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2008 Public Seminar Series: Semester 2

If you would like to attend a seminar, please RSVP to law.scil-rsvp@usyd.edu.au

Asylum Denied and Refugee Roulette: Achieving Administrative Justice in Refugee Status Determinations

Professor Phil Schrag, Georgetown University

Professor Mary Crock, Sydney Law School

Monday 28 July, 5.30 – 7.00 pm
Lecture Theatre 6, Level 2, Law School

173-175 Phillip St , Sydney (cnr King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the Seminar: Professor Philip G. Schrag will speak on Refugee Roulette: The Role of Chance in the Adjudication of Asylum Applications in America. His talk will have two dimensions. On one level, Prof. Schrag will tell the story of single victim of political persecution and torture, David Kenney, and of Kenney’s arduous attempts to win asylum in America. At the same time, Prof. Schrag will show how Kenney’s individual story fits into the larger picture of asylum adjudication in America—a system that as a whole is lenient (compared with the asylum systems of many Western countries) but which, at a finer level of detail, is one in which outcomes depend largely on the prior work histories, ideologies, and backgrounds of the hundreds of adjudicators who decide individual cases. The disparities in grant rates among bureaucrats deciding essentially identical cases makes the American system one in which justice is all too random.

Professor Schrag will illustrate his talk with photographs of Kenney’s saga and colored graphs demonstrating the arbitrariness of American justice for asylum seekers. Sasha Lowes of the Legal Services Commission of South Australia will comment.

Philip G. Schrag is a professor of law at Georgetown University and director of its asylum clinic, which has won asylum for more than 100 refugees. He has written extensively on asylum, consumer protection, nuclear arms control, clinical legal education, student financial aid, legal ethics, District of Columbia statehood, and other public policy subjects. In 1996, he helped to lead an effort to stop Congress from barring asylum for anyone who applied for it more than 30 days after entering the United States; that story of public interest lobbying is told in his book A Well-founded Fear: the Congressional Battle to save Asylum in America (Routledge 2000). More recently, his book Asylum Denied: A Refugee’s Struggle for Safety in America (with David Ngaruri Kenney) (University of California Press 2008) is the gripping narrative of his co-author. It relates Kenney’s persecution and torture in Africa, his escape to America, and his Kafkaesque encounters with the U.S. immigration system. In 2009, NYU Press will publish Professor Schrag’s 14 th book, Refugee Roulette (with Jaya Ramji-Nogales and Andrew I. Schoenholtz).

Professor Schrag is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School. Before beginning his teaching career in 1971, he served as Assistant Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and as the first Consumer Advocate of the City of New York. He interrupted his academic work from 1977 to 1981 when he served in the Carter administration as the Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. At the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools, he was awarded the Deborah L. Rhode award, given to one law professor each year for “outstanding contribution to furthering pro bono and public service opportunities in law schools through scholarship, leadership and service.” In June, Lexis/Nexis presented him with its 2008 Daniel Levy Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Immigration Law.

David Hicks in the Australian Courts

The Hon Justice Tamberlin, Federal Court of Australia

Tuesday 29 July, 5.30 – 6.45 pm
Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (cnr King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: The Seminar will focus on the Court decision in Hicks v Ruddock (2007) 156 FCR 574 and will look at the way in which the proceedings arose, the relief sought, and the pleadings. The issues raised concern an attack on the Minister’s decision not to return Hicks to Australia and also consider the availability of habeas corpus. The Court considered the concepts of “custody or control” and the “unlawfulness” of the detention at Guantanamo.

The Seminar refers to Act of State doctrine and the concept of “justiciability” in relation to the issues raised. There will be a reference to the “gag order” imposed on the plea bargain in the United States. Reference will be made to the Australian control order, and legislation restricting his personal profit making from the proceeds of selling any story relating to his experiences. There will be a brief reference to some recent developments in the United States, including the Supreme Court decisions in Boumediene and the decision of Robertson J permitting the Hamdan case to proceed which was delivered on 18 July 2008. The Seminar will also briefly refer to the duty of a State to protect its citizens and the enforceability of any such duty and consider whether Australia should consider a provision such as the US Hostage Act which provides for the Executive to take measures to protect its citizens.

Brian Tamberlin is a Federal Court Judge who has served over fourteen years on that court at both an appellate and trial level. He graduated BA, LLB (Hons 1) from Sydney University Law School in 1962 and from Harvard Law School with an LLM in 1963. He has worked as In-House Counsel with two multinationals, Unilever and IBM in 1961 and 1963-64. Between 1965 and 1967 he practised as a solicitor with a leading Sydney Law Firm and from 1967 to 1994 as a Barrister. He took Silk in 1981. He has served on the NSW Bar Association. Between 1965 and 1972 he taught Australian Constitutional Law at Sydney University Law School.

In 1990 he delivered a paper on Crown Immunity and International Arbitration at the Berlin Congress of the Union Internationale des Avocats. Since appointment to the Federal Court in 1994 he has continued to engage in teaching overseas in Vietnam, Thailand and the United States and has studied the activities of the World Trade Organisation and the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland. For seven years his Honour was the Convenor of the Federal Court Admiralty Panel in Sydney.

Climate Change and Emissions Trading in Australia

Martijn Wilder, Partner, Baker & McKenzie

Tuesday 5 August, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: Martijn Wilder has practiced in the climate change area for over ten years managing to service an international client base of governments, multi-laterals, banks and companies out of Sydney. On the eve of the introduction of an emissions trading scheme in Australia, Martijn will talk about some of the key experiences and transactions he has worked on as a lawyer over this time and what one can expect as Australia introduces its own emissions trading regime.

Martijn Wilder heads Baker & McKenzie's Global Climate Change and Emissions Trading Practice and is regarded as one of the leading legal advisors in the world having worked in the area for over 10 years. Representing an international client base, Martijn has advised numerous governments and international agencies on the development and design of climate change and emissions trading laws including the EU, Australia and NZ, Malaysia, a number of Southern African governments, UNEP and UNDP. He also works with an international client base on international carbon transactions on a daily basis. Of particular note he is external counsel to multilateral banks such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in respect of their climate change activities and acts for many of the leading carbon funds. Martijn has always worked with market leading clients on market leading deals and is currently working on a number of avoided deforestation projects in PNG, Indonesia, Brazil and on the post-2012 carbon frameworks. Martijn is Chair of the NSW Climate Change Council, Chair of the NSW GGAS DSA Transition Taskforce, on the NSW GGAS Transition Taskforce, on the advisory board of the Voluntary Carbon Scheme Agriculture, Forestry and other Land Use (AFOLU) Standard on the Governing Board of the UK Government's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), Chair of TRAFFIC (Oceania) and a Governor of WWF. He is on a founder of, and on the Advisory Board of the Renewable Energy and International Law Project (REILP). Martijn is on the Board of the Australian Branch of the International Law Association (having previously been its Vice President and Secretary), has been a visiting Fellow in International Environmental Law at UNSW and a Visiting Professor to Hoftrsa University Law Summer School. He was formerly President of the Australia-Southern Africa Business Council. Martijn has honours degrees in Economics ( Sydney) and Law (ANU) and was a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar where he obtained an LLM. He has published widely in the international law and climate change area.

National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia-Pacific

Kieren Fitzpatrick, Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions

Tuesday 12 August, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: The Asia Pacific is the only region in the world lacking an inter-governmental human rights system.  In the absence of any inter-governmental mechanism, the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (the APF) is playing a significant role in coordinating regional cooperation on human rights issues.  Established in 1996 with a founding membership of 4 national human rights institutions the APF has expanded rapidly and is currently comprised of 17 constitutionally or legislatively established national human rights institutions.  In the absence of a regional human rights court the APF has also established a Judicial Advisory Council comprising of eminent judicial officers nominated by its member institutions.  This session will focus on the role of the APF internationally, regionally and nationally.

Kieren Fitzpatrick is the foundation Director of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions.  Over the last 17 years he has been involved in the development of international and national human rights law and mechanisms.

Torture Team: Cruelty, Deception, and the Compromising of Law

Professor Philippe Sands QC, University College London

Monday 18 August, 5.30 – 6.45pm, Sydney Law School

173-175 Phillip St , Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

Click here for details...

Boumediene v Bush (2008): Has the US Supreme Court Had the Last Word on Guantanamo?

Dr James Renwick, Barrister, Selbourne Chambers and Fulbright Scholar

Professor Geoffrey Garrett, CEO, United States Studies Centre, Sydney University

Tuesday 26 August, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: Perhaps the most controversial legal  policy issue of the post 9/11 era has been the decision of the United States to detain and then attempt to conduct  military commissions at its Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Although Guantanamo was chosen to deny inmates any avenues of legal redress, a series of historic majority decisions of the US Supreme Court has clarified World War II precedents on commissions and detention without trial in a way which has diminished Presidential power and expressed strong disapproval of the Guantanamo concept.  

So far at least the Supreme Court has not stopped military commissions:- there has been one conviction following a plea bargain  - namely David Hicks – and one contested trial has begun.  But there are more challenges being made. The most recent decision of the Supreme Court in Boumedienne is a timely opportunity to reflect upon whether the US Supreme Court has had the last word on Guantanamo, and why it is that the United States has persisted with the military commission concept in the face of strong legal opposition at home and abroad.  These are questions which raise a complex mixture of law and legal policy as well as strategy and pure politics.    Our two speakers are ideally placed to discuss the topic.

Dr. James Renwick is a NSW Barrister who has pioneered the teaching of national security in Australia.  He briefly represented Australia at Guantanamo Bay in 2004.  He has appeared in many recent High Court cases concerning detention without trial.  A former Fulbright Scholar, he was awarded the first SJD by an Australian University, from Sydney University in 1993.

Dr. Geoffrey Garrett is founding CEO of the United States Studies Centre. He was previously President of the Pacific Council on International Policy, where he remains a Senior Fellow, and Professor of International Relations, Business Administration, Communication and Law at the University of Southern California.  Among the most widely cited political scientist of his generation, Garrett is an expert on the causes and consequences of globalization, American politics and foreign policy, and the impact of China’s rise on the US and the rest of the world.  He is author of Partisan Politics in the Global Economy and editor of The Global Diffusion of Markets and Democracy, both published by Cambridge University Press.

Garrett has been quoted and interviewed by leading media sources around the world and his essays and opinion pieces have appeared in newspapers and magazines in Australia, the US, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Garrett served as founding Dean and Vice Provost of the UCLA International Institute and has held academic appointments at Oxford, Stanford and Yale universities and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  He is a member of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.  A dual citizen of Australia and the US, Garrett was born and raised in Canberra and holds a BA (Hons) from the Australian National University. He earned his MA and PhD at Duke University in North Carolina, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

The 2008 breakdown in the WTO Doha Round of trade negotiations

Dr Brett Williams, Director of the Public International Eocnomic Law Program, Sydney Centre for International Law

Tuesday 2 September, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: In July 2008, the WTO Held a meeting of Ministers to attempt to complete the modalities stage of the Doha Round of trade negotiations which commenced in December 2001. In particular, the Members were aiming for draft agreements on Non Agricultural Market Access and also on Agricultural trade. Dr Williams will explain what happened at the Ministerial meeting by presenting a general description of the draft texts that were on the table before the Ministerial meeting and of the issues that were under discussion. He will also make some general observations on what the parties have done wrong over the course of the negotiations, and assess what might happen next. 

Dr Brett G Williams is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney, where he teaches courses on Law of the World Trade Organization and also teaches Competition Law and Public International Law. His publications include the co-authored book China and the World Trading System, a book chapter on “Non-Violation Complaints in the WTO system”, and “The Influence and Lack of Influence of Principles in the Negotiation for China’s Accession to the World Trade Organization (in GWILR). In 2006, he coached the moot team which won the ELSA moot court competition in WTO law.

The Prohibition of Cluster Munitions: After the Dublin Treaty

Dr Brian Rappert, University of Exeter and Expert Representatives from Austcare

Tuesday 9 September, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: On 30 May 2008, over 100 states adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM).  The treaty was the outcome of the “Oslo Process” which began at a conference in Norway in February 2007.  This presentation examines the prohibition agreed in the CCM in terms of the precedents it sets for the regulation of armed conflict.  Focus here is given to the definition set for ‘cluster munitions’.  This is both central to the scope of the treaty as well as its future implementation.  In making no exceptions for what counts as an appropriate type of ‘cluster munition’, this weapon now joins a relatively small group of others subject to a wide ranging prohibition by major formal international treaties. 

Brian Rappert is an Associate Professor of Science, Technology and Public Affairs in the Department of Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Exeter. His long term interest has been the examination of how choices can and are made about the adoption and regulation of security-related technologies; this particularly in conditions of uncertainty and disagreement.  His book Controlling the Weapons of War: Politics, Persuasion, and the Prohibition of Inhumanity (Routledge, 2006) is an attempt to ask how humanitarian limits are set war.  Biotechnology, Security and the Search for Limits:An Inquiry into Research and Methods (Palgrave, 2007) considers the prospects and problems with introducing security-inspired controls to prevent the destructive use of biotechnology research. 

The Responsibilities of States under Human Rights Optional Protocols: Are the Views of Rights Bodies Binding?

Emeritus Professor Ivan Shearer, Member, United Nations Human Rights Committee

Tuesday 16 September, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: The lecture will focus on the experience of the Human Rights Committee, of which the presenter is a member. What is true of that body is applicable to the others. Neither the constitutive instrument (the ICCPR) nor the Optional Protocol itself expresses any legal status to be given to the Views of the Committee. However, the Committee has always regarded its Views as binding on the parties to the communication, and especially on the government of the relevant State where the Committee has issued interim orders of protection (e.g. calling for a delay in the execution of the death penalty pending its consideration of the case.) The Committee takes this position on the two-fold legal basis of the general duty of States to carry out their obligations in good faith and on the specific treaty obligation under the Covenant (article 3) to provide a remedy to those whose rights under the Covenant have been infringed. The Committee is currently preparing a General Comment which will expand on these reasons.

Professor Ivan Shearer is Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Sydney and was Challis Professor of International Law from 1993 to 2003. From 1975 to 1991 he was a professor of law at the University of New South Wales. He was elected a member of the (UN) Human Rights Committee on the nomination of Australia in 2000 and was re-elected to a second 4 year term in 2004. He is currently a Vice-Chair of the Committee and also serves as the Committee member charged with responsibility for the Follow-Up of Views.

Slavery in the High Court of Australia

Reg Graycar, Barrister, St James Hall Chambers

Thursday, 25 September 2008 (Lunchtime seminar)

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: In 2008, the High Court heard an appeal from the Victorian Court of Appeal that required it to consider the meaning of  'slavery' in the Commonwealth Criminal Code in the context of a prosecution of a Melbourne brothel owner.  The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (now the Australian Human Rights Commission) intervened and argued that the Court should approach the concept of slavery (the subject of 1926 and 1956 treaties that have been ratified by Australia) by reference to contemporary international law understandings.  In its August judgment, the Court held (6:1- Kirby J dissenting) that there were sufficient indicia of slavery for the conviction to be upheld.  In doing so, the Court relied on the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).  A significant part of HREOC's submission  was directed at persuading the Court that in determining the meaning of domestic statutory references to crimes against humanity, the jurisprudence of international tribunals such as the ICTY was indicative of customary international law. 

Click here for HREOC's submission...

Click here for the High Court's judgment...

The Making of General International Law

Professor Campbell McLachlan QC, Victoria University of Wellington & Hague Academy Lecturer

Thursday 25 September, 6.00–7.00pm

GPR6, Level 6, Sydney Law School

 173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: We are living in an era of resurgent imperialism and of unprecedented economic globalisation. On the 60 th Anniversary of the United Nations International Law Commission, it is timely to ask, then, what do we still mean by General International Law, and why do we need it? Drawing upon his recent work on responses to the fragmentation of international law (for the ILC) and on fragmentation of judicial decision-making (for his 2008 Hague Lectures), Campbell McLachlan QC argues that the very pluralism and complexity of the modern world has given General International Law a new function of wide-ranging importance in the international community.

 Campbell McLachlan QC (LL B (Hons) (Well), Ph D (Lon.), Dip (c l) (Hag Acad Int’l Law))is Professor of Law at Victoria University of Wellington. He is President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law. His latest book (with Weiniger and Shore) International Investment Arbitration: Substantive Principles (OUP, 2007) is the first modern treatise on investment treaty law as applied by arbitral tribunals, and won the J F Northey Book Prize in 2008. He is a Specialist Editor of the 14 th edition of Dicey, Morris & Collins on the Conflict of Laws, responsible for the arbitration section. In July 2008, he became the first New Zealand-based academic to deliver a Special Course at The Hague Academy of International Law. His Lectures, on ‘Lis Pendens in International Litigation,’ will be published in 2009. He is a Barrister (NZ, call 1984, Silk 2007), with chambers in New Zealand (Bankside Chambers, Auckland) and London (Essex Court Chambers). He took Silk in 2007, only the second academic lawyer in New Zealand to be recognised in this way. He is appointed as an arbitrator for the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington; and is a member of the ICC Court of Arbitration in Paris.

The Crisis of Human Rights in Sri Lanka

Professor Ivan Shearer, Shiva Pasupati, Mr HLD Mahindapala & Dr Brian Seniveratne

Friday 10 October, 3.00–5.00pm

Professorial Board Room, Main Quad, Sydney University Campus, Broadway
Co-hosted with the Sydney Democracy Forum

About the seminar: With the resumption of hostilities in Sri Lanka, there have been increasing allegations of frequent human rights violations by both government forces and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). Violations of human rights and humanitarian law against civilians have escalated, including indiscriminate killings, forced displacement, use of human shields, abductions and disappearances, forced recruitment of children, arbitrary arrests and detentions, increasing restrictions on political rights and expression, and impunity for security forces. H uman rights monitors, lawyers and journalists in Sri Lanka have come under increasing pressure, including threats of violence or legal proceedings. The speakers in this seminar will discuss the human rights problems in Sri Lanka and consider how a culture of respect for law and human rights can be resurrected.

Climate Change:  Aspects of the International and Constitutional Framework for Reform

Dr Melissa Perry QC, Selbourne Chambers

Tuesday 14 October, 5.30–6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol to that convention envisage that parties will take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with their obligations through a variety of measures at the domestic, as well as the international, level. The establishment of a national emissions trading scheme is only one such means. This seminar focuses upon aspects of the international and constitutional framework within which Australia may address and respond to climate change by other means, consistently with its role under international arrangements as a developed country to lead the way for developing nations. In particular, the seminar will consider:

• the nature and extent of relevant legislative powers available to the Commonwealth, with particular emphasis upon the external affairs power (both from the perspective of legislating to implement Australia’s obligations domestically and legislating with respect to offshore areas, matters and things external to Australia);
• legislative mechanisms that might be employed to overcome some of the challenges that the federal system of government in Australia poses to a nationally consistent, effective and timely response in accordance with Australia’s international obligations; and
• the function that the law can perform, among others, as a catalyst for changing values, expectations, and behaviour (including the way in which decisions are made).

Melissa Perry has a national practice primarily in the federal sphere specialising in public international law, constitutional law, administrative law, native title and, more recently, environmental law. She has practiced at the bar since 1992, moving to New South Wales from South Australia in late 2004. She graduated in law with first class honours from the University of Adelaide. Her doctorate from the University of Cambridge was in public international law and was awarded the Yorke Prize.

She frequently presents papers at local and national seminars and conferences on a diversity of topics within her areas of expertise, and her publications include a major textbook on Australian Native Title Law co-authored with Stephen Lloyd of the Sydney bar. She has also held part-time visiting fellowships with the University of Adelaide, the Australian National University and the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge.

She has pursued an interest in law reform through her membership of the Administrative Review Council which has responsibility for oversight of federal administrative law, as well as (among other things) through her involvement in the preparation of submissions to government on particular constitutional issues for various law bodies. In addition, she is Secretary of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law and a foundation fellow of the Australian Academy of Law established in 2007. She is also a member of various committees including the Administrative Law Committee and the Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Committee of the Law Council of Australia, and the New South Wales Branch Committee of the Australian Mining and Petroleum Law Association.

Restoration of Law and Order in the North and East Provinces of Sri Lanka - The Humanitarian Aspect

The Honourable Rohitha Bogollagama MP, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka

Wednesday 15 October, 5.30 – 6.45 pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St , Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

Hon. Rohitha Bogollagama, MP was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka in January 2007. He was the Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion from 2005, until January 2007. He also held positions of both Minister of Advanced Technology and National Enterprise Development and Minister of Industries previously. Prior to this, he was enrolled as an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 1976.

He entered Parliament in 2000 and during this period, has served in many Parliamentary Consultative Committees and in 2005, he served as the Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) in Parliament, an Oversight Committee of the legislature responsible for accountability of Public Enterprises to Parliament.

Minister Bogollagama represented the Sri Lankan Government at the two rounds of peace talks held in Geneva with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2006. He also functioned as the Spokesman of the Government delegation.

The United Nations Declaration on Indigenous People

Megan Davis, Director, Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW

Tuesday 21 October, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

Megan Davis is the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre and a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, UNSW. Megan’s scholarship involves critical analysis of Indigenous public law issues in particular constitutional reform and democratic theory and governance. Megan’s research also includes Indigenous peoples’ rights in international law, in particular UN treaty body jurisprudence and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and she is also an Australian member of the International Law Association’s Indigenous Rights Committee. Megan has held a UN Indigenous Fellowship, UNOHCHR, Geneva and has participated for a decade in UN expert seminars and working groups as an Indigenous lawyer.

About the seminar: After more than 20 years of negotiations between States and indigenous peoples, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by an overwhelming majority in September 2007. The Declaration stipulates the individual and collective rights of the world’s 370 million native peoples, calls for the maintenance and strengthening of cultural identities and emphasises the right to development in accordance with their needs and aspirations. Efforts to draft a specific instrument concerning the protection of indigenous peoples on a global scale moved slowly due to concerns expressed by States in relation to some of the core provisions of the draft declaration, for example the right to self-determination and control over natural resources existing on traditional lands. The Declaration is a comprehensive statement addressing issues such as collective rights, cultural rights and identity as well as rights to education, health, employment and language. Megan Davis will reflect on her involvement in the drafting of the Declaration and on its successes and failures.

Challenges Facing the International Criminal Court

Mark Ierace SC, Senior NSW Public Defender and former ICTY counsel

Associate Professor Steven Freeland, University of Western Sydney

Tuesday 28 October, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Sydney Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

Steven Freeland is Associate Professor in International Law at the University of Western Sydney, a Visiting Professor in International Law at the University of Copenhagen and a Visiting Professional within the Appeals Chamber at the International Criminal Court. He has also been a Special Advisor to the Danish Foreign Ministry in matters related to the International Criminal Court.

About the seminar: This year marks the 10 th anniversary of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Despite the undoubted progress throughout all levels of the Court in clarifying various aspects of the Statute, the Court still faces many challenges, of a structural, political, legal and/or financial nature. These challenges represent obstacles that must be overcome over time if the Court is to more effectively fulfil the broad mandate that it has been given under the terms of the Rome Statute.

Click here for Power Point slides...

Mark Ierace SC was a Senior Trial Attorney for the Office of the Prosecutor in the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (2000-2004). In that capacity, he led the prosecution team against the Bosnian Serb General (General Galic) who from 1992 perpetrated the Siege of Sarajevo for two years. Mark Ierace SC was admitted to the Bar in 1981. He is currently the Senior Public Defender of NSW.

About the seminar: Prior to the commencement of the first trial in the ICC (Prosecutor v Dyilo), the Trial Chamber imposed a complete stay of proceedings, citing as its reasons that the Office of the Prosecutor (“the OTP”) had engaged in “a wholesale and serious abuse” of the Rome Statute’s provisions as to disclosure. Mark Ierace SC will discuss what can be gleaned from this case and the OTP’s investigations generally in preparing cases for trial and what lessons should be learned from the Trial Chamber’s decision, and Appeals Chamber’s response

Prospects for Global Nuclear Disarmament

Martine Letts, Deputy Director, Lowy Institute

Tuesday 4 November, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Law School

173-175 Phillip St, Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s June 2008 announcement for the establishment of an International Commission on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament was initially greeted with some scepticism.  It seemed to come out of the blue with little consultation with key players and with little apparent thought as to how it might be resourced.  At a time when the existing proliferation architecture seems to be crumbling and prospects for nuclear disarmament are more elusive than ever has Australia had bitten off more than it can chew?

And yet the time is ripe for a new initiative. The global nuclear order is undergoing some significant changes.  Questions about nuclear disarmament, nuclear proliferation and growing demand for nuclear energy are all on the table while profound shifts are unfolding in the distribution of power and influence among major states.  Both US Presidential candidates have acknowledged that nuclear disarmament is a serious policy question for them.  There is also more at stake now than simply rescuing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty: there are significant other players who need to be coopted to realise a vision free of nuclear weapons.  Global pessimism about the growing nuclear dangers may in fact help get us closer to crafting a global consensus towards the realisation of the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.

Martine Letts, Deputy Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, will discuss the prospects for nuclear disarmament and the contribution the International Commission might play in getting us closer to zero.  Prior to coming to the Lowy Institute Martine was Secretary-General (CEO) of the Australian Red Cross.  A former Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and adviser to former Foreign Minister to Gareth Evans, she also spent almost a decade in Geneva and Vienna as an arms control and disarmament diplomat.

Excavating Mass Graves: The Evidentiary Importance of Human Bodies in International Criminal Tribunals

Professor Richard Wright, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sydney, former Chief Archaeologist for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Tuesday, 11 November 2008, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Sydney Law School

173-175 Phillip St , Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

Richard Wright has specialised in applying archaeological methods to the discovery and excavation of mass graves and execution sites in Ukraine and Bosnia-Herzogovinasince1990. From 1990 to 1991 he worked on mass graves in the former Soviet Union ( Ukraine). A major assignment was from 1997 to 2000, when for those four years he was Chief Archaeologist for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. In that role he led an international team of archaeologists and human biologists whose job was to locate clandestine mass graves and examine the evidence contained in them. He has given expert testimony at two trials in The Hague.

About the seminar: The subject of this talk is the judicial context of bodies from mass graves. I shall discuss topics that exemplify the power that flows from being able to display bodies to courts. By contrast, and where there are no bodies to show, a lazy prosecution case can be weakened by the unnecessary lack of material evidence. Particularly vulnerable are cases that depend on the statements of eye-witnesses. I shall discuss efforts by revisionists to protect their positions. These efforts include denying that there are any bodies, that the number is less than expected, and that the bodies are attributable to unrelated events. These discussions will be illustrated with critical evidentiary photos.

The Global Financial Crisis and Human Rights: Opportunity or Catastrophe?

Professor David Kinley, Chair in Human Rights Law, University of Sydney

Tuesday, 18 November 2008, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Sydney Law School

173-175 Phillip St , Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: For the poor, finance is always about much more than economics.  It is a matter of basic human rights.  As the dust begins to settle on the global financial crisis it is certain that all economies will suffer, but it is in the poorest states that will suffer the most, simply because they have less to lose. On top of the sharp price increases in staple foods and fuel, least developed countries are especially vulnerable to reductions in foreign direct investment, export trade, remittances, and economic aid. Thoughts are now starting to move beyond the immediate crisis to questions of how to repair the system for the long-term, including under a Bretton Woods II. In these deliberations, considerations of how best to protect human rights – especially of the poor - must be central. This paper argues why and how this can be done, with particular emphasis on the responsibilities of states, the international financial institutions and business.

David Kinley holds the inaugural chair in human rights at the University of Sydney. His has previously held positions at Cambridge University, The Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, Washington College of Law, American University, and most recently was the founding Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University (2000-2005). He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in 2004, based in Washington DC, and Herbert Smith Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge during the first half of 2008. He has written and edited eight books and more than 60 articles, book chapters, reports and papers.

Trade Commitments In Services: The Interplay between WTO/GATS and Investment Treaties

Rolf Adlung, Senior Economist, Trade in Services Division, World Trade Organisation

Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 12.30- 2.00 pm (Lunchtime seminar)

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Sydney Law School

173-175 Phillip St , Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: This presentation is based on an article (co-authored with Molinuevo) in 2008 Journal of International Economic Law entitled "Bilateralism in Services trade: Is there Fire behind the (BIT) smoke?". It considers the reality that Members currently face several operating systems governing trade in services, including in the WTO (under the GATS) and bilateral investment or trade agreements. This paper considers some of the interactions between the GATS and bilateral agreements and generally considers the impact of the drift towards liberalizing trade in services under bilateral treaties.

Rolf Adlung is a Senior Economist, in the Trade in Services Division of the World Trade Organization secretariat.  He is a leading specialist in the General Agreement on Trade in Services, has published widely in that field and taught in many WTO technical assistance missions on the GATS. His publications include: “Public Services and the GATS” in 2006 9(2) Journal of International Economic Law; “Negotiations on Safeguards and subsidies in Services: A Never Ending Story?” in (2007) 10(2) Journal of International Economic Law; and “The Contribution of Services Liberalization to Poverty Reduction: What role for the GATS” (2007) 8(4) Journal of World Investment & Trade.  

WTO Dispute Settlement: A Practitioner's Perspective

Amanda Gorely, WTO Trade Law Branch, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Thursday, 4 December 2008, 5.30 – 6.45pm

Minter Ellison Room, Level 13, Sydney Law School

173-175 Phillip St , Sydney (crn King & Elizabeth Sts)

About the seminar: Drawing on some recent examples, Amanda will discuss some of the substantive and procedural challenges that can come into play when Australia participates in WTO dispute settlement.  This will include the practical implications of WTO timeframes, coordinating a whole of government approach, presentation of complex information, open versus closed hearings and the use of previous WTO “jurisprudence”.

Amanda Gorely has headed the WTO Trade Law Branch in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade since 2005.  In this role, she has responsibility for representing Australia in WTO disputes and providing legal advice on Australia's WTO obligations. She joined DFAT as a legal specialist in 1993 and has had postings to Geneva and Stockholm.  

 

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