24 Feb 25 Feb
13:45 - 14:00

The Balancing of Rights, General Interests and Science in International Litigation in Times of Global Crises (hybrid)

This workshop will focus on two research questions. First, how selected international adjudicative bodies balance (a) individual rights with the general interest and (b) conflicting rights. Second, what is the role of scientific evidence in the decisions of the studied international adjudicators, primarily by reference to legal issues arising in conjunction with global warming and the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the papers reflect on whether the recent global crises, such as global warming and the COVID-19 pandemic, have entailed (or should entail) a rethinking of the traditional balancing approaches for all (or some) of the selected adjudicators.

The papers’ findings will be published in a special issue of the The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals in 2022.

You are welcome to participate online or in-person in Brussels (limited seats).

Programme on 24 February

1.45pm Welcome address and introduction to the workshop by Mariolina Eliantonio (Professor of European and Comparative Administrative Law, Maastricht University)
2.00pm Keynote speech by Cass R. Sunstein (Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard Law School): “Climate Change in Court”
2.45pm Coffee Break
3.15pm Panel I - International Adjudicative Bodies: ICJ and WTO Appellate Body
 

Chair: Giulia Gentile (Fellow in Law, LSE Law School)

  Bilateral and Community Interests before the International Court of Justice: A Balancing Act by Yusra Suedi (Fellow in Law, LSE Law School)
  Balancing Trade: A Chronicle by Niccolò Ridi (Lecturer in Law, King’s College London)
  Feedback and Q&A
4.15pm Coffee Break
4.45pm Panel II - Regional courts (I) 
  Chair: Mariolina Eliantonio (Professor of European and Comparative Administrative Law)
  Conflict of Norms in the Legal Reasoning of the Andean Court of Justice: A Comparative Perspective by Gerard Conway (Senior Lecturer in Law, Brunel University)
  Feedback and Q&A
5.45pm Concluding remarks by Giulia Gentile (Fellow in Law, LSE Law School)

 

Programme on 25 February

   
9.45am Welcome address and introduction to the workshop by Giulia Gentile (Fellow in Law, LSE Law School)
10.00am Panel I - Regional courts (II)
  Chair: Jacco Bohmoff (Associate Professor, LSE Law School)
  The CJEU, The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change: tilting the balances during global crises? by Giulia Gentile (Fellow in Law, LSE Law School) and Mariolina Eliantonio, (Professor of European and Administrative Law, Maastricht University)
  The Balancing of Rights, General Interests and Science in Africa’s International Courts in the Time of Global Crises by Olabisi D. Akingugbe (Viscount Bennet Professor of Law and Assistant professor, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University)
  Feedback and Q&A
11.00am Coffee Break
11.30am Panel II - Regional courts (III)
  Chair: Cecilia Rizcallah (Post-Doctoral Researcher, KU Leuven)
  Balancing by the European Court of Human Rights – trends and developments by Janneke Gerards (Professor of fundamental rights, Utrecht University)
  The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Challenges Posed by Global Crises by Lucas Carlos Lima (Professor of Public International law, Federal University of Minas Gerais)
12.30 Concluding remarks by Mariolina Eliantonio (Professor of European and Comparative Administrative Law, Maastricht University)
1.00pm Lunch & the End

 

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