Devon Whittle » University

GoJIL Call for Papers: Third International Law Essay Competition

devonwhittle — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:20:42 +0000

I’m on a blogging hiatus while my lift shifts gears from studying to working (though still active on Twitter and Google Reader), but here’s a call for papers from the Goettingen Journal of International Law that might interest those of you studying international law.

The Goettingen Journal of International Law is currently seeking submissions for its 3rd International Law Essay Competition. This year’s topic is “The Rise of Self-Determination”.

The GoJIL is an e-journal of legal scholarship focusing on International Law. It is the first student-run International Law journal in Germany and is published exclusively in English. The journal is available online and free of charge.

Our Essay Competition offers law students a possibility to earn their first scientific publication. The winning article will be published in a regular issue of the GoJIL towards the end of 2010.

In the past, we were delighted to compliment Mr Marco Benatar and Ms Evelyne Schmid, whose successful contributions were published in GoJIL Vol 1 No 3 and GoJIL Vol 1 No 1.

The deadline for submissions is 15 June 2010, so best start thinking now if you’re interested in entering. Check out their website if you are interested.

GoJIL Call for Papers: Third International Law Essay Competition is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

What do you learn at a “Center for Transnational Legal Studies”?

devonwhittle — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:53:52 +0000

So I’m almost three weeks in to studies at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies here in London and the question has already come up a number of times – what exactly is that you are studying there?

Things are only just starting, but here’s a brief of summary of how it’s turning out.

First, it’s a lot of comparative law (or at least critiquing comparative law). In the core, compulsory unit, we have delved head first into how legal scholars classify and compare legal systems and how law is ‘transplanted/exported/shared’ between jurisdictions. The big debate has been the appropriateness of using ‘foreign law’ (by judges particularly), when and how it can be used and by whom.

Second, so far at least, it isn’t really about international law. In the subjects I’ve selected, the only convention we study is the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (though in the first two days we also did a practice exercise using the New York Convention). It has generally been a lot more about conflict (choice) of law issues and abstract legal theory; a mix between comparing jurisdictions and working out how transactions would across jurisdictions.

Third, a lot of what we are learning is from each other. By throwing 71 different students together from universities all over the world CTLS is hoping to teach us a lot about other legal cultures just by having us work together and argue over different approaches. It is actually quite interesting when students and lecturers from different countries start debating and seeing cultures clash in the class room. The difference in educational culture alone is fascinating.

During my first week here I was distracted by a big essay I had due, I’m slowly now getting used to how things work at Swan House in London. There’s been some thought provoking material so far, so hopefully, some of it will make its way here too.

What do you learn at a “Center for Transnational Legal Studies”? is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Advice on getting an internship at the ICTR (and elsewhere)

devonwhittle — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 10:52:15 +0000

I recently got an e-mail asking for some advice on landing an internship at the ICTR. I’ve reproduced below some of what I e-mailed back.

First, getting to know people is probably the easiest and quickest way to securing an internship. The ICTR, ICTY, SCSL and other tribunals all get thousands of applications, most of them from excellent students with lots of experience. To make sure yours gets read, let alone approved, it can vastly help to have someone you can e-mail/call/bug about its progress. I applied for the SCSL in August 2008 and finally managed to call them in January 2009. I don’t think they had even looked at my application until I talked to someone.

Second, (relevant) extra-curricular activities are very helpful. Once you reach a certain level of marks the rest of your time at university becomes more important. Join your law schools journal, if there’s one on international or international criminal law even better; volunteer with faculty members; do the human rights/ICL/IL moots. Not only will this expose you to the content of international law, but it will also help you get to know people who are interested in or working in international law, and who can give you advice and information on upcoming opportunities or who to talk to at different institutions. Through my involvement in a human rights moot I made a friend who referred some ICTY volunteer work to me from a barrister in London who was crucial to me securing a place at the ICTR.

Third, try and get some experience. This includes both ‘real world’ and ‘academic’ work. Real world work can be found at law firms, with barristers and at community legal clinics like the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre. I would think that work in criminal law would be more attractive then corporate work, though I’m sure all experience is valuable. Working in academia would be great if the opportunity comes up. It’s a great chance to refine research skills and get to know faculty (see below), plus if you do work on international criminal law or the institution you want an internship at that’s even better.

Fourth, get to know your lecturers, particularly the international law ones. They’ll be key to knowing where to apply and connecting you with other people and job opportunities. Also, they are crucial for getting a good reference and you’ll need two of them when applying at the ICTR.

Finally, think about where you are applying and why you want to do an internship. I’m hoping it’s more than just because you want a reason to safari in Tanzania. This will help you write a good cover letter (and make it mean something), plus if you start thinking early enough you can adjust your university assignments to help your application. This is especially important with the ICTR as they require a sample of written work on the ICTR and an essay topic that you’ll be writing about – having something to show your interest is a lot easier if you’ve been thinking about if for a while.

Hopefully those tips of are some help to some people. I’m certainly no expert, but having talked to people when trying to get my internship the above seems to be reasonably solid advice.

Advice on getting an internship at the ICTR (and elsewhere) is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

The ICC and the Security Council Referral Power

devonwhittle — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 04:55:36 +0000

I finally handed in my big essay on the International Criminal Court and the Security Council – a slightly melancholy moment, realising how much better it could have been and all that if only I had given myself more time and picked a topic I was more familiar with. But done it is and it allowed me to encounter some interesting ideas along the way.

My argument began its life around the question of the legality of art 13(b) of the Rome Statute. That is the provision that triggers ICC jurisdiction upon Security Council referral. I had encountered what looked like some people saying art 13(b) empowered the Security Council to act, or at least questioned its legality, so thought it would be good to explore exactly how this article operates.

However, about halfway through it became pretty clear that no-one can honestly think that art 13(b) operates to empower or limit the Security Council. Principles of treaty interpretation, art 103 of the UN Charter, etc, all clearly demonstrate that the only way to limit Security Council power is by explicit amendment to the UN Charter.

Since I couldn’t find anyone explicitly laying out as such, I decided it was worth it to use all the research I had done and spent about 1,000 words detailing the limits of art 13(b), before proposing the obvious solution that art 13(b) empowers the ICC upon Security Council referral. Ultimately, the difference may seem semantic, in that if the ICC is to be empowered technically the referral has to meet art 13(b) requirements, but I think its good to have a clear delineation of powers in international law.

Though there are some interesting questions surrounding how this effects ‘imperfect referrals’ – which arguably Res 1593 could be described as one, with its exclusion of certain peoples from ICC jurisdiction. I touched on this briefly, but didn’t have the words to do it justice.

Instead I spent the remainder of the essay discussing what this shows us about the fragmentation of international law. I focused particularly on the non-hierarchical nature of international law and the implications of this when creating new institutions. I also looked at the United States using the primacy of the Security Council to undermine the ICC via resolutions.

I concluded with fragmentation being bad. Undermine new institutions and creating overlapping norms and obligations for States to abuse.

We shall see what they think!

The ICC and the Security Council Referral Power is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Gans on the Charter Moot

devonwhittle — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:30:10 +0000

Gans has got his take on the recent Charter Moot on his blog. My team came runners up in the end, but I thought we did a great job. I’ve got a comment over there on what he said, but also should add that as a team we did some very serious legal thinking in a very short period of time, it was quite fun (in a stressful law student sort of way). Presenting our crazy ‘novel argument’ in the semi-finals was great fun, and defending polygamy in the grand final was even better – if you want to know about loopholes over polygamous marriage just let me know.

Gans on the Charter Moot is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Gapminder – Bad Teeth Per Person

devonwhittle — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 01:41:44 +0000

Gapminder is a terrific site, especially to show in your university tutorials. And they’ve just added a few more data sets, including bad teeth per person. Good stuff.

Gapminder – Bad Teeth Per Person is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

IIL: UNESCO, mission creep and development

devonwhittle — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:10:13 +0000

Over the winter I visited Geneva for two weeks studying Institutions in International Law, this post is part of a series on what I learnt and thought about the institutions we visited. See them all here.

UNESCO is the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation. It was instituted to:

contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter.

So they do a range of difference things from promoting literacy, to registering cultural heritage sites, to improving the freedom of the press.

UNESCO is one of the older international institutions, established in 1946 and carrying on from the work of League of Nations’ International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation.

What I found most interesting about the presentation we heard on UNESCO was the increasing work they do in fields such as development. Encouraging increased literacy is a good example of this. While UNESCO was designed with a wide, almost vague, mission – it seems that their modern work covers an extremely wide range of fields. Human rights, development, cultural heritage. Not only does this mean UNESCO has a lot to do, within a constrained budget, but it also means there’s overlap with the work of agenices such as the UNDP, UNICEFs, and NGOs and government.

Sure a ‘holistic’ view of their work is important when you consider what UNESCO does, but I worry that this expanding ‘mission creep’ is not in the best interest of UNESCO, the people being helped or other groups doing development. What’s wrong with a bit of specialisation?

IIL: UNESCO, mission creep and development is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Back from Geneva – Quick Report on Institutions in International Law

devonwhittle — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:46:30 +0000

Well I’m now back from Geneva, arriving home at 6am last Thursday after more than 24 hours of travel.

I was doing an awesome subject called Institutions in International Law with Dr Andrew Mitchell and Bruce Oswald from Melbourne University, and had an amazing two weeks visiting institutions and people and also having some great times with friends in Geneva (such as busking on lake Geneva).

The first week we focused on trade, with a bit of development, IP and health mixed in. We visited the WTO, UN, WHO, ACWL, WIPO, UNCTAD and, one of my favourites, the Australian Mission in Geneva. It was fascinating hearing from people who actually work for these institutions about the work they do and how they got to where they are now. Visiting the United Nations building was particularly inspiring, as we walked through rooms and halls where history was made – for example the room where the League of Nations ended and bumping into a diplomat who had worked at the UN for the past 30 years.

The WTO was also a real blast. We heard from an intern working in the Appellate Body and saw the room where the AB Members actually made actual decisions, had a tour of some of the highlights of the building and heard from the Barbados ambassador on what it’s like negotiating for your country at the WTO. Really fascinating insight into a world that is often behind closed doors.

In week two Oz took over and we headed out to the ‘peace & security’ (with some development and environment mixed in) institutions. We visited and heard from the ICRC, UNEP, UNHCR, OHCR, IOM, ILC (we got to see an actual session!) and my absolute favourite for the trip the Humanitarian Dialogue Centre. The presenters gave us a candid insight into their jobs and lives and what it was really like to work in some extremely intense situations. We heard about the challenges facing the institutions and their staff as they dealt with issues of ‘legitimacy, accountability and governance’ and of course the ‘fragmentation of international law’ (the course buzzwords).

The Humanitarian Dialogue Centre was an especially eye-opening experience for me. They are a small organisation on the banks of lake Geneva that do mediation and negotiation work during conflicts. They are often the first in to help set up discussions between warring parties. The also do work on humanitarian mediation to try and get assistance to those that need it. It’s an amazing institution that I’d love to work one day.

So now I’ve got an essay to write – currently percolating through ideas about the UN Security Council as a peace and security dispute settlement mechanism (trying to think about the differences between trade and peace & security and what could be transferred between the two areas), but we’ll see what happens. I’m also preparing applications for the ICTR and SCSL – so if anyone has any contacts that can help me get a placement for next year let me know!

James5 will be back in action from now – some older links will probably pop up as I go through what I’ve missed, and I’ll also hopefully be writing about some things learnt in Geneva, not to mention the usual topics. If there’s any topic in particular that you’d like me to write about let me know!

Back from Geneva – Quick Report on Institutions in International Law is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Next three weeks in Geneva

devonwhittle — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:11:50 +0000

Tonight I’m heading to Geneva for three weeks! I’m doing a subject called Institutions in International Law, run by Dr Andrew Mitchell, Bruce Oswald and Dr Tania Voon, wherein we visit a variety of international institutions to learn how they work and more about international law.

The UN in Geneva The WTO in Geneva

It’s going to be an absolutely amazing experience, but may mean blogging is on hold for a bit depending on how easy it is to access the internet in Geneva (and how much spare time we get). When I get back I’m sure I’ll have a ton of posts to do about what we learnt over there.

If you have a guest blog or link you’d like to post on James5, now’s the perfect time – so don’t hesitate to e-mail me.

Next three weeks in Geneva is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Datamining with Devonthink Pro OFFICE

devonwhittle — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:19:51 +0000

Last semester I once again was extremely grateful for having Devonthink to help me out with a research paper.

For those that don’t know Devonthink is a personal database you keep on your Mac. You throw your pdfs, documents, links, e-mails into it and leverage it’s powerful AI and search technologies to help with research and writing. It looks a bit clunky, and kills my Powerbook’s CPU, but is an invaluable program if you do any amount of research.

I had a public policy research paper that required me to investigate the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, and determine whether policy networks were at work in relation to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (they were but weakly).

There was a Senate Select Committee and Joint Standing Committee report on the FTA, the submissions of which would have been an absolute gold mine for researching the positions of various players and their connections. The problem? There were over 700 separate submissions, some of which were just scans of letters.

Thankfully, I had Devonthink to help me out.

First, Devonthink allows you to take a URL and it will automatically find and download all the links on that page.

So I fed it the Committee site that had links to all the submissions. Devonthink then went to work downloading over 700 pdfs for me.

Second, Devonthink Pro Office has built in OCR software, so despite the best efforts of Parliament to make their documents unsearchable, after running the OCR I had a massive searchable database of submissions.

Third, I used Devonthink’s search function to limit my enquiry to only those submissions that mention the PBS. This cut back the number of pdfs to only around 200 – down from 700! Quite a time saver.

Finally, I also used the search function to see if any of the players were mentioning each other in their submissions. Allowing me to establish if there were any links between the different groups.

All of this cut down on the amount of time I had to waste trawling through submissions manually, giving me more time to actually think about and write the paper. I ended up getting a good mark thanks to being able to quickly find all the relevant documents and linkages between them.

Now if only I could figure out a good referencing program (that actually saved time not made more work!) my student life would be made a easier.

Datamining with Devonthink Pro OFFICE is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.