Speaker: Dr Cecily Rose, Associate Professor of Public International Law in the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University
Chair: Dr Matthew Windsor, Associate Professor in Public International Law, University of Nottingham
Abstract
The reparations phase of Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v Uganda) raised myriad evidentiary problems for the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which had never before heard a case concerning compensation for war damages. The failure of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to produce sufficient evidence was compounded by the ICJ’s characteristically passive approach to evidentiary issues and its own failure to ensure that its court-appointed experts produced useful opinions. Meanwhile, several reparations decisions of the International Criminal Court in the DRC situation show that the extent of the challenges before the ICJ was not inevitable. The ICJ ought to have done more to ensure a stronger evidentiary basis for its decision to order Uganda to pay the DRC US$325 million in compensation. This paper analyzes some of the evidentiary problems that arose in this case and suggests alternative approaches.
Speaker biography
Dr Cecily Rose is an Associate Professor of Public International Law in the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University.
Cecily is engaged in research, teaching, and consultancy work in the field of public international law. Cecily has a broad background in public international law, and general interests and expertise in the field. She is currently pursuing research interests in the areas of transnational criminal law and international dispute settlement. Her research in the area of transnational criminal law concerns, in particular, international legal approaches to corruption, asset recovery, organized crime, and money laundering.
Cecily’s scholarship has been published in leading international law journals (American Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Law, International & Comparative Law Quarterly) and as a monograph with Oxford University Press (International Anti-Corruption Norms, 2015). Cecily also co-edited and contributed to a treaty commentary on the UN Convention against Corruption, which was published in 2019 as a part of OUP’s authoritative treaty commentary series. She is the lead author of An Introduction to Public International Law (CUP 2022), a textbook that she co-authored with other members of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies.
Cecily has taught various courses in the field of public international law at both Leiden Law School and Leiden University College. She currently teaches courses at Leiden Law School on International Dispute Settlement (LL.M. programme) and Public International Law (LL.B. programme).
In recent years Cecily has worked as a consultant for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the World Bank, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Her work for the OHCHR concerned the Recommended Principles on Human Rights and Asset Recovery. Cecily has served as an editor of the Leiden Journal of International Law, in its International Law and Practice section, since 2013. As of 2022, she is also a founding board member of the Transnational Criminal Law Review. Cecily is a member of the European Society of International Law and a co-convenor of the Interest Group on International Courts and Tribunals.
Cecily holds a Ph.D. and an LL.M. in public international law from the University of Cambridge, a J.D. from Columbia Law School, and a B.A. (English) from Yale University. Prior to joining the Grotius Centre, Cecily Rose worked as an associate legal officer at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Cecily also previously worked as an associate legal officer at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown, Sierra Leone and in private practice, as an associate in the International Regulation and Compliance group of Steptoe & Johnson, LLP, in Washington, D.C. As a member of the New York and Washington, D.C. bars, Cecily remains a qualified lawyer.