Conference on Opinion 1/17 in Paris

PRESSING PROBLEMS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: Courts and Sources of Law

Paris, 12-14 June 2019 

 

CUNP Fondation maison des sciences de l’homme

Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris,

54, Bd Raspail, 75006 Paris

 

Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 June 2019:

OPINION 1/17: EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

The Conference on ‘Opinion 1/17: European and International Perspectives’, that took place in Paris on 12 and 13 June 2019, was organised by the European Law and Governance School/EPLO (Athens), the University of Oslo, Faculty of Law, the Hague University of Applied Sciences, and the Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris.

After an introduction on the relationship between the EU and international investment disputes, the speakers examined the judicial independence and impartiality of judiciary, EU autonomy as well as the right to regulate and equal treatment. It was outlined that, whereas the Opinion strengthens the role of the EU as an international actor, the analysis of the ECJ is partially inconsistent with its previous case-law and opens the debate up for further questions.

Opinion 1/17 is destined to become a landmark in the case law of the ECJ. The Court, having decided that the ICS is compatible with EU law, reinvigorated the future of investment arbitration in the EU and at the international level (in the light of the proposed Multilateral Investment Court).

The ECJ has been called upon to interpret and further clarify the meaning and scope of foundational principles such as the autonomy of the EU legal order vis-à-vis international investment arbitration, the principle of non-discrimination and the right of access to an independent and impartial tribunal.

The aim of this timely Conference is to analyse comprehensively the Court’s decision and its broader implications. It will bring together experts with different background that will discuss the issues at stake from both European and international perspectives.

 

Program

Wednesday 12 June 2019, 16.00 – 18.00 (Salle 9, soussol)

16.00 – 16.10 Welcome

Mads Andenas – University of Oslo

16.10 – 18.00 The EU and international investment disputes

Chair: Mads Andenas – University of Oslo

The Path Towards the CETA ICS in a Landscape of a Growing Anti-ISDS Rhetoric

Maria Fanou – European University Institute

Opinion 1/17 in Perspective: The Future of Investor-State Dispute Settlement and Multilateral Investment Court

Catharine Titi – French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)-CERSA, University Paris II Panthéon-Assas

Unshackling the Economic Giant? The EU as an International Economic Actor After Opinion 1/17

Joris Larik – University of Leiden

 

20.00 Dinner, Le Bouillon de Racine, 3, rue de Racine , 75006 Paris tel. 0144321560 

 

Thursday 13 June 2019, 10.00 – 18.00 (Salle 9, soussol)

10.00 – 11.30 Opinion 1/17 and Judicial Independence and Impartiality

Chair: Hendrik Puschmann, Partner, Farrer & Co, London

The European Standard of Procedural Protection and the Applicability of Article 47 of the Charter

Eleftheria Neframi – University of Luxembourg

Revisiting Independence and Impartiality in the Investment Court System

Giorgia Sangiuolo – King’s College London

12.00-13.00 Lunch (cantine FMSH)

13.00 – 15.30 Opinion 1/17 and Autonomy

Chair: Luca Pantaleo, The Hague University of Applied Sciences

Autonomy of EU legal order and its normative implications

Antonis Metaxas – University of Athens/TU Berlin

 Construing  autonomy after Opinion 1/17

Gesa Kübek – University of Lüneburg

 The Accession of the EU to the ECHR after Opinion 1/17: Rethinking Autonomy

Simone Vezzani – University of Perugia

 

15.30 – 17.00 Opinion 1/17 and the Right to Equal Treatment

Chair: Cristina Contartese, European Law and Governance School/European Public Law Organization (Athens)

Equal treatment in Opinion 1/17. Did the Court choose the right situation to compare?

Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi – University of Oslo, PluriCourts

 Equal treatment in Opinion 1/17, Some Further Perspectives

Tarjei Bekkedal – University of Oslo

 Opinion 1/17 – Has the Micula Ghost Really Disappeared?

François Andia – Paris Nanterre Université – CEDIN and to Sygna Partners

 

 20.00 Dinner, Le Petit Prince, 12, rue de Lanneau,  75005 Paris, tel. 0143547726

 

Friday 14 June 2019

Workshop on Auto-interpretation in International Law

Organised under the auspices of the University of Oslo – Faculty of Law,

Göttingen University – Department of Public International Law and European Law,

and the Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris

Venue: Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris,

CUNP Fondation maison des sciences de l’homme 54, Bd Raspail, 75006 Paris

 

Friday 14 June 2019, 14.00 – 17.30 Salle 1, soussol

14.00 – 14.15 Welcome

Mads Andenas – University of Oslo

Johann Ruben Leiss – University of Oslo

14.15 – 15.00 The Interpretative Agencies in International Law

Interpretative Practices by International Courts and Tribunals

Geir Ulfstein – University of Oslo

15.00 – 15.15 Coffee Break

15.15 – 16.15 Different Shades of Auto-interpretation? Part I

UN fact-Finding Inquiries and Auto-interpretation

James Devaney – University of Glasgow

Auto-interpretation and Countermeasures in General International Law?

Jørgen Sørgard Skjold – University of Oslo

16.15 – 16.30 Coffee Break

 16.30 – 17.15 Different Shades of Auto-interpretation? Part II

Auto-interpretation and the Use of Force in International Law

Johann Ruben Leiss – University of Oslo

17.15 – 18.00 Concluding Remarks and General Debate

Andreas L. Paulus – University of Göttingen, German Federal Constitutional Court

20.00 Dinner, Atelier Maitre Albert, 1 Rue Maître Albert, 75005 Paris, tél. 0156813001

 

Speakers and chairpersons’ biographies

Panel 1 – THE EU AND INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT DISPUTES

Mads Andenas has published extensively on international and also commercial and financial law. He holds a Chair at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo.  He is a Member of the Panel of Arbitrators maintained by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), appointed until 2022.  He was thePrésident-rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (which hears individual cases and issues ‘opinions’) 2009-2015. Professor Andenas was made a Queen’s Counsel in 2019. From the Lord Chancellor’s recommendation to the Queen: “Professor Andenas is considered a stellar academic and has been recommended for his work in the fields of comparative and international law, in familiarising academic and practising lawyers and the judiciary in this jurisdiction with other systems of law and by encouraging exchanges of views and approaches between common and civil lawyers. He has written many books on the subject. He has established a series of annual seminars on pressing issues as seen from European Supreme Courts. This was inaugurated by a seminar in the UK Supreme Court with the participation of a number of leading UK practitioners and judges. He was also member and Special Rapporteur in the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and contributed to its report  ‘Basic Principles and Guidelines’ (2012). This report has been referred to in UK Supreme Court judgments.”

 Maria Fanou is a qualified lawyer (Athens Bar, Court of Appeal) and a PhD Researcher at the European University Institute in Florence. She completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Law at the University of Athens and an LL.M. at Harvard Law School. Prior to joining the EUI, Maria gained practical experience in private practice. Maria also has held visiting research positions at various institutions including the Max Planck Institute for Procedural Law in Luxembourg where she was a Visiting Scholar (Scholarship 2018). Currently, she is a doctoral affiliate at Queen Mary University and a Visiting Lecturer at the Brussels School of International Studies, University of Kent.

Catharine Titi is a Research Associate Professor (tenured) at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)–CERSA, University Paris II Panthéon-Assas, France. She is Co-Chair of the ESIL Interest Group on International Economic Law, Member of the Steering Committee of the Academic Forum on ISDS, Member of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on Rule of Law and International Investment Law and she serves on the Editorial Board of the Yearbook on International Investment Law & Policy (Columbia/OUP). She co-directs the research project The impact of international investment agreements on FDI flows funded by the French Ministry of Justice (2017-2019). Catharine holds a PhD from the University of Siegen in Germany (Summa cum laude) and has previously been a consultant at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In 2016, Catharine became the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Smit-Lowenfeld Prize of the International Arbitration Club of New York for the best article published in the field of international arbitration.

 Joris Larik is Assistant Professor of Comprative, EU and International Law at Leiden University, focusing on the external relations of the EU and other regional organizations, comparative and multilevel constitutional law, and global governance reform. His work has been acknowledged with several awards, including NATO’s Manfred Wörner Essay Award (2008) and the Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the Best Thesis in Comparative Law (2014) from the European University Institute. Dr. Larik is the author of Foreign Policy Objectives in European Constitutional Law (OUP, 2016), co-author of ASEAN’s External Agreements: Law, Practice and the Quest for Collective Action (CUP, 2015), and co-editor of Just Security in an Undergoverned World (OUP, 2018) and the second edition of the textbook EU External Relations Law: Text, Cases and Materials (Hart Publishing, forthcoming 2020). Moreover, he has published in peer-reviewed academic journals including Common Market Law Review, European Constitutional Law Review, European Foreign Affairs Review, European Law Review, Global Policy, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, Legal Issues of Economic Integration, Netherlands International Law Review, Survival, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, and Yearbook of European Law.In 2017, he was a Fulbright-Schuman Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C, where he conducted research on Brexit and transatlantic relations. Dr. Larik’s media appearances include interviews and op-eds for Volkskrant and Trouw in the Netherlands and internationally for Agence France-Presse, BBC World Service, CGTN America, China Central Television (CCTV), The Guardian, The Hill, The Irish Times, Phoenix TV Hong Kong, Radio New Zealand, Russian News Agency TASS, and Xinhua.

 

Panel 2 – OPINION 1/17 AND JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE AND IMPARTIALITY

Hendrik Puschmann is a Partner of Farrer & Co, where he heads the arbitration practice group. He is a Fellow Commoner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, Visiting Senior Lecturer in international law and commerce at Johannes Kepler Universität Linz (Austria) and member of the Contractual ICSID Arbitration Working Group at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies as well as the Academic Advisory Board of the Institute of Applied Commercial Law at Nordakademie Hamburg. His book on challenges against arbitrators, awards and enforcement is due to be published by Butterworths next month.

Eleftheria Neframi is professor of European law at the University of Luxembourg since 2012. Prior to joining the University of Luxembourg she held a post as professor at Paris 13 University as “agrégée” of the faculties of law in France, in 2004. She graduated in law from the University of Athens and holds a PhD in European Law (University Paris 2, Panthéon-Assas), an advanced master in European Law (University Paris 2, Panthéon-Assas) and an advanced master in International Economic Law (University Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne). Eleftheria Neframi is director of the Master 2 in European Litigation and member of the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence (Robert Schuman Initiative). Her main field of research and expertise is European Union law, and she has written widely on questions of European external relations, European litigation and Europeanisation of national law.

Giorgia Sangiuolo is the Academic Coordinator of the Jean Monnet Project “LAwTTIP: Legal Ambiguities Withstanding the TTIP” for the Centre of European Law at King’s College London and a Ph.D. researcher at the same institution. Her research focuses on the external relations of the EU and their interface with other dispute settlement mechanisms, particularly international arbitration. Giorgia is also a member of the Drafting Team of the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights, a project funded by the City of The Hague and endorsed by the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Panel 3 – OPINION 1/17 AND AUTONOMY

Luca Pantaleo is a Senior Lecturer in International and European Law at The Hague University of Applied Sciences since August 2016, as well as Adjunct Professor of the European Law and Governance School since autumn 2018. He holds a PhD in EU external relations law from the University of Macerata, Italy. His PhD thesis focused on Member States’ International Agreements and EU Law. Prior to The Hague University, Luca has worked as a Senior Researcher (Postdoc) at the University of Luxembourg, and as a Senior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Institute, where he also served as Coordinator of the Centre for the Law of European External Relations (CLEER). Dr Pantaleo research interests include the law of EU external relations, with a special focus on anti-terrorism and the common commercial policy; as well as public international law, with a special focus on trade and investment law. Dr Pantaleo has written numerous article in international peer reviewed journals, edited a number of volumes and has recently published a monograph titled “The Participation of the EU in International Dispute Settlement – Lessons from EU Investment Agreements”. His research activities are not limited to fundamental research. In fact, he has also carried out applied research in the context of projects commissioned by third parties. Dr Pantaleo is also an experienced legal trainer.

 Antonis Metaxas teaches EU law in the University of Athens as well as acts as visiting Professor in various distinguished universities in Greece and abroad (TU Berlin). He is regarded as leading practitioner and academic in Europe in his field by all independent international Legal Directories (Chambers, Legal 500) and acts as senior legal advisor to a number of governments, regulatory authorities as well as major private and institutional clients. He is author of numerous scientific publications in the fields of EU, EU state aid and Energy law. Professor Dr. A. Metaxas is Managing Partner of the law firm Metaxas & Associates (M&A). Prof. Metaxas is Chairman of the Board of the Hellenic State Aid Institute (HSAI, www.stateaid.gr) and of the Hellenic Energy Regulation Institute (HERI – www.energy-regulation.eu).

Gesa Kübek is a research assistant (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany and an external PhD candidate at the University of Passau, Germany. Her research interest lies within EU external relations law. Gesa’s dissertation project scrutinises the EU’s treaty-making power and procedure in the area of trade and investment, focusing in particular on the phenomenon and problems of mixity. Her work has been published in relevant journals such as European Foreign Affairs Review, Legal Issues of Economic Integration or Common Market Law Review. In 2017, Gesa spent time as a visiting researcher at the European University Institute in Florence. She has gained teaching experience at Leuphana University Lüneburg, the University of Passau and at Monash University Malaysia. She studied the law, politics and economics of the European Union at the University of Twente, the Netherlands (BSc, with Honours) and holds a joint master’s degree in law and economics (LLM, with distinction) from the University of Bologna (Italy), the University of Ghent (Belgium) and the University of Hamburg (Germany).

 Simone Vezzani (PhD in International and EU Law at the University of Florence) is Associate Professor at the Law Department of the University of Perugia, where he teaches ‘European Union Law’ and ‘Protection of Human Rights in the European Legal Space’. After his studies at the University of Florence and at Science-Po, he was visiting scholar at Georgetown University and participated in the 2011 session of the Centre for Studies and  Research of the Hague Academy of International Law. In 2009 he was awarded the Riccardo Monaco Prize by the Italian Society of  International Law for his PhD thesis on International Organizations Law. Currently a member of the Doctoral Committee of the PhD Programme in Law of the University of Perugia, he formerly taught ‘International Economic Law’, ‘Advanced International Law’ and ‘International Organization Law’ at the universities of Florence and Perugia. His fields of research include the international responsibility of international organizations (with a special focus on the EU), the accession of the EU to the ECHR and the autonomy of the EU legal order.

Panel 4 – OPINION 1/17 AND THE RIGHT TO EQUAL TREATMENT

Cristina Contartese (MA University of Birmingham; PhD University of Bologna-University of Strasbourg) is Lecturer in EU Law at the European Law and Governance School/European Public Law Organization (Athens). Previously, she held positions as a Post-doc researcher at the University of Bologna, where she taught International Law, and at the University of Luxembourg (Marie Curie fellow/FNR-Luxembourg), where she researched on dispute settlement from EU and International Law perspectives. She was a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute–Luxembourg, and at the iCourts Centre (University of Copenhagen). Her main research interests include: EU Constitutional Law, EU External Relations, International Dispute Settlement, International Water Law, and the European Convention on Human Rights. She published on these subjects in edited books and peer-reviewed journals, such as Common Market Law Review and Rivista di Diritto Internazionale. She is a member of the editorial board of International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies (IJHRCS).

Szilárd Gáspár Szilágyi recently completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at PluriCourts, University of Oslo. He holds a PhD from Aarhus University (Denmark, 2015) and a two-year LLM in International Law from Maastricht University (Netherlands, 2011, top 3% of students). He has previously been a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam (Centre for EU Law and Governance, 2015-2016), and an EU Law Lecturer at the Hague University of Applied Sciences (2015). He has also been a visiting researcher at Vienna University (2017), TMC Asser Institute (The Hague, 2014), a Grotius Visiting Researcher at University of Michigan Law School (2013-2014), and an intern at the EU Commission (2011-2012).  He regularly publishes on issues concerning the EU’s Investment Law and Policy, International Investment Law, EU External Relations Law and the EU’s Common Commercial Policy.”

Tarjei Bekkedal is Professor in European Law at the University of Oslo. He is also the President of the Norwegian Association for European Law.

 François Andia is a doctoral student in Public International Law. He is writing a thesis on the consensual jurisdiction of international courts in collaboration under the direction of Jean-Marc Thouvenin and with the support of Sygna Partners, a law firm in Paris, and the Centre de droit international de Nanterre of Paris Nanterre University.