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Friday, 5 February 2021 - 1.00pm
Location: 
Online webinar

This lecture is a joint event between the Lauterpacht Centre and the Centre for Global Knowledge Studies (gloknos) 

Lecture summary: How does the UN Security Council know and govern problems of global terrorism, violent extremism and foreign fighters in practice? What are the implications of the Council’s post-9/11 pre-emptive security governance for international law, collective security and human rights? Recent Council measures put far-reaching global security infrastructure projects into motion for collecting, analysing and sharing biometric, watchlisting and travel data to control the movements of ‘risky’ people. How should we study emergent forms of global law that are fluid, largely informal, shaped by technical expertise and non-human actants in the shadows of where we usually think international law is?

This seminar explores these questions by empirically following the UN Al Qaeda and ISIL terrorism list and proposing a ‘praxiographic’ approach to global security law that ethnographically studies practices in ‘structure-making sites’ (Latour 2005) and knowledge in ‘activities … instruments and procedures’ (Mol 2002).  Based on the findings of my new book – The Law of the List: UN Counterterrorism Sanctions and the Politics of Global Security Law (Cambridge University Press, 2020) – I show how Science and Technology Studies (STS) and socio-legal studies can offer valuable insights into how international law, international organisations and global governance are transforming in response to transboundary threats and new opportunities for global data harvesting.

Dr Gavin Sullivan is a Reader in International Human Rights Law at Edinburgh Law School, University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the politics of global security law, algorithmic governance and data infrastructures. He was recently awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship for his socio-legal research project, Infra-Legalities: Global Security Infrastructures, Artificial Intelligence and International Law (2021-2028). He is a practising solicitor providing pro bono representation to people targeted by security lists worldwide, including before the UN Office of the Ombudsperson. He has worked widely as an expert consultant on counterterrorism issues, including for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Gavin is a member of the ‘Transparency’ and ‘Legal Frameworks’ working groups of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). His book - The Law of the List: UN Counterterrorism Sanctions and the Politics of Global Security Law (Cambridge University Press, 2020) (Book Discount Flyer) – was awarded the 2021 International Studies Association STAIR Book Award for research bringing STS into dialogue with global politics.

Chair: Dr Inanna Hamati-Ataya

Register online

 

The Lauterpacht Centre Friday lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press

 

 

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