News item 1
ICLG member, Associate Professor Annick Masselot (Accounting and Information Systems) recently co-organised (with Dr Katharine Vadura and Genevieve Taylor (National Centre for Research on Europe)) a conference at the Ҷֱ on Managing Risks for Vulnerable Groups Following Disasters in the Pacific (3-5 December 2013). The conference brought together over 30 participants from the Pacific, Australia and New Ҷֱ and included experts from universities, donors, practitioners, non-government organisations active in humanitarian projects, policy making, business and community groups. The conference was part of a larger project lead by Dr Katharine Vadura on mainstreaming rights in disaster risk management funded by the Jean Monnet Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) of the European Union.
The project aims to establish a research platform from which to further develop and evaluate integrated approaches to disaster risk management for vulnerable Pacific groups. Invited speakers discussed ways to respond to disasters that are best suited to people within the region and which focussed on rights-based and interdisciplinary approaches for vulnerable groups such as women, children, minorities, elderly people and those with disabilities in the Pacific region.
Annick Masselot presented a paper at the conference, which critically explored the concept of gender mainstreaming. A second interdisciplinary paper co-authored by Annick Masselot (and presented at the conference by Racheal Worstley) focused on “The social, legal and economic implications of the Canterbury Earthquake on the Christchurch sex industry” (Masselot, A.; Morrish, S.; Meriuoto, L.; Worstley, R. Webb, R.; Abbel, G.).
News item 2
ICLG Member, Chris Riffel, attended the Beeby Colloquium, a seminar for academics, government lawyers and practitioners organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) in Wellington on 15 November 2013. He gave a short presentation on the recent import licensing dispute which has arisen between New Ҷֱ and Indonesia. The 2013 Trade Policy Review of Indonesia highlighted that traders in agricultural products have to make an application to the Indonesian authorities for a permit to import agricultural products into Indonesia. This increases their fixed costs considerably. Because Indonesia is New Ҷֱ’s closest Asian market, the NZ Government requested consultation with Indonesia on this matter before the WTO. There is not much case law on the Import Licensing Agreement at the moment, which is why this dispute is so interesting. One of the key issues in the case is whether self-sufficiency is a legitimate policy goal that can justify an import licensing system for agricultural products despite the fact the Agricultural Agreement obliges the WTO Member States to convert their quantitative restrictions into tariffs.
In the preparation of this case, Chris was supported by a team of students at UC, the WTO Interest Group, consisting of Evelyn Dyer, Kian Looi and Mate Hegedus-Gaspar. The WTO Interest Group gives undergraduate students the chance to do research in international trade and deal with pressing trade topics.
On the margins of the Colloquium, Chris met with other academics, trade lawyers and government officials to sound out new possibilities of cooperation with a view to raising the profile of international trade law at NZ universities. One idea floated was to have a national moot court in international trade and organise a guest speaker series.
News item 3
ICLG member, Associate Professor Annick Masselot, gave a public lecture at the Ҷֱ on 13 November 2013. The lecture was entitled “What if… Men could give birth?” and explored her research on the issue of work-life balance as well as the large gap between the letter of the law and its practice. Annick questioned how, despite extensive gender neutral legislation, pregnant women and new parents (especially mothers) continue to experience high levels of discrimination and difficulties at work. She looked at cultural gendered stereotypes and changes in the law. In her conclusions she examined the role of the law in shaping the value of reproduction and production in societies.
Annick’s lecture was widely picked up by the New Ҷֱ media. She appeared on the breakfast show (), on RDU 98.5FM radio and was featured as one of the top ten media discussions in New Ҷֱ’s newspapers on 11 November 2013.
News item 4
Dr. John Hopkins, Associate Professor in the Law School and member of the ICLG has been awarded the 2014visiting Professorship to Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. The post, which is sponsored by the European Community, brings leading global experts to teach on the trans-European Public Policy Masters Programme offered jointly by the University of York (UK),Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (Spain), Erasmus University Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and CEU (Hungary). During his time at the CEU, Dr. Hopkins will be teaching a course of Comparative Federalism and advancing his research into the power of soft-law and standards regulation in Global Governance.
Details of the programme can be found here:
News item 5
ICLG Member Professor Karen Scott gave the Fifth Annual Douglas M. Johnston Oceans Governance Lecture on the 30th October 2013 at the Marine and Environmental Law Institute and Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada. In her lecture, entitled "International Law and the 'Mis-anthropocene': Responding to the Geoengineering Challenge", Karen explored the extent to which international environmental law currently constrains geoengineering - the large-scale deliberate manipulation of the environment for climate change mitigation purporses. Karen's latest publication on geoengineering is out this month and focuses on the evolving regime for ocean fertilization under the London Dumping Regime. See Karen N. Scott, "Regulating Ocean Fertilization under International Law: The Risks" (2013) Carbon and Climate Law Review 108 - 116. Karen is in Canada based at the University of Dalhousie working on her comparative oceans governance project, which is funded by the New Ҷֱ Law Foundation.
News item 6
ICLG Member Associate Professor Annick Masselot is currently based at the University of Oxford in the UK having been awarded a 2013 Ҷֱ Erskine Bequest Fellowship. Whilst in the UK she was invited to talk about her research by the University of Sheffield Women Network, the Centre for European Law and Legal Studies at Law, Leeds University, the Centre of European Studies of Nottingham Trent University, Oxford Brooks University and the School of Law, University of Leicester. Annick’s papers focused on issues relating to pregnancy, maternity and motherhood and the challenges of reconciling work and family life, the cost of social reproduction and the lack of gender equality in the EU-Asian Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Annick’s final invitation is to speak at the International Round Table on EU & Gender, at the University of Surrey on 22 October 2013. This round table is held under the joint auspices of CRonEM, the School of Politics and an ESRC project on gender led Dr Roberta Guerrina. The discussion will relate to gender studies/gender-informed accounts of the EU, with an additional focus on the ‘real world’ condition of EU gender politics, policy and law. Further details on Annick’s recent papers can be found on her
News item 7
ICLG member, Professor Karen Scott recently presented a paper entitled "Managing Technical Solutions to Climate Change in an Ethical-Legal Framework" at a conference on the Ethics of Climate Change in Lake Como, Italy (26 - 27 September 2013). Karen's paper focused on geoengineering as a climate change mitigation measure and explored whether some of the broad ethical questions associated with geoengineering can be effectively managed within the current international legal framework. The questions she focused on for the purpose of this paper comprised: the morality of geoengineering as a climate change mitigation measure; the relationship between geoengineering and other mitigation measures such as emissions reductions; ethical challenges associated with the regulation of scientific research; democracy and decision-making in respect of geoengineering; and the role of the geoengineering philanthropist or entrepreneur. The conference brought together academics interested in climate change ethics from a range of disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, political geography and economics.
News item 8
ICLG Member, Associate Professor Annick Masselot in collaboration with Dr Maria Garcia (University of Nottingham) recently presented a paper entitled“:an assessment of the EU’s ability to implement its own legal obligations” at the 43rd annual conference of the academic association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) held at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom (2-4 September 2013). Annick explored the tensions and contradictions that exist between the European Union’s internal and international legal obligations to achieve gender equality in all its activities, and its engagement in the global competitive economy. The context of the economic relations negotiations between the EU and the Asian region provides an excellent vantage point to highlight the significant difficulties in diffusing gender norms through the medium of trade and the consequences of not doing so. The paper argues that the lack of reflexivity has implications for the EU’s external actions and its own internal order. This paper is part of a chapter that Annick for a book which she is also editing on the EU as an exporter of norms and values.
News item 9
ICLG Member Dr. John Hopkins has recently published a chapter exploring the difficulties of addressing non-territorial identities in the current international legal order. The chapter, entitled "Soft Identities and Hard Realities: The Limits of Governance and Non-Territorial Identity" was published as part of a international cross-disciplinary project exploring the role of religion in 21st Century Governance. The project was coordinated by Jim Jose and Rob Imre at the University of Newcastle, NSW, who also edited the final volume entitled "Not So Strange Bedfellows: The Nexus of Politics and Religion in the 21st Century". It is published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Further details are available here:http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Not-So-Strange-Bedfellows--The-Nexus-of-Politics-and-Religion-in-the-21st-Century1-4438-4800-X.htm
News item 10
ICLG Member Angela Woodward has explored questions relating to the implementation of arms control systems in a recent book chapter.
How do States ensure that materials and technologies that could be misused to manufacture weapons of mass destruction aren't shipped to nefarious actors? By establishing robust international export control systems, backed up with stringent national implementing legislation and enforcement measures. Angela Woodward, Adjunct Senior Fellow in the Law School, has co-authored a book chapter with her VERTIC colleague Andreas Persbo, outlining the challenges in enforcing export controls relating to biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and outlining certain legal and policy mechanisms that could help shore up the export control elements of multilateral nonproliferation regimes ("Detection, deterrence and confidence-building: Improving multilateral technology controls"). The book, titled Technology Transfers and Non-proliferation: Between Control and Cooperation, is a primer on export controls, intended for tertiary students, policy-makers and diplomats, published by Routledge as part of its Global Security Studies
Series.
News item 11
The Asia –Pacific Model United Nations Conference (MUN) was held in Wellington in July this year and three students from the Ҷֱ’s Law School participated. MUN brings together like-minded individuals to discuss pertinent and current issues that the international community has faced difficulty in addressing. In MUN, groups of people form “delegations” and go on to represent various international actors. Within the delegation of nine from the Ҷֱ, the three Law students, Jasveet Sandhu, Kate Macfarlane and Laura Stills have a particular interest in public international law. Each student was assigned to sit in differing UN committees and addressed issues which ranged from matters of health and human rights to legal issues involving international law. Kate Macfarlane said that “This was an exciting opportunity which was both a highly informative and educational experience as well as a great occasion to network with like-minded people from all over the region who share similar interests.” The three Law students received support from the International Law Group Trust for attendance at this event.View students report
News item 12
ICLG Member Professor Karen Scott explores the practice of establishing marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean in a chapter in a new book on The Law of the Sea and Polar Regions published by Martinus Nijhoff this week. In her chapter (Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean) Karen investigates national and international practice relating to the creation of marine protected areas. In particular, she focuses on the relationship between the 1959 Antarctic Treaty and the 1980 Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and the role they might play in the future in establishing joint multi-functional MPAs designed to protect the fragile environment from a variety of threats such as fishing and tourism. See Karen N. Scott, “Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean” in Erik J. Molenaar, Alex G. Oude Elferink and Donald R. Rothwell (eds), The Law of the Sea and the Polar Regions. Interactions between Global and Regional Regimes (Leiden/ Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2013) 113 – 137.
News item 13
Annick Masselot, Associate Professor and member of the ICLG recently was, together with NCRE lecturer, Dr Katharine Vadura, Genevieve Taylor (NCRE PhD candidates) and Sarah Christie (Otago University PhD candidates) recently awarded €28,000 by the European Commission’s Jean Monnet grant awards for their research project - “Human Rights and Disaster Risk Management in the Pacific”. The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach with a commitment to innovation and mainstreaming of human rights in disaster risk management and development. It focuses on vulnerable groups in disaster management and development cycles in the Pacific region including: Women; Children; Elderly; Disabled; Indigenous and minorities.
News item 14
Dr. John Hopkins, Associate Professor and member of the ICLG recently presented a paper examining the New Ҷֱ approach to recovery after the Canterbury earthquake. The paper, which formed part of a UC panel examining the earthquake's legal aftermath, was presented at the joint Australian, New Ҷֱ and Canadian Law and Societies Conference at UBC, Vancouver, Canada. The presentation, which builds on work undertaken as part of Dr. Hopkins' Fulbright Professorship to the Unviersity of Georgetown in 2012 questioned the adoption in New Ҷֱ of a legislative framework which avoided principles of Administrative Law in the name of efficiency. Dr. Hopkins argued that such an approach leads to poor decision making and fails to recognise the political nature of recovery. A report of the panel was published on the University of Alberta's Blog:
News item 15
ICLG Member Professor Karen Scott recently presented a paper entitled "Accountability and the Global Environment: Non-compliance mechanisms under Multilateral Environmental Agreements" at the 21st Annual Conference of the Australian and New Ҷֱ Society of International Law (ANZSIL) on Accountability and International Law held at the ANU in Canberra, Australia (4 - 6 July 2013). Karen's paper explored non-compliance mechanisms (NCPs), which comprise institutions and processes established under treaties designed to promote state compliance with obligations under environmental treaties such as the climate change convention. NCPs, which increasingly provide an alternative option to traditional dispute resolution, tend to be persuasive rather than punitive and support the so-called managerial approach to compliance with international law. Karen concluded her paper with an analysis of the relationship between NCPs and the more traditional approaches to compliance and dispute resolution. Her paper forms part of a book chapter she is currently working on looking at NCPs and biodiversity treaties to be published by Edward Elgar in the Research Handbook on Biodiversity and Law (editors, Bowman, Davies and Goodwin). The ANZSIL annual conference provides an opportunity for scholars, practitioners and government officials working in the field of international law to engage and exchange ideas over two and a half days. Other ICLG members attending ANZSIL this year included Chris Riffel (Lecturer) and Josie Toop (PhD candidate). Karen is the Vice-President of ANZSIL.
News item 16
Josephine Toop, PhD Candidate, was recently invited to present her research at the postgraduate workshop of the Australian and New Ҷֱ Society of International Law (ANZSIL) annual conference, held in Canberra, Australia (3 - 6 July 2013). Her presentation was entitled “Improving the Effectiveness and Legitimacy of International Environmental Regimes: can Application of Principles derived from Global Administrative Law help?” She explained the nature of global administrative law, provided some background on how modern environmental treaties operate, and outlined some of the challenges they face, before addressing the potential effectiveness and legitimacy benefits that may be associated with the application of global administrative law. Josie then turned to her regime selection and method of conducting her research, before discussing her findings relating to participation and transparency. Josie’s presentation was well received, and the questions and discussion following the presentation were useful. Following the workshop, Josie attended the ANZSIL conference and found the Year in Review session (which covered international law developments in New Ҷֱ and Australia over the past year), the plenary session on climate change law and the policy debate, and the panel on accountability and the environment of particular interest. Josie also enjoyed the opportunity to meet and talk with other academics and postgraduates working in the international law field. She would like to thank both ANZSIL and the Law School at the Ҷֱ for providing funding to facilitate her attendance at this conference.
News item 17
CLG member and Associate Dean of Law, Dr. John Hopkins has been elected to the International Academy of Comparative Law. This International Institution is one of the oldest legal academic organisations in the world, dating as it does to 1924. The IACL is most well know for its organisation of the four yearly International Congress of Comparative Law. Dr. Hopkins attended the 2010 Congress in Washington DC, as part of the New Ҷֱ/Aotearoa delegation. In 2014 he is attending as the New Ҷֱ rapporteur on Constitutional Law. Congratulations John!
News item 18
ICLG Member Professor Karen Scott has commented in the media this week on the failure to adopt the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area at the special meeting of the Commission for the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) on 16 July 2013. Karen commented that Russia's legal objections appeared unfounded and noted that Russia had in fact supported the designation of the South Orkney Islands MPA in 2009 and a general framework conservation measure on MPAs in the CCAMLR area in 2011. The press release can be found here: (link to attached comment). Karen was featured on Morning Report, TV1, TV3, RDU 98.5 FM and Newstalk ZB.
See also:
ICLG Member Professor Karen Scott was invited to present a paper entitled “Marine Living Resources Security Beyond National Jurisdiction in International Law” at the Plenary Conference on Jurisdiction and Control at Sea held at the Italian Research Council in Rome on 6 June 2013. Her paper explored the role that marine protected areas can play in achieving conservation goals on the high seas and highlighted some of the current legal challenges to the creation of high seas MPAs. Her paper drew partially on work she previously published in the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (volume 27, 2012, 349 – 857) special edition commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Karen was also asked to make a separate intervention on marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean with a particular emphasis on the proposed Ross Sea MPA. The conference was part of a wider European Union funded project which brings together a NETwork of experts on the legal aspects of MARitime SAFEty and security (known as MARSAFENET). MARSAFENET is sponsored by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) and focuses on four main issues: shipping and marine environmental protection; new developments of economic activities at sea, maritime international security and border surveillance; and protection of fragile and semi-enclosed seas. MARSAFET comprises primarily European-based researchers but a small number of researchers from non-European states have also been invited to participate. Karen has been invited to participate in the network representing New Ҷֱ. More information about MARSAFENET and its activities can be found here:
News item 19
ICLG member Natalie Baird recently worked with a group of six undergraduate LLB students to coordinate a submission to the UN Human Rights Council for New Ҷֱ’s upcoming Universal Periodic Review. The submission focuses on the human rights impacts of the Canterbury earthquakes. The students met with over 20 Christchurch community groups to hear first-hand about the ongoing human rights impacts of the earthquakes. The resulting submission focuses on five rights – the right to housing, the right to political participation, the right to health, the right to work and the right to education. A major theme of the submission is that the human rights impacts of the earthquakes demonstrate some of the shortcomings in New Ҷֱ’s overall human rights framework such as weak constitutional protection for economic, social and cultural rights. The submission, which was endorsed by 26 local and national NGOs and community organisations, was sent to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva on 17 June. It will be used by that Office as a background document for the preparation of the “Stakeholder Summary” for New Ҷֱ’s review, scheduled for January 2014.A copy of the submission is available here
News item 20
PhD student Josephine Toop (whose senior supervisor is Professor Karen Scott) is thrilled to have been accepted for a three month internship with the Secretariat of the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention). The internship will be based at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, and runs from November 2013 until February 2014. Josie has also been awarded the competitive Australian New Ҷֱ Society of International Law (ANZSIL) intern funding, which will provide some financial support during the internship. The Aarhus Convention focuses upon domestic access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters, and also encourages the promotion of these principles in international environmental decision-making processes. Josie’s doctoral research connects strongly with the latter. She is investigating the existence and operation of the ‘global administrative law’ principles of transparency, participation, impartiality, reason-giving and review in thirty regimes, and is considering whether these principles help with effectiveness and legitimacy. Her study sample comprises regional fisheries management organisations (RFMO) and multilateral environmental agreements (MEA), and includes the Aarhus Convention. As a result, Josie is well placed to be of assistance to the Secretariat. In return, Josie hopes to bolster her own research, in particular, to enrich her understanding of the work that has been undertaken within the Aarhus regime to promote Aarhus Convention principles in MEA and RFMO contexts. Josie additionally hopes to gain insight into the operation of MEA regimes in practice.
News item 21
Two members of the International and Comparative Law Group were recently invited to speak at the EUSAAP International Conference at the University of Macau. The conference, organised by the EU Studies Association Asia Pacific, brought together academics from across the Asia Pacific region and the European Union to discuss the theme of Reassessing the EU-Asia Pacific Relationship in the context of the EU crisis. Associate Professors Annick Masselot and John Hopkins presented papers on "Exporting Gender Equality in EU-Asia Cooperation and Development" and "The EU as a regional model: Does it still have lessons to teach?". Selected papers from the conference will be published in a forthcoming edition of the Asia-Pacific Journal of EU studies. For more information please contactDr. Hopkins
News item 22
The ICLG is delighted to welcome two new members. Christian Riffel joined the Law School as a Lecturer in April and recently completed his PhD at the University of Bern under the supervision of Prof Cottier. His research interests focus on international trade. Being blessed with a global family that lives on four continents, it is his personal endeavour to bring people with different backgrounds together and to champion understanding among the cultures. It is therefore no wonder that he is intrigued by the integrative force of international law, which is most developed in the area of trade. Chris holds a Masters degree from the Europa-Institut of Saarland University in European Integration. Prior to that, he read German, French, Anglo-American law as well as Environmental Studies at the University of Heidelberg. He has practised law in Latin America and lectured on WTO law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Chehani (Che) Ekaratne also joined the Law School in April, as an Assistant Lecturer. She obtained her law degree from Harvard Law School in the USA, followed by an LLM in commercial law at the University of Bristol in the UK. Her initial US undergraduate education was undertaken at Yale University in the US. Before joining the Ҷֱ, Che was an attorney at a law firm in Washington DC, where she worked on several cross-national and constitutional matters, including submissions to the US Supreme Court. These multinational experiences have led to Che’s research interest in comparative law. She has done comparative research involving American, South African and English legal issues, and looks forward to future comparative work including New Ҷֱ law.
News item 23
ICLG member Professor Karen Scott explores the regulatory framework for geoengineering and climate change in an article recently published in the Michigan Journal of International Law. In her article, entitled “International Law in the Anthropocene: Responding to the Geoengineering Challenge” she argues that international environmental law as a coherent discipline provides a basic regulatory framework within which geoengineering – the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the environment – can be managed. However, this framework provides only a starting point for regulation, and in her conclusion she argues for the creation of a framework protocol under the auspices the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to manage geoengineering research and deployment. The full text of Karen’s article (34 (2013) Michigan Journal of International Law 309 – 358) can be found here
News item 24
ICLG members John Hopkins, Annick Masselot and Natalie Baird are pleased to announce the publication recently of a Special Issue of the Canterbury Law Review focusing on regional integration and identity building in Europe and the Pacific. The publication follows on from a colloquium held at the Ҷֱ in December 2011 which looked at the same topic. This was part of a wider project on Comparative Regionalism in the Pacific funded by the European Commission. While the Special Issue is concerned with the law, it also cuts across disciplines and provides a platform for scholars to share their research on the broad issue of the role of identify in developing cross-border governance. The range of articles is diverse and includes consideration of who is leading the Pacific Islands as a region, the threat of small arms on regional security in the Pacific and gender equality and identity building in Europe.
News item 25
ICLG member Professor Karen Scott explores the concepts of fragmentation and globalization in the context of international environmental law in a new book chapter published this month. She examines a common challenge to environmental governance posed by both fragmentation and globalisation: how to manage the interaction between environmental regimes so as to minimise unnecessary conflation of, and conflict between, their regulatory mandates. In her chapter, Karen critically analyses one emerging strategy to deal with this challenge – the creation of institutional and other formal connections and linkages between multilateral environmental agreements. She examines the extent to which these connections enhance the effectiveness of environmental treaties such as the 1992 Biodiversity Convention and the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) but also explores the potential risks of closer cooperation, particularly in relation to the actual or perceived legitimacy of these regimes. See Karen N. Scott, “Managing Fragmentation Through Governance: International Environmental Law in a Globalised World” in Andrew Byrnes, Mika Hayashi and Christopher Michaelson (eds) International Law in the New Age of Globalization (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2013) 207 – 238. The book is the outcome of the Third Four Societies Conference held in Awaji, Japan in 2010 and is a collaborative project of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL), the Japanese Society of International Law (JSIL) and the Australian and New Ҷֱ Society of International Law (ANZSIL).
News item 26
The editors (Karen N. Scott and Natalie Baird) of the New Ҷֱ Yearbook of International Law are delighted to announce the publication of volume 9 of the Yearbook covering the year 2011. The Yearbook includes scholarly articles on military intervention, the responsibility of private military and security companies during armed conflict, trafficking of women and children and Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. It also includes a review of New Ҷֱ state conduct during the year 2011. Further details on the content of volume 9 can be foundhereand the table of contents and purchase information can be foundhere
News item 27
ICLG Member Professor Karen Scott contributes to Radio New Ҷֱ Insight (Sunday 31 March 2013) on the topic of New Ҷֱ’s status in Antarctica.
Link to the Radio New Ҷֱ Insight:
ICLG member, Professor Karen Scott comments on the recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit inInstitute of Cetacean Research and another v. Sea Shepherd Conservation Societyreleased on 25 February 2013 and argues that the Court went too far in characterising Sea Shepherd as pirates.Full article
Links to Karens media coverage:
,
News item 28
Annick Masselot’s recent report on “Fighting Discrimination on the Grounds of Pregnancy, Maternity and Parenthood” has received a wide publicity in the press in New Ҷֱ. The report which was presented on 26 November 2012 at a European Commission legal seminar in Brussels, point out that in many parts of the world women continue to be discriminated against by employers, despite the existence of comprehensive legal protection. The large gap between the letter of the law and its practice is the result of gender cultural stereotypes, which are still very much alive across most industrialised countries. Women are still perceived as the main carers and therefore not primarily as workers with full employment rights. Some solutions outlined in the report include systematic monitoring of employers treatment of pregnant employees and a societal shift to include effectively fathers into domestic care giving.
Links to Annick’s media coverage:,,
News item 29
ICLG member and UC law school graduate Angela Woodward attended the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention Meeting of States Parties in Geneva, Switzerland during 10-14 December 2012. She works for VERTIC, a London-based non-governmental organisation which provides legislative assistance to States to help them to adhere to treaties concerning arms control and disarmament. Her team also help States to draft implementing legislation for these treaties. Cameroon and the Marshall Islands recently joined the Biological Weapons Convention following outreach by VERTIC and partners in the British and United States' governments, which are both depositaries for the Convention, bringing the total number of States Parties to 167.