Dear Members of the ESIL Interest Group on Peace and Security,
Please find hereafter some important information concerning the activities of the IGPS:
ESIL IGPS Workshop in Valencia, 13 September 2012 – Call for Papers
“Has International Law Something to Say About Revolution?”
The ESIL Interest Group on Peace and Security (IGPS) has the pleasure to announce that its third Workshop will take place in Valencia, Spain, just before the opening of the 5th ESIL Biennial Conference, on the topic: “Has International Law Something to Say About Revolution?”.
The recent revolts in the Arab world and the international reactions that followed them demonstrated, according to some commentators, the limits of International Law in dealing with revolutions. This workshop will try to test and challenge this idea. Potential topics include: Is there a right to democracy in International Law? Legitimacy, recognition and de-recognition of governments and the principle of effectiveness; The continuing relevance of the principles of non intervention/non-interference in domestic affairs; The threshold of applicability of jus in bello; The International Human Rights implications posed both by the revolutions themselves and by outside responses; The role of the UN Security Council and the problem of interpretation of its resolutions…
The Workshop panel will consist of four or five participants and a chairperson. The Languages used will be English and French.
The IGPS invites the submission of abstracts from ESIL members or other scholars or practitioners interested in participating in this special workshop.Priority will be given to IGPS members. Papers presented at the workshop will be selected through a competitive process involving the submission of abstracts. The selection process will be based exclusively on the scholarly merits of the submitted proposals. Each submission should include the following:
A) An abstract of no more than 600 words in English or French specifying the intended language for the paper; and
B) A short CV in English or French including the author’s name, institutional affiliation, contact information and e-mail address.
All applications should be submitted to the IGPS chairman Prof. Theodore Christakis (christakis@wanadoo.fr). The deadline for submission of proposals is Thursday, 1 March 2012. The outcome of the selection process will be notified to all applicants by Monday, 19 March 2012. The selection Committee will be composed only by members who do not intend to present an application. Its composition will be notified to all applicants with the results.
Strategy and publication
Please note that the strategy of the IGPS has always been to organize important events during the ESIL bi-annual Conferences. The general idea is not to transform these workshops to a kind of “à default” solution for members unable to present papers during the main ESIL Conference but, on the contrary, to organize events of high quality capable to be followed by publications in major (and peer-reviewed) journals of International Law. In October 2009 the IGPS published in the Revue Belge de droit international [(2008) 1/2, at 353–458] the Symposium on ‘Insurgency and International Law’ organized at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg during the September 2008 ESIL Conference. This Symposium included papers in English and in French. In February 2011 the IGPS published in the Leiden Journal of International Law (vol 24, 2011, at 71-161) the Symposium on the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Kosovo held during the ESIL Conference at the University of Cambridge. We welcome any expression of interest for the publication of this new event and we invite eventual editors to be part of the Selection Committee.
Registration to the main ESIL Conference
Interest Group attendees are under no obligation to attend the main ESIL 2012 conference. We invite nonetheless IGPS members who wish to attend the conference to register following the instructions on the conference website. Please note that there should be no waiver from registration fees for ESIL IG panelists. The ESIL Secretariat also asked us to remind all IG members to renew their membership of the society for the year 2012.
Election of a Steering Committee and future activities
The meeting in Valencia will also give us the opportunity to elect a Steering Committee in order to organize future events and activities. We could discuss ideas that you have often submitted to me during our exchange of e-mails such as:
- organizing events and workshops more often and outside the main events of the ESIL;
- creating “sub-groups” concerning particular areas of interest for members of the IGPS;
- cooperating with other IGs;
- reviving the web-site of the IGPS;
A group of Ph.D. students of the University of Grenoble has accepted to help us with the administration of the group and its website. This will also permit to create in the near future in the website a “Directory” with the names, titles, contact details and areas of expertise of all IGPS members with a link to their personal page.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any reactions or additional ideas concerning the future events and activities of the IGPS.
Sincerely yours,
Theodore CHRISTAKIS
Professor of International Law
Director of the Centre for International Security and
European Studies (CESICE), University of Grenoble
Chairman of the ESIL Interest Group on Peace and Security
