ESIL- SEDI

ESIL Interest Groups

Groupes de réflexion de la SEDI

A number of specialist workshops and interest groups met prior to the start of the main ESIL 2012 conference. These pre-conference sessions weren't part of the ESIL 2012 General Conference and weren't organised by the ESIL 2012 conference organisers.

NB: Interest Group attendees were under no obligation to attend the main ESIL 2012 conference; and ESIL 2012 attendees were under no obligation to attend an Interest Group.

Please note that only ESIL members could attend 'ESIL Interest Group' Sessions.
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Un certain nombre de groupes de réflexion et d’ateliers spécialisés se réuniront avant le commencement officiel de la SEDI 2012. Ces sessions ne sont ne forment pas partie de la Conférence général de la SEDI 2012 et ne sont pas organisées par le comité organisateur.

NB: les participants aux Groupes de réflexion ne sont pas tenus d'assister à la Conférence générale de la SEDI; et les participants à cette Conférence ne sont pas tenus d'assister à un groupe de réflexion.

Toutes les infos concernant ces sessions devront être dirigés aus Groupes de réflexion. Des limités coordonnés pour certaines de ces sessions se trouvent ci dessous (malhereusement seule en anglais, tel qu’il a été donné par ces groupes!)

Seuls les membres de la SEDI peuvent participer aux ‘Groupes de Réflexion’ de la SEDI.


The sessions of the different Interest Groups were held in ADEIT on Thursday 13 September from 09:00 to 12:00 (exact location to be given).

ESIL Interest Group on International Legal Theory

Universalism and Particularism in International Law

To what extent should international law recognise and support the political, historical, cultural, and economic differences among states? Should certain states or regions have special duties or exemptions from general international law? And how should law draw the line between international jurisdiction, national affairs, and the private autonomy of persons? This panel addressed what should be universal and what should be particular in the structures of international law.

For more information, please visit the Interest Group website here.

ESIL Interest Group on International Economic Law

Trending Topics in International Economic Law: Sovereign Debt and Bilateralism

The ESIL International Economic Law Interest Group invited submissions of unpublished, original works for presentation in two panels, for the ESIL Research Forum on 6-8 September 2012. The panels aim to give a platform to original scholarship on two core themes of international economic law: “The Regulatory Answers to the Sovereign Debt Crisis” and “The reach and impact of bilateralism as a tool for fragmentation or de-fragmentation in IEL”. The goal is to encourage research effort on the different legal instruments created both in the European Union and at the international level to solve the financial problems brought about by the sovereign debt crisis. On the second subject we dealt with fragmentation in a very wide sense, including trade, investment law, or even natural resources law. Proposals for papers may address either of the two topics or any combination thereof. The panels were complemented by an Agora during the main Conference of ESIL on "Development and Economic Law"

For more information, please visit the Interest Group website here.

ESIL Interest Group on International Environmental Law

NO MEETING OF THIS INTEREST GROUP BEFORE THE CONFERENCE. IT ORGANISES WITH THE IG ON INT’L ECONOMIC LAW THE JOINT WORKSHOP ON RIO+02.

For more information, please visit the Interest Group website here.

ESIL Interest Group on Feminism and International Law

Women, Regionalism and International Law

This meeting of the interest group on Feminism and International Law will provided participants with an opportunity to explore the impact of regionalism on women’s lives. In particular, participants explored whether the fracturing of international law is mirrored in the fracturing of feminist thought. The question of whether a uniquely ‘European’ feminism exists –and the implications of this for women in Europe and beyond– is foremost in our minds. There were also an opportunity in this session to look in depth at the meaning of regional legal institutions and tribunals, such as the European Court of Human Rights, to women’s lives.

For more information, please visit the Interest Group website here.

ESIL Interest Group on Peace and security

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. The workshop organized by the ESIL Interest Group on Peace and Security (IGPS) in Valencia, tried to test and challenge this idea. Potential topics included: 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; et al.

For more information, please visit the Interest Group website here.

ESIL Interest Group on Business and Human Rights

International Business and Human Rights: Work in Progress

The workshop intended to discuss international business and human rights-related subjects. It particularly addresed international and EU initiatives, tools and approaches concerning the role of business in terms of respect of human right; also, how the companies themselves, as protagonists, perceive and strive the task to implement their duty to respect human rights standards. Paper proposals were welcome which focus on policies and processes currently being developed in international and regional organisations; on cooperation between individual States concerning the conciliation of business and human rights objectives; and/or on reactions of corporations. Examples of topics could include corporate social responsibility initiatives, UN monitoring strategies and cross-analysis of decisions of international courts and tribunals.

For more information, please visit the Interest Group website here.

ESIL Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor

The European Union as a Global Actor

The Lisbon Treaty has fostered the role of the European Union as a global actor, and there are increasingly expectations for the EU to take action on the international plane, in particular in the light of global challenges and crises. This has not only raised important questions of European constitutional law concerning, inter alia, the allocation of competence between the EU and its Member States; it also necessitates further analysis of the EU’s role and responsibilities within the international (legal) order. What does a growing role of the EU on the international plane imply for the EU Member States’ external action and their interaction with non-EU states? What does it imply for international organisations? How does public international law continue to shape the EU and its Member States’ capacity to take external action? Does the EU as a global actor contribute to the development of international law, and, if so, how and with what effect? The proposed interest group provided a forum for discussion and collaborative work on those and related questions.

For more information, please contact the Interest Group here.

ESIL Interest Group on International Bio Law

The European Approach to International Bio Law

This International Seminar had as objective to analyze from an European approach the international legal scenario for Bio Law under a specific and autonomous methodology according to a comprehensive framework of study to be carried out by a new epistemic community among ius internationalists. The Panels were the following:

First Panel (9:30 – 10:15): International, legal and institutional action on addressing to Bio Law Second Panel (10:15 – 11): Human Rights, Environment, International Trade, Risk Regulations and Bio Law. Third Panel (11 – 11:45): Analysis and Perspectives for the EU position on International Bio Law. Fourth Panel (11:45 – 12:30): Prospect of future (feminism and International Bio Law, Terrorism, Peace and Security and International Bio Law). For more information, please contact the Interest Group here.


ESIL Interest Group on Law of the Sea

30 Years of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The Law of the Sea Interest Group of the European Society of International Law (ESIL-LAWSEA IG) was pleased to announce the celebration of its first and inaugural meeting in Valencia, Spain, the next September 13, 2012 (10.30 to 12.30). The main event for the IG gathering was a substantive panel on the 30th Anniversary of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The panel served as a vehicle to discuss on its major achievements and shortcomings as well as the current and pending issues on the Law of the Sea nowadays. A possibility for a limited number of oral communications on the panel's topic is open for ESIL LAWSEA IG members.

Those interested in making such an oral presentation, please send an expression of interest indicating the title and an abstract of its main subtopics and/or contents to miguelgarcia@uco.es. After the panel and oral communications, the IG held its organizational gathering.