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Tuesday, 22 January 2008 - 6.15pm
Location: 
Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Finley Library

Mr Ralph Zacklin, CMG was Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs of the United Nations from 1998-2005. He is currently engaged as a consultant in a legal advisory capacity for a number of international organizations and is a Senior Fellow within the Faculty of Law of the University of Melbourne’s Law Masters Programme for 2008.

After joining the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations in 1973 he worked in various capacities in the General Legal Division and the Office of the Legal Counsel becoming Director of the Office of the Legal Counsel in 1988. He was appointed Assistant Secretary-General in 1998. In these posts he was responsible among other issues for the work of the Office of Legal Affairs concerning United Nations Peacekeeping, the implementation of the post-Gulf War resolutions and the establishment of ad hoc international criminal tribunals.

He represented the United Nations in Advisory Opinions hearings before the International Court of Justice on the Applicability of the Obligation to Arbitrate under Section 21 of the UN Headquarters Agreement (1988) and the Difference Relating to Immunity from legal process of a Special Rapporteur of the Commission of Human Rights (1998-9).

In 1997 he served as the interim head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

In 2006 he was appointed a Member of the Independent Special Commission of Inquiry for Timor-Leste and in 2007 he conducted a fact-finding Inquiry regarding the conduct of senior officials of a United Nations treaty organ.


Links to the lecture papers –

Links to the lecture papers for the three lectures making up the 2008 series can be found below. These papers are subject to editorial revision and a version of the lectures has been published by Cambridge University Press as part of the Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lecture Series.


First Lecture : Introduction and the Iraq-Kuwait Conflict

Tuesday 22 January 2008 
This first lecture defines the meaning and explains the significance of the role of the Secretariat of the United Nations in relation to use of force. The views of the Secretariat regarding the Iraq-Kuwait Conflict are examined and the differences that emerged between the main coalition partners and the Secretariat concerning both the process and the content of the Security Council's actions are explored.

Lecture 1: Notes


Second Lecture : Bosnia

Wednesday 23 January 2008
This second lecture considers the Secretariat's role in the Bosnia conflict and the difficult and uneasy relationship between the Secretariat and the Security Council. Disagreements regarding the concept of peacekeeping in the Bosnia conflict, the establishment of safe havens and the use of air power, and the relationship of the United Nations Secretariat and NATO are examined in detail.

Lecture 2: Notes


Third Lecture : The Iraq War and Conclusions

Thursday 24 January 2008
The third lecture considers the Iraw War and examines how the Secretariat perceived the use of force in Iraq as undermining the fundamental principles of the Charter and as a challenge to the collective security system embodied in the Charter. The lecture concludes with some reflections on the Secretartiat's understanding of its role in regard to the use of force and the principles of the Charter.

Lecture 3: Notes

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