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Keynote Speaker:

Prof. Philippe Sands, QC

Philippe Sands, QC is a renowned British and French lawyer at Matrix Chambers, and Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London. As a practicing barrister he has extensive experience litigating cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, and the European Court of Justice. He frequently advises governments, international organisations, NGOs and the private sector on aspects of international law. In 2003 he was appointed a Queen's Counsel. He has been appointed to lists of arbitrators maintained by ICSID and the PCA. 

Prof. Sands is frequently invited to lecture around the world, and in recent years has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto (2005), the University of Melbourne (2005) and the Universite de Paris I (Sorbonne) (2006, 2007). He has previously held academic positions at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, Kings College London and , University of Cambridge and was a Global Professor of Law at New York University from 1995-2003. He was co-founder of FIELD (Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development), and established the programmes on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the European Journal of International Law and Review of European Community and International Environmental Law (Blackwell Press). In 2007 he served as a judge for the Guardian First Book Prize award.

Prof. Sands is the author of numerous acclaimed books on international law, including Lawless World (2005) and Torture Team (2008). His book East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity (2016) has been awarded numerous prizes, including the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

 

Prof. Eszter Kirs

Eszter Kirs has been an associate professor at the Institute of International Studies of the Corvinus University of Budapest since 2016. From 2003 to 2018, she has been lecturing International Law at the Faculty of Law of the Miskolc University. She obtained a PhD degree in 2009. Apart from her academic career, she has been a legal officer of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee since 2013 where she contributed to a number of projects focusing on the efficient prosecution of hate crimes. She had a special focus in her academic research on International Criminal Law, and she was a member of a defence team at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia from 2010 to 2015. She was a visiting researcher at the Columbia Law School as a Fulbright Scholar in 2009-2010 and has been involved in a number of international research projects. She is the author of numerous articles and academic papers and published two monographs: on Transitional Justice in 2012 and on the operation of the ICTY in 2018. She is a member of the research group of the Hungarian Academy of Science “SPECTRA” on Social prerequisites for the effective fight against bias-motivated crimes through criminal law and minority rights protection.

Dr. Marco Odello

Dr. Marco Odello has a general interest in public international law, with specific attention to issues concerning international human rights, humanitarian law and the law of international organisations. He has taught international and comparative law, the law of international organisations, international human rights and humanitarian law at the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico City, and at the University of Piura (Peru). He has been a Researcher at the European Public Law Center (Athens), and at the Centre for Conflict and Security Law, University of Nottingham. He has been a guest lecturer at the Central University of Venezuela (Caracas), at the University of Maracaibo (Venezuela), at the University of Oviedo and Valencia (Spain), at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands), and at Swansea University. He has worked and co-operated with international institutions, such as the Italian Committee for Unicef (Rome), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Rome), the Institute for University Cooperation (Rome), the College universitaire Henry Dunant (Geneva), and the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (San Remo). Between 2000 and 2003 he was an expert consultant for the University of Bologna in the EU Tempus Project 'Towards a European Model Judge'. He was one of the Principal Investigators in the EU-sponsored Research Project on Parental Rights in Child Education.

Dr. Patryk Labuda

Dr. Patryk Labuda is the Hauser Post-Doctoral Global Fellow at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University. His areas of expertise lie in international criminal law, transitional justice, public international law and international humanitarian law. His areas of interest include peacekeeping operations, immunities of international organizations (UN and EU), constitutional law, comparative constitution-making and the decentralization of powers. 

Dr. Labuda completed his doctorate at Harvard Law School, the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at Cambridge University and Stellenbosch University in South Africa. His Ph.D. thesis ("The Complementarity Turn in International Criminal Justice") explores how international criminal tribunals influence the accountability policies of governments in conflict-affected countries. He was awarded the Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship. Dr Labuda has also authored a dozen book chapters and articles for peer-reviewed journals, and is a regular contributor to leading international law and justice blogs such as Opinio Juris, EJIL:Talk! and Justice in Conflict.

Dr. Labuda has several years of work experience in human rights, transitional justice and justice/security sector reform. At the Max Planck Foundation, he trained and advised government officials and attorneys from the (north) Sudanese Ministry of Justice and the Sudanese Bar Union, and parliamentarians from both houses of the South Sudanese legislature. In Congo, he worked on domestic judicial reform with the national police (PNC), the Ministry of Justice and the National Assembly (lower chamber of Parliament). Before that he worked as a Legal Advisor to the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe in Brussels.

Dr. Nobuo Hayashi

Dr. Nobuo Hayashi specialises in international humanitarian law, international criminal law, jus ad bellum, and international weapons law. His most significant works cover military necessity and the law and ethics of nuclear weapons. He has over eighteen years of experience performing advanced research, advising international prosecutors, authorising court submissions, teaching students and training professionals, speaking at conferences, and publishing scholarly material in the aforementioned areas as well as other cognate fields. Major positions he has held include: Visiting Lecturer, UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute; Senior Legal Advisor, International Law and Policy Institute; Researcher, PluriCourts, University of Oslo; Visiting Professor, International University of Japan; Researcher, Peace Research Institute Oslo; Legal Advisor, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights; Legal Officer, Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.​

Other confrimed speakers:

  • Lech Nijakowski
  • Veronika Bilkova
  • Tamás Hoffmann
  • Andrzej Jakubowski
  • Tamas Adany
Video gallery

Prof. Sands on his book "East West Street"