Wisseling van voorzitter / Change of President KNVIR

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For English, please see below.

Op 3 november 2023 hield de Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Internationaal Recht (KNVIR) haar Algemene Ledenvergadering in Den Haag. Tijdens deze vergadering trad Prof. Willem van Genugten af als voorzitter van de KNVIR na deze functie 12 jaar te hebben vervuld. Het bestuur van de vereniging heeft de leden aanbevolen om Prof. Aukje van Hoek, hoogleraar Internationaal Privaatrecht en Burgerlijk Procesrecht aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam, te benoemen tot nieuwe voorzitter, hetgeen met consensus is gebeurd. Het Bestuur is Prof. Van Genugten erkentelijk voor al het werk dat hij in de Vereniging heeft geïnvesteerd en wenst Prof. Van Hoek het allerbeste in haar nieuwe rol, die zij vanaf 1 januari 2024 zal vervullen.

Willem en Aukje

On 3 November 2023, the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law held its Annual General Meeting in The Hague. During that meeting, Prof. Willem van Genugten stepped down as President of the Society after holding this position for 12 years. The Board of the Society made a recommendation to the members to appoint Prof. Aukje van Hoek, Professor of Private International Law and Civil Procedure at the University of Amsterdam, as the new President, and she was appointed by consensus. The Board is grateful to Prof. Van Genugten for his dedication to the Society over the past 12 years and wishes Prof. Van Hoek all the best in her new role, which she shall take up on 1 January 2024.

Willem en Aukje

Speed-dating mentoring

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“Speed-dating mentoring” event organised by the KNVIR and ESIL on 2 September 2022

From 31 August to 2 September inclusive the Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) will take place in Utrecht.

The KNVIR and ESIL have organised a “speed-dating mentoring” event on 2 September between 12:15 and 1:10 pm, where junior international lawyers can meet with more senior scholars and practitioners. Participation is free, but places will be filled on a first come, first served basis!

For further information about the participants and to register (by 31 August), please click here →

Vacatures bij de Commissie van advies inzake volkenrechtelijke vraagstukken (CAVV) (Dutch-language vacancy)

De Commissie van advies inzake volkenrechtelijke vraagstukken (CAVV) heeft meerdere vacatures openstaan. De vacaturetekst vindt u hier. De sluitingsdatum is 31 augustus 2022.

Election of Prof. Yvonne Donders as member of the UN Human Rights Committee

The Board of the Society is delighted at the news that Prof. Yvonne Donders has been elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Committee for 2023-2026. Prof. Donders was a member of the Board of the Society from 2012-2021. The Board congratulates her on this achievement.

Statement Executive Board on the Situation in Ukraine

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Like so many around the world, the Executive Board of the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law is shocked about the situation currently unfolding in Ukraine. The purpose of our Society is, among other things, to promote public international law. Promotion includes an explicit condemnation of the blatant violations of the international legal order that we are witnessing these days. This is why we fully endorse the statement of Prof. Chinkin, Executive Chair of the International Law Association (ILA), as well as similar statements issued by other national branches of the ILA.

Update 4 March 2022: the Executive Board further fully endorses the statement by the International Law Association, available here.

The Executive Board of the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law

KNVIR Annual Meeting 2021 Announcement

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GLOBAL HEALTH LAW DISRUPTED: COVID-19 AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
ROYAL NETHERLANDS SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
ON FRIDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2021 AT 13:30 HRS CET

VENUE: THE HAGUE HUMANITY HUB
FLUWELEN BURGWAL 58, 2511 CJ THE HAGUE
(AND ACCESSIBLE ONLINE VIA ZOOM)

The COVID-19 pandemic painfully demonstrated that protecting health is of the utmost importance to humankind. Governments everywhere are struggling to deal with the pandemic, alongside their fight against persistent diseases such as malaria and against climate change, whose effects on health conditions are undeniable.

This year, the KNVIR focuses on several major issues in the area of global health law, a field of international law that has developed over a period of 70 years, with the World Health Organization as centrepiece.

At the annual meeting four reports will be presented, addressing the status of global health law, and some of its achievements and challenges. These will be discussed in the context of human rights law, international economic law and environmental law, making it clear that the concerns raised cannot be addressed separately. There may be lessons to be learned for the discipline of international law at large.

SPEAKERS:

PROF.MR DR BIRGIT C.A. TOEBES AND MEAGHAN BEYER, LL.M.
The Origins and Scope of Global Health Law

DR KATRINA PEREHUDOFF AND DR JENNIFER SELLIN
Innovation and Access to Medicines

MARLIES HESSELMAN, LL.M.
Climate Change as a Global Health Threat in International Climate Law and Human Rights Law

DR PEDRO VILLARREAL
International Health Law and Pandemics – Will COVID-19 be a Watershed?

At 13:30 hrs CET the Annual General Meeting of the KNVIR will be held, to which only members are admitted.

At 14:00 hrs CET the presentation of the reports will start, at which members and non-members are welcome.

The presentations and discussion will be held in English.

The printed version of the Collected Papers, containing the reports, has been published by T.M.C. Asser Press and may be ordered by non-members by applying to ln.re1733753012ssa@s1733753012serp1733753012 (price € 25.00 + p.&.p.). Members have received or will receive a copy of the Collected Papers via regular mail.

PLEASE NOTE: If you wish to attend the meeting, you are required to register by sending a message to gro.r1733753012ivnk@1733753012tcatn1733753012oc1733753012 no later than Monday 1 November 2021. When you register, please indicate whether you wish to attend in person – at The Hague Humanity Hub – or on-line.

Annual General Meeting 2020

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The Society devoted its Annual General Meeting of November 6, which was held online, to the theme: ‘International Law for a Digitalised World’.  The recording of the discussion of the Collected Papers can be viewed here. (Please note that the video starts rather abruptly, while for technical reasons the parts on the voting on the propositions have been left out.)

Access to the Audiovisual Library of International Law of the United Nations

This week, Mr. Huw Llewellyn, Director of the Codification Division of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations invited members of the KNVIR to make use of the international law training and research materials available in the UN’s Audiovisual Library of International Law (AVL), which may be accessed here.

The AVL contains more than 600 lectures on a large number of international law subjects and in the Historic Archives you may find more than 100 legal instruments, together with introductory notes prepared by internationally recognised experts, as well as audiovisual materials.

The AVL is also available as a podcast here.

Given the outbreak of Covid-19 and the present need for online educational materials and resources, the AVL may provide very useful materials, especially for our members in academia.  Please feel free to make use of these materials and resources.

Theo van Boven – Maastricht Human Rights Research Prize 2018

The jury of the Theo van Boven – Maastricht Human Rights Research Prize 2018 is looking for excellent young researchers in the field of human rights law, international criminal law or international humanitarian law. Nominations must be received by 15 September 2018.

The Prize consists of 3.000 Euro and a seminar on a subject chosen by the laureate, organized together with the International Law Department and the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights of Maastricht Law faculty. The winner will be announced on Human Rights Day 2018.

The nomination must identify the PhD thesis of the nominee or other substantial academic work in this field and a motivation must be attached as to the quality of the researcher nominated. Nominations on the basis of publications in Dutch, English, French, as well as German are welcome. Self-nominations or nominations by close relatives will not be accepted.

For more info, and to nominate someone, see this website.

Theo van Boven – Maastricht Human Rights Research Prize

Important recent appointments

On 28 August 2017, our honorary member prof. mr. dr. Nico J. Schrijver was sworn in by His Majesty King Willem Alexander as State Councillor (Staatsraad) in the Advisory Division (Afdeling advisering) of the Council of State (Raad van State).

prof. Schrijver is professor of public international law at Leiden University and Director of the University’s Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies. From 7 June 2011 until 1 September 2017, when he took up his position as State Councillor, prof. Schrijver was a member of the Netherlands Senate (Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal). He also is one of the four Dutch members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Earlier this summer, our Board member prof. dr. Liesbeth Lijnzaad was elected as a judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea at Hamburg.

prof. Lijnzaad is the first judge from The Netherlands to occupy this position. On 30 September 2017, the day before she takes up her new position at the ITLOS, she will leave the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she worked as Legal Adviser for almost 25 years. prof. Lijnzaad also is professor of Practice of International Law at Maastricht University and a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

The KNVIR congratulates prof. Schrijver and prof. Lijnzaad with their highly prestigious appointments.