The 74th Conference of the International Law Association, hosted by the Netherlands Society of International Law, takes place in The Hague from 15-20 August 2010. A new blog, ila2010conference, has been set up, which is entirely dedicated to this conference. Check it out! And if you are attending this conference in person, I hope to see you there. All the best, Otto.

By Tobias Thienel

This coming Friday, May Day, will be a notable event in Russia – as it is every year. This May Day, the Russian Federation itself will also be at the centre of – hopefully – a good deal of attention, from international lawyers: The Goettingen Journal of International Law is going to publish its first theme-specific, and only its second-ever, issue. The title of this edition will be ‘Russia and International Law – From the North Pole to the Caucasus.’

Of course, Russia is a very big country, as well as a rather powerful one. It has also, on occasion, not exactly been afraid of throwing its weight around. Yet there are many signs that Russia has a measure of respect for international law. The forthcoming second issue of the Goettingen Journal is to examine to what degree such encouraging signs point to the truth. Do recent events, and systemic qualities of that huge State, bear witness to a largely positive attitude to international law, or is there serious cause for concern?

The articles in the Goettingen Journal address some of the most notable issues relating to Russia and international law. Continue reading →

By Tobias Thienel

Opinio Juris has just undergone significant changes that are likely to make it an even better read. Not only have they fundamentally redesigned their blog and added new features, but they have also now teamed up with Oxford University Press, no less, to present discussions on new books. Beyond that, the Opinio Juris team has taken on board as their newest member Ken Anderson, of the Law of War and Just War Legal Theory Blog. Quite a lot to look forward to, then. I doubt any of our readers actually need to be referred to Opinio Juris, but I do it anyway: do check it out!

 By Tobias Thienel

… to the ECHR BLOG, run by Dr Antoine Buyse, a former colleague of Otto’s at Leiden University. The blog obviously centres on the European Convention of Human Rights, and hence also on the law and practice of the European Court. Among the many posts already put up are up-to-date case reviews (here, here, here and here), references to interesting new articles, as well as comments on such matters as how to make an application to the Court, on the execution of the Court’s judgments and on the way the judges make use of the right to append separate opinions. I am duly impressed by the depth and breadth of knowledge in the posts there. The ECHR BLOG is shaping up to be an excellent source of learning on the Convention and on the Court, and I would recommend our readers to check it out.

By Björn Elberling

European readers particularly will probably be interested in the ratification process of the treaty of Lisbon aka the Reform Treaty, particularly the referendum in the Republic of Ireland. Ireland is the only EU/EC member state to hold a referendum on ratification, and apparently the voters are rather divided. It will be interesting to see whether the Irish will do to the Treaty of Lisbon what the French and Dutch did to the European Constitution in 2005. The referendum will be held on 12 June, meanwhile updated polls and other news are gathered at the website of the Irish broadcasting service. Tip o’ the hat to my colleague Killian O’Brien.

By Björn Elberling

Tip of the hat to my colleague Christian Tams, who pointed me to a website that readers might find interesting: The International Law Video Library by Jean Allain of Queen’s University Belfast is a collection of videos on various aspects of international law, including a number of interviews with both academic experts and practitioners. Check it out!