Tuesday 15 November 2016

Guest lecture on Peacekeeping since Rwanda: Reflections of a Legal Officer’s Experience 22 years on - 5 December

The International Law Centre is pleased to announce that Dr Bruce Oswald, Associate Professor and Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne, will hold a lecture on the topic of Peacekeeping since Rwanda: Reflections of a Legal Officer’s Experience 22 years on. The lecture will be held 5 December at 15:00-16:30 in Lejonsköldska.

In 1996 Bruce Oswald wrote an article: ‘Peacekeeping in Rwanda – A Lawyer’s Experience’ which was published in the Australian Law Journal. That article was based on his experiences as an Army legal adviser to the Australian Defence Force Contingent serving in Rwanda in 1994. What has changed in UN peacekeeping law and practice 22 years later? Bruce Oswald will briefly discuss among other things: the protection of civilians by peacekeepers; the rule of law industry; the accountability of peacekeepers; and the role of military peacekeepers in post-conflict state building.  He will also speak about some of the major challenges for UN peacekeeping. His primary focus will be on the extent to which law influences the policy and practice of UN peacekeeping today, drawing on his research and practice since deploying to Rwanda.

Bruce "Ossie" Oswald is an Associate Professor and Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne. His interests in law and practice are in the areas of international humanitarian law, peace operations, state building, accountability and responsibility, and the application of human rights law to military operations. More specifically, his interests are in examining the law and practice surrounding the protection of civilians, the taking and handling of detainees during military operations, and militias undertaking law and order functions. Ossie has served in the Australian Regular Army as a legal officer. He has seen operational service in Rwanda, the Former Yugoslavia, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. He has provided legal advice and held staff appointments as a legal officer at tactical, operational and strategic levels. During his service in Australia he provided legal advice to the Deployable Joint Force Headquarters, Headquarters Australian Theatre, Strategic Command and Directorate of Operations and International Law. Ossie continues to serve in the Army Reserves as a legal officer. For his service as the Legal Officer for the Australian Contingent serving in Rwanda, Ossie was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross (CSC). In 1997 Ossie worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Former Yugoslavia. Ossie was a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow (October 2012 - June 2013) at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC, USA.


The event will be held in English at Försvarshögskolan, Drottning Kristnas Väg 37 in Lejonsköldska at 15:00-16:30. If you are interested in attending, email: international.law.centre@fhs.se
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Thursday 10 November 2016

New Publication: Harrison Dinniss / Kleffner, Soldier 2.0: Military Human Enhancement and International Law, 92 ILS (2016) 432-482

Heather Harrison Dinniss and Jann Kleffner have just publisdhed an article in the US Naval War College's international law journal 'International Law Studies' on international legal aspects of military human enhancement, ie technologies that can endow humans with physical or mental abilities that go beyond the statistically normal level of functioning. The use of these human enhancement technologies by the military, for instance in the spheres of biotechnology, cybernetics and prosthetics, raise a number of questions under the international legal frameworks governing military technology, namely the law of armed conflict and human rights law. The article examines these frameworks with a focus on weapons law, the law pertaining to the detention of and by “enhanced individuals,” the human rights of those individuals and their responsibility for the actions they take while under the influence of enhancements.
The article can be accessed at: http://stockton.usnwc.edu/ils/vol92/iss1/14/.
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