Professor Karen Scott of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, gives a presentation exploring the current regime complex for ocean plastics and considering how the law of the sea is likely to interact with a newly proposed plastics treaty.

Professor Errol P. Mendes of the University of Ottawa gives a presentation calling for a revisiting of the origins of the concept of sovereignty in Public International Law.

Philippa Webb, Professor of Public International Law at King’s College London, gives a presentation on recent developments in English law in cases against current and former heads of state. Apologies that there was a brief technical issue shortly after the beginning of this recording.

Freya Baetens, Professor of Public International Law at Oslo University, gives a presentation on how the International Court of Justice has addressed claims based on ‘regional’ customary international law.

Nicolas Lamp, Queen’s University, Canada gives a presentation to the Public International Law Discussion Group.

Professor Anne van Aaken, University of Hamburg, Germany, gives a talk for the Public International Law seminar series (11/11/2021).

Professor Catharine Titi, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)-CERSA, University Paris II Panthéon-Assas, France, gives a talk for the Public International Law seminar series. (4/11/2021)

A presentation by Professor Stefan Talmon on Tactical Admissions in International Litigation, delivered to the Public International Law Discussion Group.

Professor Paul Gragl, European Law at the University of Graz, Austria, gives a talk for the Public International Law seminar series. Abstract: Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccines are, in general, safe and effective, vaccine hesitancy continues to thrive due to various reasons, such as misinformation, the wish to protect one’s personal autonomy, and/or religious or moral beliefs. Vaccine hesitancy therefore endangers attaining and maintaining herd immunity which protects those that cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons. Some States have consequently implemented compulsory vaccination schemes in order to close this gap in protecting public health, which, however, raises two essential questions in the context of human rights protection: (i) if a State has done so and implemented a compulsory vaccination scheme, does it potentially violate Articles 2,8, and 9 of the ECHR? In other words, are the ECHR Contracting Parties under a negative obligation to abstain from introducing such measures? Or (ii) if a State has not done so (yet), is it actually under a positive obligation to introduce such measures in order not to violate these provisions? On the basis of the ECtHR’s recent judgment in Vavřička and others v. the Czech Republic (April 2021), I will discuss these questions and conclude that States are, if specific requirements are met, not prohibited from implementing such measures, whilst they are also not obligated to do so under the ECHR as long as they protect those most vulnerable to infectious diseases through other means.

The presentation is based on a paper which will be published in the European Convention on Human Rights Law Review.

Paul Gragl is Professor of European Law at the University of Graz, Austria. His research interests include public international law, EU law, human rights law, and legal theory as well as philosophy, which is reflected in his most recent monograph Legal Monism: Law, Philosophy, and Politics (OUP, 2018).

Julia Emtseva, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, Germany, gives a talk for the Public International Law seminar series. Julia Emtseva is a research fellow and a PhD candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, Germany. Julia obtained her LL.M. in International Human Rights Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School, M.A. in Human Rights and Democratization in the Global Campus of Human Rights Regional Program in the Caucasus, and LL.B. at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA). Julia Emtseva obtained her qualification as a lawyer in Kyrgyzstan and before starting her PhD, she interned at different national courts, including the Constitutional Chamber of the Kyrgyz Republic, and worked as a teaching and research assistant at the law faculty of the AUCA, a human rights observer with the American Bar Association as well as in different NGOs, including the National Committee of the Red Cross in Kyiv and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin.