The UN International Law Commission in 2023: A Conversation

Speaker: Professor Martins Paparinskis (UCL)
Chair: Professor Alex Mills (UCL)
About the talk
The United Nations (UN) International Law Commission (ILC) was established by the UN General Assembly, in 1947, to undertake the mandate of the Assembly, under article 13 (1) (a) of the Charter of the United Nations to "initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of ... encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification". Since then, the ILC has contributed in important ways to the development of public international law, both on foundational issues of sources, subjects, responsibility, and disputes, and within such particular specialist fields as law of the sea, diplomatic and consular law, international criminal law, and international environmental law. The website of the ILC nods to Jeremy Bentham as the originator of the idea of codification of international law, which makes UCL a particularly appropriate venue for a discussion about the role and relevance of the ILC.
About the speaker:
Professor Martins Paparinskis is Professor of Public International Law at UCL Laws. He is a member of the International Law Commission and was the Chairperson of its Drafting Committee in its seventy-fourth session (2023).