Douglas Arner to Give Keynote at 23rd Australia and New Zealand International Law Conference

Professor Douglas Arner will be delivering a keynote address on "The new silk road: all roads lead to China?" at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law hosted by the New Zealand Centre for Public Law at Victoria University of Wellington from 2-4 July 2015.  Other keynote speakers include former judge of the International Court of Justice, Sir Kenneth Keith (Prof Emeritus, Victoria University of Wellington), Professor Mary Keyes (Griffith Law School), and Professor Gerry Simpson (Melbourne Law School).  The focus of the conference is on international law-making.  The Victoria University of Wellington press release includes the following details:

Academics, practitioners and NGO and government experts on the law of armed conflict, use of force, private international law and financial regulation are among the speakers at an upcoming conference hosted by the New Zealand Centre for Public Law at Victoria University of Wellington.
     Attorney-General and Victoria Faculty of Law alumnus Hon Christopher Finlayson will speak at the opening session of the 23rd Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) which will take place from Thursday 2 to Saturday 4 July.

     Although states have traditionally been the main subjects of international law, new actors, processes and fora have been involved in the creation of international standards in recent decades. These innovative efforts at engaging in and making sense of legal diplomacy raise significant questions about the legitimacy, accountability, effectiveness and nature of international law.

     The conference will explore the theoretical and practical challenges these efforts pose to law-making in the broad fields of private and public international law, says Alberto Costi, Associate Professor at the School of Law.

     “We are delighted to host this conference, which is recognised as the annual gathering of international lawyers not only from the region but also from further afield, as shown by the affiliations of the speakers.”