The event will discuss the book “War” published by Andrew Clapham in 2021.
On the occasion of the publication of the book “War” by Andrew Clapham (OUP 2021), the research cluster International Law at Westminster (ILaW) invites you to discuss the relevance of the concept of war today form jus ad bellum and international humanitarian law perspectives.
According to Clapham, notions about war continue to influence how we conceive rights and obligations in national and international law. Although war has been formally outlawed, states nevertheless continue to claim that they can wage necessary wars of self-defence, engage in lawful killings in war, imprison law-of-war detainees, and attack objects which are said to be part of a war-sustaining economy. Clapham argues that the abolition of war as a permitted institution for settling disputes should lead to the limitations of those belligerent rights that once accompanied states at war.
These challenging findings will be discussed with the help of renowned experts on the law of armed conflict.
Programme
Presentations will be given by:
- Professor Andrew Clapham (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva)
- Professor Alejandro Chehtman (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires)
- Professor Heike Krieger (Freie Universität, Berlin)
- Professor Naz Modirzadeh (Harvard Law School)
- Chair: Dr Marco Longobardo (University of Westminster)
About the speakers
Andrew Clapham is Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, which he joined in 1997. He has been a member of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan since October 2017. He is an Honorary Member of the International Commission of Jurists. In 2003 he was an Adviser on International Humanitarian Law to Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Iraq.
Alejandro Chehtman is Professor of Law at the Law School of the University Torcuato Di Tella and a Fellow at the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET). He is also co-Director of the Supreme Court Project at UTDT. Since August 2019, he is the Head of the Law Degree at UTDT.
Heike Krieger is Professor of Public Law and International Law at Freie Universität Berlin. She is member of the Wissenschaftsrat (German Council of Science and Humanities). Between 2007 and 2014 she acted as Judge at the Constitutional Court of the State of Berlin. She is co-chair of the Berlin-Potsdam-Research Group on “The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?”.
Naz Modirzadeh is Founding Director of Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School.
Marco Longobardo is Senior Lecturer in International Law at the University of Westminster.
