By Otto Spijkers

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden University, and the research project on the United Nations and the Evolution of Global Values are organizing an international conference on The United Nations and the Evolution of Global Values, which will take place at the Peace Palace in The Hague, 11-12 December 2008. Experts in the fields of ethics, public international law and international relations will present their views on the concept ‘global values’ and its content, the influence of these values on international law, and on the role of the United Nations in defining and promoting these values. President of the International Court of Justice, Dame Judge Rosalyn Higgins (UK), Frank Majoor (Netherlands Ambassador to the UN in New York), Joris Voorhoeve (former Minister of Defence of the Netherlands), Thomas Franck (NYU Law School), Leif Wenar (King’s College London), John Keane (University of Westminster), and Thomas Weiss (City University of New York and Director of the United Nations Intellectual History Project) are included in the programme. The conference is the international follow-up to the national workshop on The United Nations and Global Values of January 2007.