Engagements: Trainings and Events
Business, Trade and Human Rights Unit workshop on Investment Treaty Reform
The Human Rights Law Centre’s Business, Trade and Human Rights unit, led by unit head Dr Klara Polackova Van der Ploeg, hosted a closed workshop on Investment Treaty Reform, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic (Investment Protection Unit). Held across two days in May 2024, sessions addressed:
- Investment Treaty Regime and Reform: Czech Experience and Priorities;
- Investor Obligations: Role, Scope, and Interplay with State CSR and Sustainable Development Obligations;
- Enforcement of Investor Obligations: Domestic vs International Avenues and (Counter) Claims in Investor-State Arbitration;
- Policy Space, Regulatory Autonomy and Protection of Non-Economic Values;
- Policy Space and Investor Property Rights: Scope of Protection and the MFN Clause; and
- Exceptions for Protected and Responsible Investments and Public Interest in the Context of Dispute Settlement.
Expert speakers included:
- Annamaria La Chimia – Professor of Law and Development, University of Nottingham;
- Arijit Mukherjee - Professor of Industrial Economics, University of Nottingham;
- Anil Yilmaz Vastardis – Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Essex;
- Matthew Windsor – Associate Professor in Public International Law, University of Nottingham;
- Klara Polackova Van der Ploeg – Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham;
- Timothy Masiko – Assistant Professor in Law, University of Nottingham;
- Juan Carlos Boue – Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies;
- Lea Di Salvatore – Doctoral Researcher, University of Nottingham; and
- Vesselina Haralampieva - Senior Sustainable Finance Lawyer, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Explore the activities of the Business, Trade and Human Rights unit
International Law Training for Australian Government Lawyers
In September 2023, HRLC member Dr Matthew Windsor presented his research on the ethics of international lawyering to an audience of over 50 government lawyers at the Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Office of International Law within the Attorney-General’s Department. The training session – titled ‘Government Lawyers, Legal Ethics and International Law – A Special Responsibility?’ – was conducted in DFAT’s Diplomatic Academy as part of the Trade & Investment Law Timeout (TILT) seminar series.
Dr Windsor’s presentation was based on his forthcoming monograph Advising States: Government Lawyering in International Law, to be published by Oxford University Press in 2025.
Poder Judicial Del Estado de Mexico: Congreso Internacional Federalismo Judicial 2022 [Judicial Training event]
The Judiciary of the State of Mexico hosts an annual conference for students training to become prosecutors and judges. This event brings together leading academics and practitioners from around the globe to offer diverse perspectives on key legal topics.
In 2022, HRLC member Dr Javier S. Eskauriatza presented on the subject of federalism and cross-border judicial cooperation. He has been invited back to speak again in October 2024, this time addressing the theme of students as active participants in their own judicial training.
View the programme