IG Conference on the EU’s Response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

On 22-23 June the European Society of International Law Interest Group EU as a Global Actor will organize a conference on the theme The EU’s Response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: International and European Perspectives at the University of Leiden, Netherlands.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union (EU) and its Member States have adopted wide-ranging legal and political measures to support Ukraine in its struggle. This has included political support, financial, military and humanitarian assistance in solidarity with Ukraine and its people. Beyond their impact on the war, these measures also raise important questions for the EU’s role in international relations and under EU law, human rights law, and various branches of public international law.

The aim of this conference is to discuss the legal and political issues associated with these EU measures. Rather than discussing the illegality of Russia’s invasion, panels will focus on current and future developments, mostly from an international law perspective, but also from International Relations and EU studies perspectives. Bringing together legal and political experts from academia and practice, the conference will explore and discuss these multifaceted questions.

The interdisciplinary event is supported by the University of Leiden (Europa Institute, Europe Hub and Ukraine Hub), KU Leuven (Institute for European Law and Reshuffle project) and The City Law School, City, University of London.

The event will also include a Pre-Conference PhD Workshop on 22 June.

For registration and programme, visit this webpage.

Best wishes,

IG Conveners

CfP: Doctoral Workshop on “The EU’s Response to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine – International and European Perspectives”

As part of a conference organised on 22 and 23 June by the European Society of International Law Interest Group ‘EU as a Global Actor’ supported by the University of Leiden (Europa Institute and EU Hub/Ukraine Hub), KU Leuven (Institute for European Law) and City Law School, City, University of London, the conveners are holding a doctoral workshop on the morning of 22 June open to doctoral researchers in law and in international relations at different stages of their research on “The EU’s Response to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: International and European Perspectives“.

Rather than discussing the illegality of Russia’s invasion, we welcome papers focusing on current and future legal and political developments. Specifically, contributions are welcome on the following topics:

• The day after the war – reconstruction, development and justice for Ukraine
• Prosecution of crimes of aggression against Ukraine
• The EU’s political support and financial, humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine
• EU restrictive measures
• Implications on EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU Security and Defence Policy, and the EU’s broader system of fundamental rights
• Proceedings before international courts (ICJ, ICC, ECtHR) and EU support
• EU measures to support refugees and victims
• EU measures to support Ukraine and horizontal issues of public international law (international responsibility, law of treaties, countermeasures)
• The EU’s role in a new geopolitical world order

The call for papers is available here.

Format & Output

The workshop will take place on Thursday, 22 June 2023, from 09h00 to 13h00. Selected contributors will be assigned a discussant from among the speakers and organisers of the conference of 22-23 June. Subject to peer-review, the organisers may invite selected doctoral researchers to submit their contributions to a symposium to be published in a blog such as Verfassungsblog and/or to develop their papers into chapters for an edited collection in a book series of the European Society of International Law (Oxford University Press). Selected participants are therefore expected to submit a draft paper of 1,500 to 2,500 by 9 June.

Deadline

The deadline for submitting abstracts is 23 April 2023. Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and should be sent, together with a brief CV, to Teresa Cabrita (teresa.cabrita@kuleuven.be).

The EU as an actor shaping global security law: blueprint of international regulation, guardian of global security, or something else?

The ESIL interst group on the EU as a global actor – EUGLOBAL – is organising a side event on 30 March 2022 (Wednesday) in the framework of the 2022 ESIL Research Forum hosted by the University of Glasgow (general theme: “International Law and Global Security: Regulating an Illusion?”). It primarily targets legal scholars at an early stage of their careers.

The theme of the upcoming ESIL Research Forum revolves around the role of international law in maintaining and promoting ‘global security’ in its numerous dimensions. The forum aims to bring together a wide range of different approaches to global security law, with a view to attracting fresh ideas about the recalibration of contemporary approaches to global security law. EUGLOBAL will pick up this topic by focusing on the European Union’s (EU) normative action, notably under the CFSP/ESDP, to shape international legal rules relating to grand and emerging issues of global security as well as the EU’s declared function to contribute to international peace and security within the meaning of Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter.

The EUGLOBAL acting as the organising committee for this side event therefore welcomes proposals for papers addressing mainly (but not limited to) the following themes:

• The role and relevance of the EU’s normative action in the global security legal discourse (in its various dimensions – both traditional and new security concerns);
• To what extent does EU law contribute to the trend of the ‘securitization’ of ever broader fields of international law?;
• The EU shaping global security law at different levels of regulation – thematic case studies;
• The EU’s Security and Defence Policy and its engagement with the international legal order: coherence or frictions?;
• The EU (and its Court of Justice) as a guardian of global security?; and
• Issues of international responsibility for EU military operations and the EU’s place in the global accountability regime.

EUGLOBAL invites submissions of abstracts, written in English or French, of no more than 600 words. Applications should be submitted to euglobalactor@gmail.com by 10 February 2022 (Thursday) 24:00h CET, with a short curriculum vitae containing the author’s name, institutional affiliation, contact information (e-mail and phone number), and whether the applicant is an ESIL member. Selected speakers will be notified on 15 February 2022 via e-mail.

For further details, click here to download the full Call for Papers.

Panel Discussion: ‘Artificial Intelligence in the EU and Access to Justice’

The IG on the EU as a Global Actor is co-organizing a panel discussion on n the timely topic of ‘Artificial Intelligence in the EU and Access to Justice’ with the Central European University and Leiden University.

The panel debate takes place on 28 January 2022, 13:30-15:30 CET at the CEU’s Vienna Campus (if Covid-19 measures permit). The event will in any case be hybrid so it is also possible to join via Zoom. Click here to read more and register. We look forward to seeing many of you there!

The EU’s global role with respect to the principle of solidarity under international law: a quest for normativity?

On the margins of the 2021 ESIL Catania Research Forum ‘Solidarity: The Quest for Founding Utopias of International Law’, the EUGlobal Interest Group is organizing an online event entitled ‘The EU’s global role with respect to the principle of solidarity under international law: a quest for normativity?’ on 15 April 2021 at 10:00 to 12:30.

If you wish to take part in this EUGlobal side event, please register via the Research Forum registration platform. All registered participants will receive a link for the IG workshop in due time.

Programme summary:

10.00 – 10.10

Jed Odermatt (IG EUGLOBAL; City, University of London): Welcome and Introduction to the Workshop 

10:10 – 10.35

• Despoina Poutakidou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki): “The quest for solidarity: Human rights provisions in European Union’s international trade agreements” 
• Discussant: Elaine Fahey (City, University of London)

10.35 – 11.00

• Elisabet Ruiz Cairò (Université de Genève): “The principle of solidarity in global health: Any lessons from the European Union?” 
• Discussant: Anniek de Ruijter (University of Amsterdam)

11:00 – 11:25

• Pascal McDougall (Harvard Law School): “The European Union and International Solidarity at the Intersection of Labour Rights and the Environment”
• Discussant: Tonia Novitz (University of Bristol)

11.25 – 12.15: Q & A session – further comments and debate 

12.15 – 12.30: Concluding remarks of the IG EUGLOBAL conveners

Click here to download the full programme.

The EU’s global role with respect to the principle of solidarity under international law: a quest for normativity?

In the margins of the ESIL Catania Research Forum, the ESIL Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor will hold a workshop on the EU’s global role with respect to the principle of solidarity under international law on 15 April 2021. The primary target audience for the event is legal scholars at an early stage of their careers.

The theme of the upcoming ESIL Research Forum concerns the role of solidarity in the fabric of international law as well as in its different branches of law. The EUGlobal Interest Group will pick up this topic by focusing on the European Union’s global role with respect to the principle of solidarity under international law. Therefore, EUGlobal welcomes proposals for papers addressing mainly (but not limited to) the following themes:

• Solidarity as a legal principle in the EU legal order: challenges in the law of external relations and the role of EU judiciary.
• Burden sharing, responsibility-sharing and solidarity under the new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum: a blueprint for the global legal order?
• Case studies of EU law influencing universal standard-setting related to solidarity within the international community (e.g. EU’s contribution to the ILC’s draft articles on the protection of persons in the event of disasters etc.).

The IG EUGLOBAL invites submissions of abstracts, written in English or French, of no more than 500 words. Applications should be submitted to euglobalactor@gmail.com by 31 January 2021 (Sunday) 24:00h CET, with a short curriculum vitae containing the author’s name, institutional affiliation, contact information (e-mail and phone number), and whether the applicant is member of ESIL. Selected speakers will be notified by 15 February 2021 via e-mail.

The full Call for Papers for the event can be downloaded here.

IG webinar on “The European Union’s External Action and International Law: A View From the Outside”

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On 12 June the EUGlobal Interest Group will organise a webinar on ‘The European Union’s External Action and International Law: A View From the Outside’ with participants from all over the globe. The event is organised together with the The City Law School’s International Law and Affairs Group (ILAG) in London.

The event is open to the public. Please find the programme and a possibility to register HERE. Registration is on a first come first serve basis. As the number of available places is limited, please let us know if you do no longer wish to make use of the link we will mail you upon registration so as to free a seat for others that are interested. We look forward to seeing you at the IG’s very first webinar.

On behalf of the other IG Conveners: Ramses Wessel, Melanie Fink, Christine Kaddous and Anne Thies, and our co-organiser in London, Jed Odermatt.

Joint EUglobal – City Law School workshop: “The European Union’s External Action and International Law: A View From the Outside”

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The City Law School, International Law and Affairs Group (ILAG) and the ESIL Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor invite submissions of abstracts for a workshop on ‘The European Union’s External Action and International Law: A View From the Outside’. The workshop will take place at the City Law School, City, University of London, on 12 June 2020.

Workshop Theme:
How is the European Union and its external action viewed from the ‘outside’? As the European Union’s external action continues to expand and evolve, this raises ever more questions about how such practice fits within the state-centric system of international law.

Some practices in the EU’s external action have been criticised as examples of ‘European exceptionalism’, in which the EU receives exceptions from its international partners. The use of disconnection clauses in international agreements; the EU’s insistence that the autonomy of the EU legal order be preserved in dispute settlement bodies; the practice of concluding mixed agreements; among others, have raised concerns for the EU’s external partners. In these instances, the EU seeks certain exceptions under international law to take account the EU’s internal law. The EU’s external action has also attracted certain criticism from international lawyers who have pointed to fields of EU action may contravene international law.

While much of this has been considered from the ‘internal’ perspective, especially by EU law experts, there has been less reflection on how the EU and its external action is viewed from the ‘outside’. This event understands ‘outside’ as a broad term to include opinions and approaches from outside the EU geographically, but also in terms of academic discipline. It may also involve critical and non-Western approaches to the understanding the EU’s external action. The event aims to open up the study of the EU’s external action to outside reactions and perspectives.

We invite abstracts on the general theme of workshop. Issues may include

• How is the EU’s external action viewed from the perspective of public international law? What practices in the EU’s external action give rise to particular problems for the EU and its international partners?
• How is the EU viewed from the perspective of other international bodies, such as international organizations and international dispute settlement bodies? What kinds of tensions does this give rise to in EU law and international law?
• Which practices of the EU give rise to particular problems from an international law perspective? Does the EU’s action in the field of trade, sanctions, migration, human rights and so on, invite criticism for failure to observe international law?
• What can other disciplines outside of EU law, such as international law, or critical and non-Western approaches, bring to the study of the EU and its external action?
• What are the views of the EU and its external action from particular geographical regions?

The abstracts should contain a one-page (500 words max.) description of the proposed paper and are to be accompanied by a CV of the author/s. The abstracts are to be sent to Ramses Wessel (r.a.wessel@rug.nl) and Jed Odermatt (Jed.Odermatt@city.ac.uk) by 15 February 2020. Successful applicants will be notified by 15 March 2020.

CLEER and ESIL IG EU as a Global Actor Conference: EU Trade Agreements and the Duty to Respect Human Rights Abroad (11 December 2019)

The ESIL Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor, the T.M.C. Asser Institute, and the Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER) are arranging a workshop on ‘EU Trade Agreements and the Duty to Respect Human Rights Abroad’. The workshop will take place at the Asser Institute in The Hague, on 11 December 2019.

Following a successful call for papers back in May, the final programme of the workshop is now available:

View this document on Scribd

EU External Relations Law: Recent Developments

The Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and the University of Salamanca, in co-operation with the ESIL Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor, are organizing on 15 July 2019 the fourth edition of the Seminar on EU External Relations Law in order to explore the most salient issues in the case law of the Court of Justice and the General Court on EU external relations over the last year.

Click here to read the full seminar program.