Stead Lecture: 'Self-Defense in International Law,' March 26
March 24, 2008
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
Emmanuel J. Roucounas, first vice president of the Institute of International Law and professor emeritus of international law at the University of Athens, will speak on "Self-Defense in International Law" on Wednesday, March 26 for the University of Baltimore School of Law's annual Stead Lecture in International and Comparative Law. The event, free and open to the public, will take place at 6:15 p.m. in the Venable Baetjer Howard Moot Court Room in the John and Frances Angelos Law Center, 1415 Maryland Ave.
Roucounas will discuss the current thinking concerning a nation's right to defend itself and the protections and limits of those rights as codified by international law: What are the boundaries of "self-defense"? How is self-defense defined by international law? What role does the United Nations play in assisting or providing for a nation's defense against its enemies? What is the impact in international courts when internal forces seek to disrupt a sovereign nation?
Roucounas is the former president of the Academy of Athens, where he continues to serve as the chair of Public International Law. In 2005, he was elected by the 46 Member States of the Council of Europe to a small "Group of Wise Persons" entrusted with the mandate to make proposals for the future of the European Court of Human Rights.
Roucounas has taught at many universities in Europe, including the Hague Academy of International Law, the Rhodes Academy of the Law of the Sea and the Universities of Athens, Thessaloniki and Thrace (Greece), Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales (France), University College, London (UK), and the University of San Sebastian (Spain). He studied law in Paris and international relations at Columbia University. He has published in four languages, and is the author of 10 books, three monographs, more than 100 articles and several reports to international bodies on general international law, the law of treaties, the law of the sea, human rights, humanitarian law, bioethics, diplomatic history, and European unification.
Established in 2001, the Stead Lecture in International and Comparative Law brings a distinguished speaker to Baltimore at least once every academic year to lecture about international and comparative law. The School of Law's Center for International and Comparative Law convenes the lecture.
The center promotes the study and understanding of international and comparative law and of the political and economic institutions that support the international legal order. It sponsors research, publication, teaching and the dissemination of knowledge about international legal issues, with special emphasis on human rights, democratic institutions and international business transactions. The center often publishes the remarks of Stead lecturers in its book series, Ius Gentium.
Currently, the School of Law offers study-abroad programs at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, the University of Haifa in Israel, and in an international and comparative law program on the Caribbean island of Curaçao in collaboration with Hofstra University, Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of the Netherlands, Antilles.
Parking for attendees for the Stead Lecture will be available in the University of Baltimore's Bolton Yard lot and Maryland Avenue garage. For more information, contact the center at 410.837.4532.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts and the Merrick School of Business.