DFAIT Request for Academic Interest

A letter has gone out to Canada’s law deans from the Director General of Legal Affairs Bureau of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) stating that the Bureau wishes to “enhance Canada’s current engagement with the work of the [International Law] Commission, including its studies and recommendations.” The Bureau would like

to hear of Canadian legal academics who are following the Commission’s work, whether in total or with respect to a specific topic. …We would welcome receiving an email providing us with the name, contact details, and areas of specific interest with respect to the Commission’s work (emails can be sent to Professor Joanna Harrington, Scholar-in-Residence at joanna.harrington@international.gc.ca.

As the letter says, the Commission’s current five-year program

includes the following topics: reservations to treaties, shared natural resources, expulsion of aliens, effects of armed conflicts on treaties, responsibility of international organizations, and the obligation to extradite or prosecute ( aut dedere aut judicare). The Commission will also be embarking on studies on the protection of persons in the event of disasters and the immunity of State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction, with the most-favoured-nation clause being a potential topic of future study.

More information on the work of the ILC can be found at http://www.un.org/law/ilc/.