Marie Curie Research Conference 2010

Conference International Law and Legal Pluralism

The Conference builds on the research on the Diversification and Fragmentation of International Criminal Law. The presentors explore the role and space of legal pluralism in the context of the European Human Rights system, universal jurisdiction and substantive criminal law.

The conference investigates approaches and methods in international law to accommodate diverse legal traditions and their inherent values, as well as techniques to solve problems in their mutual interplay. Specific attention is devoted to analysis of the link between legal pluralism and cultural diversity.

Programme

10h00	Welcome by coordinators of the Marie Curie Project
	Dr. Carsten Stahn and Dr. Larissa van den Herik
10h15	Legal Pluralism in the European Legal Space
	Judge Stefan Trechsel, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia & Prof. Rick Lawson, Leiden University
11h15	Discussion
12h00	Lunch Break
12h45	Rise and Fall of Universal Jurisdiction
	Dr. Luc Reydams, Katholiek Universiteit Leuven and University of Notre-Dame, USA & Ward Ferdinandusse, Dutch Prosecutor
13h45	Discussion
14h15	The Legal Polycentric Approach
	Judge Frederick Harhoff, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
	International Criminal Law and Islamic Law
	Dr. Mohamed Badar, Centre for International and Public Law Brunel Law School
15h15	Discussion
15h45	Conclusions
16h00	Reception

A full program is available in pdf.

Registration

Please register online by transferring the conference fee of 20 euro through paylogic.

Speakers

Judge Stefan Trechsel

Judge Stefan Trechsel has been an ad litem Judge at the ICTY since April 2006, and is currently sitting in the case of Prosecutor v. Prliæ et al. He is also Professor of Criminal Law and Procedure at the University of Zurich. He was elected to the European Commission of Human Rights in 1975, later becoming its Vice-President (1987 to 1994) and President (1995 to 1999). He acted as counsel for the United States before the International Court of Justice in the LaGrand Case (Germany v. United States of America). Judge Trechsel served as an independent expert of the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe on the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. From 1971 to 1975, he held several positions in Bern as an investigating judge, ad hoc judge to military courts, district attorney, and defence counsel. Judge Trechsel is the author of various books in English and German and of numerous articles in law journals in German, English, French, Portuguese and Italian. Judge Trechsel obtained a degree in law (1963) and a PhD (1966) from the University of Bern, where he became a “Privatdozent" (associate professor) in 1972.

Professor Rick Lawson

Rick Lawson is Professor of Human Rights in Leiden University, specialised in European Law and the role of institutions as the European Court of Human Rights courses. Rick Lawson has written several books and articles on this issue and is considered a respected authority. His areas of expertise include Public International Law, European Law, Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and European Convention on Human Rights. Among numerous publications he wrote about the extraterritorial application of the European Convention on Human Rights, an example includes his article: “Life after Bankovic - On the Extraterritorial Application of the European Convention on Human Rights", in Coomans & Kamminga (ed.), The Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties (Intersentia, 2004), pp. 83-123.

Professor Luc Reydams

Since 2002 Luc Reydams affiliated with the Political Science Department of the University of Notre Dame, he has taught classes in International Organisations, Transnational Social Movements, Introduction to International Law and Nuclear Non-Proliferation. He was a Visiting Professor at the Catholic Universities of Lublin (Poland) and Leuven (Belgium). Reydams’ research focuses on the intersections between international law and international relations. More recent publications deal with the prosecutorial policy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, patterns of armed conflict and humanitarian law responses, and US anti-terrorism policy.

Luc Reydams also co-ordinates “International Prosecutors from Nuremberg to The Hague: Organization, Operation, and Legacy” (http://www.internationalprosecutor.eu), a five-year interdisciplinary international research project under advance publication contract with Oxford University Press. He also served as accredited election observer El Salvador (1994) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (1996,1997), and served as collaborator Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (1996) and as collaborator International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (1998). Luc Reydams earned degrees in law and political sciences from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Before pursuing degrees in international law at the Center for Civil and Human Rights (Notre Dame Law School, United States), Professor Reydams practiced law for a number of years in Brussels.

Dr. Ward Ferdinandusse

Ward Ferdinandusse (LLM, PhD) is a Public Prosecutor in the Dutch Department of Prosecutions. Since 2004, he has worked on a number of war crimes prosecutions, including several cases on the basis of universal jurisdiction. Ferdinandusse studied law at the University of Amsterdam, Columbia University and New York University. He has published extensively on international law and international criminal law in various Dutch and international law journals. His book "Direct application of international criminal law in nationals courts" was awarded the 2004-05 Richard B. Lillich Prize.

Ad Litem Judge Frederik Harhoff

Since 2007 Frederik Harhoff has been on leave from the University of Southern Denmark, where he held a Chair in Public International Law, International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights, to work as an Ad Litem Judge at the ICTY. He completed judgements in the trials of Dragomir Milosevic (2007) and Rasim Delic (2008), and is currently hearing the case against Vojislav Seselj. He started his career as Professor at the University of Southern Denmark in 2006. Before this, he obtained much teaching experience through lecturing at the Law Faculty of McGill University, Canada, the Raoul Wallenberg Human Rights Institute in Lund, Sweden, and trained Judges, Prosecutors and Defence Council on international legal issues in Croatia and Bosnia&Herzegovina. He also taught MA degree courses in International Prosecution of War Crimes; International Law of Armed Conflicts; International Law and European Security Policy; International Law of the Sea; International Environmental Law; International Human Rights Law; and International Rights of –Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples at the Law Faculty of the University of Copenhagen. Frederik Harhoff co-authored a Textbook on International Law (2004) and has published numerous articles on public international law and international humanitarian law in English, French and Danish. Besides his academic career, he held various judicial positions, including the positions of Senior Legal Officer in Chambers at the ICTY; Judge in the Danish Eastern High Court; Senior Legal Officer in Chambers with the ICTR, Arusha, Tanzania; and Assistant trial attorney with the private law firm S.A. Vistisen, Copenhagen. Since 2003 Frederik Harhoff has been a member of the Committee on Jurisdiction under the Danish Ministry of Justice and since 1999 a member of the International Law Committee of the Danish Red Cross Society. He was a member of the Greenlandic Commission on Constitutional and International Law, a member of the Board for Scientific Research in Greenland, a Member of the Danish Delegation at the ICC Preparatory Committee in New York for the drafting of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence and the Elements of Crimes under the Courts Jurisdiction, and a member of the Danish Refugee Board (Flyginingenævnet). Frederik Harhoff obtained his LL.D. (Dr. jur.) in 1993 from the University of Copenhagen (Doctoral thesis on the right of Indigenous Peoples to Self-Determination in International Law, 563 pages). He obtained his LL.M (Cand. Jur.) in 1977 from the Law Faculty of Copenhagen University.

Dr. Mohamed Elewa Badar

Dr. Mohamed Elewa is a former Judge for the Egyptian Ministry of Justice (2001- 2006). During 2004 - 2005 he worked as a Resident Representative of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (ISISC) (Siracusa-Italy) for the Interim Training for the Afghan Judiciary, Kabul, Afghanistan, where he lectured the Afghan magistrates on issues related to international human rights law, comparative criminal justice systems and Islamic law. In 2003 he worked for six months as an Intern with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Office of the Prosecutor/Appeals Section. He worked as a Senior Prosecutor at the Public Prosecution Office, Egypt, for several years (1997-2001).

Prior to assuming these positions at the Ministry of Justice, he was a Police Captain at the Ministry of Interior - Public Property Investigation General Dept. (1991-1997). Mohamed Badar holds a PhD in international criminal law and LL.M. in international human rights (first class honors) from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway. He also holds a Diploma in international legal relations from Ain Shams University, Egypt. He received his first University degree – Bachelors of Law and Police Sciences – from the Police College, Police Academy, Egypt. Currently, Mohamed Badar is the Deputy Director of the Centre for International and Public Law (CIPL) of Brunel University, UK, and he is the Editor of the Notes & Comments Section of the International Criminal Law Review in which he publishes quarterly ‘Current Developments of International Criminal Tribunals.’