is limited; we charge no fee, but dinner is reserved to invited participants).