The Crisis of Public International Law: The Case of Palestine and Impunity for Genocide

Please register on Zoom with the following link:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8KXoCLCfSGCYFJrkz6ScTQ#/registration

Fifteen months of Israel’s accelerated genocide against the Palestinian people, unrestrained by effective legal prophylaxes or accountability, has exposed to the world a terrible crisis in international law. The International Court of Justice has ordered preliminary measures, declaring that South Africa’s case against Israel for genocide is plausible, while the International Criminal Court Office has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The International Court of Justice, in a July 2024 Advisory Opinion, determined that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territory, including Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem, continues, is illegal and must stop. Against this backdrop of legal decisions and incontrovertible evidence of genocide, the US, Germany and other states have continued to provide Israel with billions of dollars in weaponry, and the US invited Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians to be honoured at the US Congress. The illegality of Israel’s war against Palestinians is at the same time obscured by claims advanced by the US and other states that the Israeli war, determined as ‘plausible genocide,’ is just part of a so-called “rules-based international order.” Domestic and international institutions and legal systems have appeared largely co-opted by the US. Join the Monique and Roland Weyl People’s Academy of International Law for an informative, analytical and practice-oriented seminar and discussion on what meaningful utility remains for international law and legal institutions in a time of genocide and impunity.

Speakers:
Raji Sourani, Director of Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Maria LaHood, Deputy Legal Director at Center for Constitutional Rights
Shahd Hammouri, Lecturer in Law at Kent Law School in the UK
Moderated by Dean Marjorie Cohn