Berkowitz/Finley Lecture Hall

Time: 5.30 pm - 6.30 pm (followed by a drinks reception in the Old Library) In-person event only You never forget your first… international law textbook. Most of us have an emotional, even if not loving, relationship to those tomes that initiated us into the discipline (Koskenniemi M, ‘Book Review Brownlie’s Principles of Public International Law’ (2014) 83 BYIL 137, 137). Yet textbooks receive limited attention as scholarship. Cast as training tools that do not encapsulate original insights by virtue of their genre, we tend to miss how their comprehensiveness paints a broad and nuanced picture of international law and its place in world making. I propose in this lecture that we analyse textbooks as artefacts that help us better understand our discipline and profession. In particular, I will be discussing the insights gained by empirical analysis of the ten main international law textbooks in Brazil undertaken by myself and Fabio Morosini over the last four years (Pereira LLS and Morosini FC, ‘Textbooks as Markers and Makers of International Law: A Brazilian Case Study’ (2024) 35 European Journal of International Law 1). We examined the themes these volumes explore, the materials they cite, and the biographies of their authors. The results we obtained provide not only a unique window into the content of Brazilian textbooks themselves but also a complex, historically and socially situated picture of international law as a field in Brazil. I will then talk about our ongoing project to expand our analysis of textbooks beyond Brazil. In the last year, we have invited others to join our enterprise to study textbooks from other regions (Africa, Asia, the Arab World, and certain specific jurisdictions), and other sub-disciplines of international law (Human Rights, International Economic Law, International Environmental Law, to name a few). We also interviewed textbook authors from diverse nationalities, backgrounds, and methodological persuasions, and invited scholars to bend the academic genre and write short essays engaging with the textbook theme in a creative way. What we hope to achieve in this project is to revisit textbooks and their function beyond training materials, unveiling their analytical, political and social possibilities. This research project is funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). Dr Luíza Leão Soares Pereira is a Brazilian international lawyer, trained at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and the University of Cambridge. She was a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield (2020-2022), and is now a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). She is considers herself a generalist, but her work uses varied methodologies (empirical, historical, sociological, feminist, critical) to better understand the international legal discipline and profession, broadly construed. Her work has been published in the European Journal of International Law, the Leiden Journal of International Law, and edited volumes published by Oxford University Press (1, 2) and Manchester University Press.

Summary: This talk explains Sudan’s descent into a horrific war that is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The war has displaced over 11 million people, involved the targeting of civilians, including especially women, in mass violence, and precipitated a hunger crisis affecting over 24 million people, with over 630,000 currently facing famine. How, after a momentous civilian uprising in 2018-19 that toppled the dictator Omer el-Bashir after 30 years of authoritarian rule, did Sudan come to this? Unravelling the causes and events that led to tragedy begins with how counter-revolutionary actors within the State benefitted from the priorities of external peacemakers seeking to achieve a democratic transition in order to displace revolutionary forces, before carrying out a coup against that very transition. The war erupted when the counter-revolution itself unravelled, and its two primary bedfellows, the Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces fell-out violently with each other in a struggle for power. With complex regional geopolitical entanglements and drawing in other armed groups in Sudan, their war to the bitter end has mixed cruel indifference and intentional harm towards civilians in devastating ways. Remarkably, the revolutionary spirit of the Sudanese has not been vanquished, and has found expression in how neighbourhood resistance committees have transformed into ‘emergency response rooms’ to deliver life-saving support. Sudan’s plight and prospects lie precariously within these intersecting trajectories. Sharath Srinivasan is David and Elaine Potter Professor of International Politics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He is also Founding Director, and currently Co-Director, of the University of Cambridge's Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR). Professor Srinivasan is a Fellow and Trustee of the Rift Valley Institute and a Trustee and Vice-President of the British Institute in Eastern Africa. Professor Srinivasan’s work focuses on contentious politics in Africa in global perspective, from explaining failed peace interventions in civil wars to rethinking democratic politics in a digital age. He is the author of When Peace Kills Politics: International Intervention and Unending Wars in the Sudans (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2021) and co-editor of Making and Breaking Peace in Sudan and South Sudan: The Comprehensive Peace Agreement and Beyond (British Academy/Oxford University Press, 2020). The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

Lecture summary: Property is a fundamental legal institution governing the use of things: who may own what, how and why. Given that such questions extend to a wide range of natural resources essential to human well-being, such as food, water and shelter, then it is reasonable to assume that human rights should play an important role in shaping property rights discourse and practice. And yet this assumption is somewhat misplaced. The relationship between property and human rights and property remains relatively underdeveloped in both practice and academic literature, and virtually non-existent when we move to the maritime domain. In this paper, I explore and question the role that property and human rights can and should play in the maritime domain. I outline how such rights arise and are protected under human rights instruments, before exploring how they might inform the moral and legal distribution of resources. In particular, I focus on how we might balance individual rights and public interests that arise in respect of property, and how these are informed by the nature of the oceans as a commons. Richard Barnes is Professor of International Law at the University of Lincoln and Adjunct Professor of Law at the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea, the University of Tromsø. The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

Feminist activists, country representatives, and other civil society actors have debated how to define “gender” in international criminal law (ICL) for at least three decades. In the Rome Conference that established the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its Statute in 1998, defining “gender” was a hotly debated topic of negotiation. More recently, this debate has resurfaced in the steps leading to the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles for a Crimes Against Humanity Treaty, and continues to be discussed in the deliberations at the Sixth Committee on the Draft Articles. The CAH Convention is now expected to be negotiated between 2026-2029, and, more than a mere point of contention, the concept of ‘gender’ in its text can be crucial for prosecuting sexual and gender-based international crimes and thus fundamental to gender justice efforts worldwide. With this in mind, this roundtable gathers scholars and activists studying and working (often simultaneously) on the definition of gender in international criminal law, in an effort to learn from their specific positionalities, perceptions, and experiences about the challenges, strategies, and possibilities for (non-)defining the term. Speakers: Akila Radhakrishnan (Atlantic Council) Alexandra Lily Kather (Emergent Justice Collective) Dr Rosemary Grey (Sydney Law School) Professor Valerie Oosterveld (Faculty of Law, Western University) Moderators: Dr Juliana Santos de Carvalho (LCIL Fellow and INT ACDF Fellow at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies) Dr Lena Holzer (LCIL Fellow and Assistant Professor in Gender, Race and the Law in the Law Faculty at the University of Cambridge)

There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome. Register here if attending online Lecture summary: The role of freedom of religion or belief in international human rights law is often overshadowed by reservations on the basis of religion or religious law, and violence or violations in the name of religion in relation to a whole host of rights. And that is before one accounts for the politicisation and instrumentalization of religion for suspect objectives. Freedom of religion or belief therefore appears as the villain and not the ally of human rights. This lecture will explore some of the ways in which freedom of religion or belief has reasserted not only its claim as a human right but as a necessary precursor to advancing other rights. Nazila Ghanea is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford, Director of the MSc in international human rights law, Governing Body Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford and Senior Teaching Fellow at New College, Oxford. She was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief in August 2022. She has also held senior management positions at the University of Oxford and was previously a visiting fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre. She served as a member of the OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2012-2019). Her OUP law monograph on freedom of religion or belief (with Heiner Bielefeldt and Michael Wiener) was awarded the Senior Alberigo Prize by the European Academy of Religion and she was awarded the Religious Liberty Prize by Notre Dame University in 2024. She has published widely in international human rights law and serves on the Editorial Board for the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion and the Cambridge Ecclesiastical Law Journal. The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome. Summary: This lecture will explore the parameters of State immunity at the international level and as reflected in different national legal systems (including England & Wales, the United States and others). It will include an overview of foundational and more recent jurisprudence in international and domestic courts, and will give particular focus to select aspects of State immunity in the context of enforcement against State assets. Hussein Haeri KC is a Partner at Withers in London and Head of the firm's Public International Law Group. He is a King's Counsel and was the only Solicitor Advocate to take Silk in 2024. Hussein has extensive experience as counsel and advocate on international dispute resolution matters for almost 20 years in London, Paris and New York, including before the ICJ, ITLOS, under ICSID and UNCITRAL arbitration rules and in national courts. He has been recognised for many years by the major legal directories including Chambers & Partners, which refers to him as an "outstanding lawyer", and Legal 500 which states that "he combines huge intellectual powers with great client handling". He is a Partner Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, a Senior Fellow at SOAS in London and has lectured at various other universities including the University of Oxford, Sciences Po in Paris and Roma Tre University in Rome. The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome. Sovereign debt crises have surged since the end of the Bretton Woods system and currently threaten a lost decade for many countries across the world. Indermit Gill, in the World Bank Group’s 2024 International Debt Report, describes the situation in many of the poorest countries as a ‘metastasising solvency crisis that continues to be misdiagnosed as a liquidity problem’. Despite their severe socioeconomic consequences, no comprehensive legal framework exists to address these crises—arguably the most significant gap in international economic law. This lecture, based on Dr Karina Patrício Ferreira Lima’s forthcoming book Governing Sovereign Debt Crises: The Case for International Sovereign Insolvency Law (Hart Publishing), makes the case for creating such a mechanism under international law. The book challenges prevailing narratives that attribute sovereign debt crises solely to debtor states’ mismanagement or misfortunes, instead arguing that sovereign insolvency is a systemic feature of the international monetary system. Current solutions—voluntary, ad hoc, and fragmented—fail to equitably allocate losses across an increasingly diversified sovereign creditor base, leaving many creditors worse off. At the same time, debtor states and their populations remain vulnerable to macroeconomic crises and enduring austerity, which often lead to long-term economic stagnation. Dr Karina Patrício Ferreira Lima is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on the intersection of law, finance, and sovereign debt within the broader context of global economic governance. Her research portfolio covers the legal governance of sovereign debt crises, the law and policy of international financial institutions, and the macroeconomic impact of financial law and regulation. Dr Patrício advises public entities, NGOs, and leading law firms on various aspects of financial and monetary law, including sovereign debt restructuring, financial regulation, and the governance of international financial institutions. Her work has been recognised with prestigious awards, including the 2022 Society of International Economic Law-Hart Prize and the 2022 John H. Jackson Prize, conferred by the Journal of International Economic Law. She also serves as a peer reviewer for top law and social sciences journals globally. The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome. Register here if attending online Summary: Does international law place any constraints on a possible Ukraine-Russia peace agreement? While we can only speculate about its contents, two aspects appear certain: Ukraine will be asked to relinquish (at a minimum) territory now occupied by Russia, and it will only contemplate entering into an agreement because Russia invaded its territory. Professor Fox will examine the implications of these and other factors for the validity of an agreement. Gregory H. Fox is a Professor of Law at Wayne State University School of Law, where he is the Director of the Program for International Legal Studies. Professor Fox is an elected member of the American Law Institute. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University, a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Public International Law and Comparative Public Law in Heidelberg, Germany, and a Fellow at the Schell Center for Human Rights at Yale Law School, among other institutions. The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment .

Register to attend Time: 5 pm - 6.15 pm This is an in-person event only. Lecture summary: At no time since the Second World War has the integrity of international law been so threatened, and at no time has there been so much recourse to it. The growing recourse to the ICJ, both in contentious and advisory matters, reflects this phenomenon. The Court, imperturbably - and sometimes courageously - states the law without having the means to ensure respect for it, even if its influence must be neither exaggerated nor neglected. Alain Pellet is Professor Emeritus at the University Paris-Nanterre (Centre de Droit International (CEDIN)). He is a former member and chairperson of the International Law Commission, an honorary President of the French Society for International Law, President of the Institute of International Law and former member of the Panel of ICSID Arbitrators. He is the author of several books and many articles in international law and has appeared before the ICJ in more than 60 cases including Nicaragua v. the USA, the first “Genocide case” (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia) and the more recent “Palestine cases”. Commentator: Sir Michael Wood KCMG KC , Honorary Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre.

Lecture: 1 pm - 2 pm This is an in person event only. Lecture summary: The pollution of Earth's orbits by artificial debris is an environmental issue as pressing as it is overlooked. Given that geopolitical factors hinder the adoption of a multilateral solution, several experts advocate for a polycentric governance system, inspired by Elinor Ostrom's work on common goods. This presentation assesses the feasibility of such a proposal by analyzing 1,831 arrangements - including treaties, MoUs, guidelines, etc.—that govern outer space. It offers conclusions relevant to the governance of other global commons, such as the climate and the oceans. Jean-Frédéric Morin is a Full Professor of Global Governance at Université Laval in Québec City. His research focuses on international institutions, with a particular interest in their innovation, interaction, and evolution. He primarily examines institutions within trade, outer space, and environmental governance. Jean-Frédéric Morin is a fellow of the Trudeau Foundation and a member of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2023, he received the university award for excellence in graduate student supervision.