News & events 2018

The Ghent Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute (GRILI) has the honour to invite you to a class of excellence on:
2050: Challenges in laws of armed conflict

Tuesday 11 December, 12.00 – 14.00
Faculty Board Room, Faculty of Law and Criminology, Voldersstraat 3, Ghent

This class of excellence is organised within the framework of the International Francqui Professor Chair 2018-19, which Alexander Gillespie holds at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Ghent University (Department of European, Public and International Law), in collaboration with UCL.

Programme
12.00-12.20 Nuclear threats (Prof. Alexander Gillespie, Waikato University, New Zealand)
12.20-12.40 Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems: do we need new laws to regulate LAWS? (Prof. Tom Ruys, Ghent University)
12.40-13.00 The post-ISIS landscape. Threats, challenges, opportunities (Prof. Em. Rik Coolsaet)
13.00- 14.00 Questions and discussion

Sandwiches will be provided.
Attendance is free, but registration is required before 4 December by email at Kristien.Ballegeer@ugent.be

You are kindly invited to a joint GRILI-HRC seminar on the UN Global Compact for Migration, featuring a presentation by Professor of Migration Law Ellen Desmet.

The seminar will take place at the law faculty on Thursday 6 December 2018 at 4 PM in Room A (universiteitsstraat 4).

Those planning to attend are requested to notify their participation to Ms. Kristien Ballegeer.

All are warmly invited to attend the inaugural lecture of the Francqui Chair 2018-19 by Prof. dr. Alexander Gillespie on Wednesday 5 December 2018 at 17.00. The lecture is entitled '2050: The Challenge of Peace and Sustainability in a Fragmented International Context' and will take place in Room 'Refter' at Het Pand. Please register here.

Professor Gillespie's areas of scholarship pertain to international and comparative environmental law, the laws of war and a number of pressing issues of social concern such as drug policy and refugees. He has recently received this award from the Franqcui Foundation Belgium, with which he will hold a professorship at Ghent University for six months during 2018.

You are kindly invited to a guest lecture by Prof. Claire Breen on 'Age Discrimination and Children's Rights'.

The lecture is part of the Grondige Studie: Internationaal Recht (taught by Professor An Cliquet) and will take place on Monday 3 December 2018 at Paddenhoek 1.2 (11.30 AM).

On Thursday 22 November 2018, Colonel Chris De Cock (Legal Advisor at the Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC)-Command Group of the European External Action Service) will give a guest lecture on the issue of 'targeting' in the framework of the course on the 'Law of Armed Conflict'.

The guest lecture will take place from 13.00-16.00 in room Paddenhoek 1.3, Paddenhoekstraat, Ghent. Persons that are not enrolled in the course on the 'Law of Armed Conflict' are welcome to join, but are invited to signal their attendance beforehand to Ms. Kristien Ballegeer (Kristien.Ballegeer@Ugent.be).

You are kindly invited to a guest lecture by Jan De Mulder pertaining to 'Environmental Impact Assessment in International Law'.

The lecture is part of the Grondige Studie: Internationaal Milieurecht (taught by Professor An Cliquet) and will take place on Thursday 8 November 2018 at Auditorium A (9 AM).

You are kindly invited to a guest lecture by Prof. Alexander Gillespie pertaining to North Korea.

The lecture is part of the Grondige Studie: Internationaal Recht (taught by Professor An Cliquet) and will take place on Monday 29 October 2018 at Paddenhoek 1.2 (11.30 AM).

You are kindly invited to a guest lecture by Dr. Hendrik Schoukens pertaining to 'Access to Justice in Environmental Law'.

The lecture is part of the Grondige Studie: Internationaal Milieurecht (taught by Professor An Cliquet) and will take place on Thursday 25 October 2018 at Auditorium A (9 AM).

A number of people have been very important in the development of the International Space University (ISU). One of them is Prof. René Oosterlinck, who followed the ISU birth and growth now over 30 years. He gave remarkable contributions.

As lecturer Space Law at the Ghent Law School, chairman of several governing bodies, and a strong supporter when being responsible for Education at the European Space Agency (ESA), this is not a surprise if one considers his multidisciplinary background as an engineer, lawyer and economist. One could even add to that his interest in the Japanese and Chinese languages which he masters well, also reflected in a study on the political ideas of Confucianism.

In view of this, he received on 24 October 2018 the honorary doctorate degree at ISU at a ceremony, held in ISU.

On 29-30 August 2018, Ghent will host the  5th EU-China Environmental Law Conference on “Green law, economic instruments and environmental crime”. The conference is organized by the Department of European, Public and International Law and the Center for Environmental and Energy Law of Ghent University and the Research Institute of Environmental Law (RIEL) of Wuhan University, and is supported by the U4 University Network.

<more info and programme>

Find the invitation for this event here

On Friday 25 May 2018, the Ghent Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute (GRILI) and the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies (GGS), together with Pax Christi Vlaanderen and Vredesactie, will organize a one-day conference on parliamentary war powers at the Belgian Parliament in Brussels. The aim of the conference is to discuss the democratic oversight in respect of military operations abroad, in particular by looking at parliamentary involvement in the initial decision to deploy troops, as well as during and after the operations.

To this end, the conference will bring together a range of experts to examine, for instance, to what extent there has been an increased 'parliamentarisation' of war powers in recent years and what factors may account for this trend, and how the need for transparency and democratic accountability can be reconciled with the dictates of national security and confidentiality.

Furthermore, speakers will examine how parliamentary war powers have been shaped differently in different European countries, what factors account for this, and what lessons learned can be drawn from the experience in countries such as the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and France. Building on the experiences in neighbouring countries, a stakeholder debate will subsequently address the situation in Belgium, where formal parliamentary war powers currently remain limited. A final conference panel will address the related issue of democratic accountability at the EU level, specifically in respect of operations pursuant to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

Date:
25 May 2018

Location: Belgian Federal Parliament - Congress Hall
Leuvenseweg/Rue de Louvain 11
1000 Brussels, Belgium

Registration: Participation is free of charge, but registration is required.

Register before 18 May 2018 - Click here

In the wake of the Western Sahara Campaign UK judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (Case C-266/16), the Ghent Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute (GRILI) and the Ghent European Law Institute (GELI) will host a joint lunch seminar on the Western Sahara on Friday 13 April 2018. This lunch seminar will take place from 12h00-13h30 in the Faculty Board Room of the Faculty of Law & Criminology (Voldersstraat 3, Ghent) and will feature presentations by Dr. Guillaume Van der Loo (CEPS) and by Mr. Sebastiaan Van Severen (GRILI).

This event is free of charge, but prior registration is required. For registration or further inquiries, please contact Ms. Kristien Ballegeer.

On 20 March 2018, Professor Hans Van Houtte will give a public lecture on "Reparation of damages after war" (as part of the 2017-18 International Order & Justice Lecture Series at Ghent University). Prior online registration is required. Afterwards, Professor Van Houtte will take part in a closed seminar with doctoral students. Separate online registration is required.

Prof. Van Houtte is currently President and Chairman, Chamber Two, at the Iran-United States Claim Tribunal in The Hague. Before being appointed President, he was active in several collective settlement processes (Bosnian Commission for Real Property Claims, Swiss Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Bank Accounts, United Nations Compensation Commission, Eritrea- Ethiopia Claims Commission).

The lecture will take place on Tuesday 20 March 2018 from 09h30-11h00 at Pleitlokaal (Universiteitstraat 4), whereas the doctoral seminar is scheduled on the same day from 12h00-13h30 (meeting room Ghent Legal History Institute, ground floor). For further questions, please contact Ms. Kristien Ballegeer.

On 19 March 2018, Professor Georg Nolte will give a public lecture on "The International Law Commission after 70 years: Its role and challenges" (as part of the 2017-18 International Order & Justice Lecture Series at Ghent University). Prior online registration is required. Afterwards, Professor Nolte will take part in a closed seminar with doctoral students. Separate online registration is required.

Prof. Nolte is a member of the UN International Law Commission (ILC). He was first elected as a member of the ILC by the UN General Assembly in 2007 and was subsequently re-elected. He was recently appointed as the Commission’s Chairman. Within the ILC, he founded and chairs the study group on ‘Subsequent agreements and subsequent practice in relation to interpretation of treaties’. In addition, Professor Nolte holds the chair of public international law at the Humboldt University of Berlin and heads the Center for Global Constitutionalism at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

The lecture will take place on Monday 19 March 2018 from 13h00-14h30 at Lokaal 1.2 (Paddenhoek), whereas the doctoral seminar is scheduled on the same day from 10h00-11h30 (meeting room Ghent Legal History Institute, ground floor). For further questions, please contact Ms. Kristien Ballegeer.

On 6 March 2018, Professor Larissa van den Herik will give a public lecture on "Fact-finding and inquiry in international law" (as part of the 2017-18 International Order & Justice Lecture Series at Ghent University). Prior online registration is required. Afterwards, Professor Van den Herik will take part in a closed seminar with doctoral students. Separate online registration is required.

Prof. Van den Herik is Vice Dean of Leiden Law School and professor of public international law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University. She is General Editor of the prestigious Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law. She also serves as general editor of the Leiden Journal of International Law (former Editor-in-Chief 2005-2013). Professor Van den Herik is chair of the ILA Study Group on UN Sanctions and International Law. She also holds the position of vice-chair of the Advisory Committee on Public International Law Issues to the Netherlands Government and has advised the government in that capacity, inter alia, on drones, cyber warfare, humanitarian assistance, and autonomous weapons systems.

The lecture will take place on Tuesday 6 March 2018 from 9h30-11h00 at Pleitlokaal (Universiteitstraat 4), whereas the doctoral seminar is scheduled on the same day from 12h00-13h30 (IRCP room, 3rd. floor). For further questions, please contact Ms. Kristien Ballegeer.

On Friday 23 February, there will be a GRILI seminar focussing on the prosecution of members of terrorist groups. There will be presentations by two external guests. Mr. Antoon Schotsaert (Federal Magistrate, Office of the (Belgian) Federal Prosecutor, Anti-terrorism section) will discuss the Federal Prosecutor's handling of cases involving so-called foreign terrorist fighters. Prof. Vaios Koutroulis (ULB) will discuss the interplay between counter-terrorism instruments/domestic criminal law, on the one hand, and the law of armed conflict, on the other hand.

Participation in the meeting is free of charge, but persons interested in attending the meeting are requested to signal their participation to Ms. Kristien Ballegeer (Kristien.Ballegeer@ugent.be) in advance.

The seminar will take place between 12am and 1.30pm in the IRCP meeting room.

On 19 February 2018, Stephen Neff will give a public lecture on "The standard of civilization in international law" (as part of the 2017-18 International Order & Justice Lecture Series at Ghent University). Prior online registration is required. Afterwards, Stephen Neff will take part in a closed seminar with doctoral students. Separate online registration is required.

Stephen Neff  is senior lecturer of international law at the University of Edinburgh. His primary research interest is the history of public international law, including the history of the law of neutrality. Another major interest of his is international human rights law, from both the academic and the practical standpoints. Neff’s publications have proven to be landmarks in the field of the history of international law. He is by far the English-speaking authority.

The lecture will take place on Monday 19 February 2018 from 13h00-14h30 at Lokaal 1.2 (Paddenhoek), whereas the doctoral seminar is scheduled on the same day from 10h00-11h30 in the Facultaire Raadzaal (Voldersstraat 3). For further questions, please contact Ms. Kristien Ballegeer.

You are kindly invited to two guest lectures by Professor Alexander Gillespie.

The first lecture pertains to 'Values in International Environmental Law' in the course on International and European Environmental Law (taught by Professor An Cliquet) and will take place on Thursday 6 December 2018 at Auditorium A (9 AM).

The second lecture is on 'The Sustainable Development Goals, Biodiversity and a Rapidly Changing World' in the course on International and European Biodiversity Law (taught by Professor An Cliquet) and will take place on Thursday 14 February 2019 in the Rode Zaal (11 AM). It moreover forms part of the lecture series on 'Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) & the Global South @ UGent'.

On Tuesday 6 February 2018, we will organize an international expert meeting on ‘Protecting trans* rights after the new Belgian Gender Recognition Act: done deal or work in progress?’.
This meeting provides a forum for experts (scholars and professionals) to discuss how the status of trans* persons can be improved through legal reform. Although it might be argued that the law has considerably contributed to experiences of stigma and discrimination by trans* persons, it also has the transformative power to end its binary nature and cisnormativity. The gathering of experts coincides with the entry into force of the new Belgian act concerning legal gender recognition. It will therefore take this act as a starting point to discuss several broader issues related to the legal status of trans* persons.
The seminar will take place from 9h30 to 17h30 at the Faculty Board Room (Voldersstraat 3). Registration is required (Pieter.Cannoot@UGent.be).