28th Annual SLS/BIICL Workshop on Theory in International Law

Spaces beyond Sovereignty: International Law Outside of Territorial Jurisdiction

4th December 2017, the UN General Assembly decided to convene an intergovernmental conference to negotiate a treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). The states negotiating what is more colloquially referred to as the "High Seas Treaty" are facing both conceptual and practical questions in attempting to agree this instrument: on the one side, how to understand the high seas itself as a global commons - oscillating between concerns for state freedom and collective resource management - and, on the other, how best to agree workable solutions to both protect the marine environment (MPAs, EIAs, and so on) and ensure an equitable stake in and distribution of the resources derived from this 'global commons' (including issues such as capacity building and transfer of marine technology).

Nevertheless, this is only one illustrative example among a range of regulatory challenges faced by international law when we move beyond a state's territorial jurisdiction. In particular, questions continue to abound over, inter alia, the capacity of states to exercise universal and other heads of jurisdiction to apprehend perpetrators of atrocity crimes; the scope and limits to states' extraterritorial jurisdiction in relation to human rights law; the 'dislocation' of human rights obligations away from territory altogether, in relation to e.g. obligations of corporations, development banks and international organisations; vessel interdiction in maritime spaces beyond national jurisdiction in relation to piracy, counter-terrorism or migrant smuggling; the challenges of regulating cyberspace; or the balance between spatial, temporal and functional aspects of "common heritage of mankind" regimes, such as the deep seabed.

Download the programme for the workshop

Download the slides from the workshop

Chair
Professor Malgosia Fitzmaurice Queen Mary University of London

Closing Keynote AddressProfessor Alex Mills, University College London

Pricing & Registration

BIICL Member

Individual: £60
Concession: £40
Student: £20

Non-Members
Individual: £100
Concession: £65
Student: £35

Concession fees are applicable to academics, staff of government and NGO's.

SLS members are entitled to BIICL member price for this event. To apply for an SLS member place please contact the events team