Creativity and International Law
The Belgian Network of Junior Researchers in International Law (BNJRIL) will conduct a visit to the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp on the 4th of October 2024. The event is co-organised by the University of Antwerp, the University of Ghent, and the Catholic University of Leuven, and funded by the Antwerp Doctoral School's OJO grant. The activities aim at the promotion of cooperation between Belgian institutions and the building of research skills. The following activities are planned:
Programme
10:00 - 12:00 : International legal research at the UA - presentation of research groups and agendas (Room: Lessiuszaal, S.E.122)
12:15 - 13:15: Lunch break (Agora café)
13:30 - 15:00: Workshop: Creativity in international legal research, by Prof. Dr Valentin Jeutner (Lund University) (Room: Lessiuszaal, S.E.122)
15:00 - 15:30: Health break
15:30 - 17:00: Panel: Creativity & international law. Participants: Prof. Dr Anne Saab (Graduate Institute of Geneva) (online); Prof. Dr Marina Aksenova (IE University); Prof. Dr Gleider Hernandez (Leuven); moderation, Prof. Dr Valentin Jeutner (Room: tbc)
17:30: Antwerp city tour
19:00: Dinner (location tbc)
Note: while the 10:00 and 13:30 sessions, as well as the city tour and dinner are reserved for BNJRIL members, the 15:30 panel session is open to all upon registration (see below).
Meet our speakers
Valentin Jeutner is Associate Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law at Lund University, and a Senior Retained Lecturer in Law at Pembroke College, Oxford University. He engages mainly in foundational research related to the nature and fundamental principles of (international) law, exploring the relations between law and related fields like the natural sciences, art, philosophy, or theology. He is at the head of numerous projects that creatively explore international law through new lenses, such as the Law, Theology & Culture seminar series, [L]ex Machina: Unlikely encounter of international law and technology, the Lotus at 100, and the International Game of Justice. His works, including his latest book 'The Reasonbale Person: A Legal Biography', can be viewed here.
He holds a PhD in Law from Cambridge University, an LLM from Georgetown University and a BA in Law from Oxford University. He also holds a PhD in Theology from Münster University, and a MTh from Lund University.
Anne Saab is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the LL.M in international law programme at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Her areas of interest and expertise include food and agriculture, climate change, intellectual property law and more recently, emotions and international law. Her project 'Emotions and International Law' aims at enabling "the field of international law to better adapt to the complex global and societal issues it purports to address, including but not limited to terrorism, migration, climate change, food safety, global health, populism, and cyber warfare" by exploring the relationship between emotions and international law.
She holds a PhD in International Law from the London School of Economics, an LL.M from King's College London, and an LLB from Leiden University.
Marina Aksenova is a lawyer specialising in international criminal and comparative criminal law. She studies the purposes of international criminal law, focusing in particular on the overarching symbolic objective of the discipline. She is also interested in the process of criminalization within the field of international criminal justice. In this regard, Marina looks closely at the offence of international terrorism. Marina also publishes in the fields of human rights law, public international law and transitional justice. Finally, Marina is developing a new field of academic study – aesthetics and international justice. She runs Art and International Justice Initiative with the aim of promoting creativity in the study of international law. More specifically, she is currently pursuing cutting-edge research at the intersection of citizenship studies, aesthetics and international law with the aim of establishing new ways of approaching familiar legal categories, such as ´citizenship´.
She holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute, an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Oxford, an LL.M in Public International Law from the University of Amsterdam and a Bachelor in Law from the International University (Moscow).
Gleider Hernández is Professor of Public International Law at KU Leuven. From 2018 to 2022, he was also Professor of Public International Law at Open Universiteit in the Netherlands. From 2011 to 2018, he worked at Durham University (Associate Professor (Reader), 2016-2018; Senior Lecturer, 2014-2016; Lecturer, 2011-2014) in Public International Law at Durham Law School, and Deputy Director of the Durham Global Policy Institute. He is, since 2021, Secretary-General of the European Society of International Law; Member of the Editorial Board of Global Policy; and the Academic Review Board of the Cambridge International Law Journal. He is also, since 2014, General Editor of the Oxford Reports on International Courts of General Jurisdiction (Oxford Scholarship Online).
In addition to academic work, Professor Hernández has extensive international law practice experience. In addition to acting as counsel for States in proceedings at the International Court of Justice, he has served as Special Assistant to the President of the Arbitral Tribunal seated in the ICSID resubmission proceedings Pey Casado and Foundation President Allende v Republic of Chile. Moreover, he was nominated to the European Commission’s Directorate-General on Trade's List of Chairpersons in Arbitrations and Expert Panel Proceedings in relation to Trade and Sustainable Development. Finally, he is also a Member of the Legal Action Committee of the GLANLaw.org group, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to challenging injustice through innovative legal strategy.
He holds a D.Phil from Wadham College, Oxford, an LL.M in Public International Law from Leiden University, and BCL (civil law) and LL.B (common law) degrees from McGill University.
Registration and participation
Registration opens 1st of July
Registration is free. BNJRIL members are kindly asked to register below and to inform their participation in each activity. Lunch and coffee is provided. Attendance of the dinner is optional and self-funded.
Other participants can register to attend the panel session at 15:30.
Location
The first two sessions are located in the Lessiuszaal (S.E 122), above Agora café. A map to the city campus can be accessed here.
The location of the panel session, as well as the meeting point for the city tour and the dinner, will be confirmed soon.
Contact us
Further inquiries can be sent to michael.smith@uantwerpen.be.