About the author(s):
Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor at Utrecht University where she teaches IHL and IHRL. Before joining Utrecht University, she worked at the ICTY, ICC and Norton Rose Fulbright. She is the author of The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2017) which won the 2018 Lieber Prize. She has written widely about the framework of law that applies to armed groups in non-international armed conflicts and is one of the editors of the Armed Groups and International Law blog.
The Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) is now accepting applications for this year’s “Weapons Law and the Conduct of the Legal Review of Weapons Course”, which will be held at the GCSP in Geneva from 8 to 12 December 2014.
This course is designed to provide lawyers, diplomats and other officials, either currently involved or likely to be involved in legal weapons reviews and/or other weapons related issues, with the necessary understanding to ensure their State’s compliance with the law.
The course is directed by Air Commodore (ret) Dr William Boothby, formerly Deputy Director of the Royal Air Force Legal Services (UK) and currently Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Other lecturers include: Professor Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, Professor of Public Law, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt; Ms Kathleen Lawand, Head of Arms Unit, Legal Division, International Committee of the Red Cross; and Dr Nils Melzer, Senior Programme Advisor and Senior Fellow, Emerging Security Challenges Programme, GCSP.
Course topics include:
- Defining Weapons, Means and Methods of Warfare
- The Evolution and Sources of Weapons Law
- Unnecessary Suffering and Indiscriminate Weapons
- Weapons and the Environment
- Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons
- Missiles, Bombs, Firearms and Bullets
- New Weapons Technologies
Participation Requirements
- The course does not assume any particular level of knowledge of, or previous experience in international law or the law of armed conflict.
- The course will be held in English. No translation will be provided.
Applications (a Biography and a Cover Letter) should be submitted by 15 October 2014 at the latest to Ms Anne-Caroline Pissis Martel (a.pissis@gcsp.ch ).