ANZSIL president Professor Campbell McLachlan of Wellington’s Victoria University said the conference would bring Australasia’s international law community together with eminent international experts.

“The idea is to focus on the issues of international law which really matter to this region — whether they are trade, fisheries resources on the high seas, policing internal armed conflict, human rights, or regional peace and security,” Campbell said.

Speakers will include Don McRae, professor in business and trade law at the University of Ottawa, who will lead a session on the World Trade Organisation’s Doha round; Jose Alvarez, professor of international law and diplomacy at Columbia and president of the American Society of International Law, who will examine the health of international organisations; and Charlotte Ku, the American Society’s executive director, who will chair a review of treaty making practice.

Emeritus professor Sir Kenneth Keith will be in town to report on his experiences as the first Australasian to sit on the International Court of Justice; Colin Keating will report from New York on the UN Security Council, and professor Kim Rubinstein of Australian National University will chair a panel on diplomatic protection, examining the rights of foreign nationals subject to detention or ‘extraordinary rendition’ in the ‘war on terror’.

The conference will also have a Pacific Rim flavour, as it will be held in conjunction with a symposium for the Four Societies’ Project, ‘International Law and Democratic Theory’. This project will bring 15 young scholars from the American, Canadian, Japanese and Australian/New Zealand Societies to Wellington from 27-28 June.

ANZSIL will also host a postgraduate workshop on 28 June which will provide a forum for postgraduate students working in the field to present their research.

ANZSIL was established in 1992, and the association’s aims include providing a forum for the discussion of research and practice in international law and increasing public awareness of it.