CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

PAVEL ŠTURMA CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ by the Drafting Committee, and the Commission as a whole only took note of the report presented by the Chairperson of the Drafting Committee. During the first part of the session, the Commission also established the Planning Group, which in turn decided to constitute the Working Group on the Long-term programme of work, under the chairmanship of Mr. Mahmoud Hmoud, and the Working Group on methods of work, under the chairmanship of Mr. Hussein Hassouna. The first Working Group also discussed, on the basis of the submitted working papers, three new proposals of possible subjects for the Long-term programme. However, due to the lack of time, the Working Group only decided, during the second part of its session, to recommend including two new topics, namely “Universal criminal jurisdiction” and “Sea-level rise in relation to international law”, in the Long-term programme of work. The second Working Group continued but has not yet concluded its debate on the methods of work of the Commission. At its meeting on 1 May 2018, the Commission elected Mr. Evgeny Zagaynov (Russian Federation) to fill the casual vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Roman Kolodkin. In the framework of the 70 th anniversary of the Commission, it held two commemorative events, one in New York on 21 May 2018, and the other in Geneva on 5 and 6 July 2018, under the theme “70 years of the International Law Commission – Drawing a balance for the future”. The events in both New York and Geneva consisted of two segments, a solemn part, followed by a series of panel discussions, involving academics, legal advisors, and members of the Commission. The keynote lecture in New York was delivered by Professor Nico Schrijver (Leiden University and President of the Institute of International Law). The keynote address in Geneva was presented by Mr. Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, President of the International Court of Justice. In addition, the ILC had a number of meetings with representatives of other legal bodies, such as the Inter-American Juridical Committee and the Committee of Legal Advisors on Public International Law (CAHDI) of the Council of Europe. In the same vein, an informal exchange of views was held between the members of the Commission and the International Committee of the Red Cross on topics of mutual interest, at the occasion of the invitation to the premises of the ICRC Headquarters. Last but not least, during the second part of the session of the ILC, the fifty-third session of the International Law Seminar took place at the Palais des Nations. A significant number of members of the Commission gave lectures on a large variety of topics. 2 The topics on the Agenda of the ILC In 2018, the Commission had a larger number of topics on the agenda than the previous year, which amounted to eight. In addition, one topic, “Crimes against humanity”, adopted on the first reading in 2017, is waiting for the second reading to take place in 2019. In the 2 The work of the International Law Commission (E. Petrič), The Principle of Universal Jurisdiction (Ch. Jalloh), The ILC viewed from outside (P. Galvão Teles), Protection of the Atmosphere (S. Murase), Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict (M. Lehto), Immunity of State Officials from Foreign Jurisdiction (C. Escobar Hernández), Jus Cogens (D. Tladi), Subsequent agreements and subsequent practice in relation to interpretation of treaties (G. Nolte), Crimes Against Humanity (S. Murphy), and Provisional Application of Treaties (J.M. Gómez-Robledo). Two other topics, Identification of Customary International Law (M. Wood) and State Succession in Relation to State Responsibility (P. Šturma), were presented in a conference organized by the University of Geneva. 2.

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