Lecturer：Dr Ralph Wilde

Bio:

Dr Ralph Wilde is based at UCL, University of London. His current research focuses on the extraterritorial application of international human rights law and the international law aspects of the Israel-Palestine situation. His previous work on the concept of trusteeship over people and territorial administration by international organizations includes his bookInternational Territorial Administration: How Trusteeship and the Civilizing Mission Never Went Away(OUP), awarded the Certificate of Merit of the American Society of International Law. He previously served on the Executive bodies of the American and European Societies of International Law, and the International Law Association.

Lecture 1: Using the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house: international law and Palestinian liberation

Time: 19:00-20:30 20^thSeptember

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89321454969?pwd=bHI2UFVOMzlZejd3L3Q4UDNXOVF4QT09

ID：893 2145 4969

Password：220920

It is commonplace to seek to enforce international law as a means of vindicating the rights of the Palestinian people, including, fundamentally, the right to liberation. Legal“tools” deployed to dismantle the “master’s house” of colonial oppression, to borrow from Audre Lorde. But the international legal system is embedded with the ideology and techniques of imperialism and colonialism. Is international law not, then, part of the “master’s house”? Would the implementation of international law necessarily bring about Palestinian liberation? The lecture, based on a new article in the Palestine Yearbook of International Law, provides a critical evaluation of what is at stake when international law is invoked in the context of the Palestinian struggle. How and to what extent does it speak to the fundamental question of Palestinian liberation?

Lecture 2: The migration and refugee‘crisis’ as a crisis of international law

Time: 19:00-20:30 27^thSeptember

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86959339499?pwd=eVdBOFhiYVM0eGxPbk51K3I0ZFNJdz09

ID：869 5933 9499

Password：220927

It is common to invoke the implementation and enforcement international law, especially human rights and refugee law, as a solution to the policy dilemmas and humanitarian concerns raised by global migration movements, notably those characterized in recent years as a‘crisis’ and/or ‘emergency’: e.g., the mass migration from Syria, and deaths of migrants at sea in the Mediterranean, the displacement of people from Venezuela to neighbouring states, notably Brazil and Colombia, the situation at the US-Mexico border, and the movement of the Rohinga from Burma on dangerous boat journeys to neighbouring South East Asian states and beyond.

This paper offers a different way of thinking about the role of international law here: as much a part of the problem as the solution. It does so by revealing what the law fails to address, such as the need for safe, legitimate means of international travel to safety for those at risk, and equitable responsibility-sharing when it comes to hosting refugees. It also does so by revealing what the law enables, such as restrictive immigration policies and actions which prevent migrant journeys that are safe and lawful and require such journeys that are dangerous and illegal. From these and other insights about the functions of law in relation to global migration it is suggested that the refugee and migration‘crisis’ reveals a crisis of international law.