Professor Hilary Charlesworth
Professor of International Law and Director of the Centre for International and Public Law in the Faculty of Law, ANU

“Is the War on Terror Compatible with Human Rights?: An International Law Perspective” [View paper (PDF, 180KB)]

Abstract: The paper will consider the particular challenges raised for the international human rights system by the 'war on terror' declared in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001. Taking an international focus, it will argue that a human rights framework is critical for the success of such an enterprise and will examine the practical and legal implications of acting otherwise.

Bio: Hilary Charlesworth is Professor and Director of the Centre for International and Public Law at the Australian National University. She was educated at the University of Melbourne and Harvard Law School. She has taught at the universities of Melbourne and Adelaide and has been a visiting professor at Washington & Lee School of Law, Harvard Law School and the Global Law Faculty at New York University.

President: Sven Thorstensen

"My name is Sven Rudolf Thorstensen. I am an Austrian lawyer doing his a master of international public law here in Norway. The program will last one year. The reason why I chose Norway as destination is that my father is Norwegian. Therefore I have his Norwegian name. Norway is a beautiful country. My aim is to provide for every international student a beautiful experience here in Norway. This is why we are here. We will help you for every problem."

Most decisions in modern society depend to some extent on the workings of the political process. Debate over the role of government vis-a-vis the individual has continued since the time of Plato and Aristotle.

Political science, as a discipline, encompasses a broad range of subfields that attempt to describe and explain the political process, politics, and the relationship among governments. The general areas of study in political science include American government and politics, political theory, public administration, public law, comparative politics, and international relations.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts (left) and Political Science
Department Chair, Dr. Crowley, discuss Constitutional law
at the Bellwood Lectures, UI Law School, March, 2009.

The Political Science department has a new Administrative Assistant. Kjelda Berg will be in the office from 7:30-4:30, Monday through Friday. Please contact Kjelda, AD205, 5-6328, if you require general departmental assistance.

Welcome new and returning students: From the faculty and staff of the Political Science department, we bid you all a hearty welcome and join you in a sincere effort to have a great Fall 2010 semester.

Fall 2010 Announcements: Please pay attention to the academic schedule regarding important dates/timelines, and please refer back to this webpage for important departmental announcements.

Blackstone Chambers is experienced in advising and representing governments, corporate bodies and individual litigants on international disputes, constitutional affairs and human rights issues before a range of international courts. Barristers have particular experience in international boundary disputes, state and diplomatic immunity and international protection of human rights. They appear regularly before the International Court of Justice, international arbitration tribunals (for example ICSID, the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes) and before domestic courts in cases involving issues of public international law.

Chambers’ expertise in this area is anchored in individuals who have a strong academic background in public international law, for example Maurice Mendelson QC (Chair of International Law, UCL from 1987-2001) and Guy Goodwin-Gill (Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and Professor of International Refugee Law at Oxford University from 1998-2002).

Private International laws

Private International laws refers to the choice of law to apply where there are conflicts or disagreements in domestic law of different countries to private transactions. This dispute can be in reference to a dispute in the choice of law to apply, what jurisdiction applies, or the recognition of enforcement of a foreign judgment. Some areas of private international law involve trade, judicial assistance, matters involving families and children, finance and banking, arbitration and judgments, and wills trusts and estates. Another widely used term for private international laws is “Conflict of Laws.” What they basically are is a set of rules of strategically law which determine which legal system and the law of which jurisdiction applies to a given legal dispute. Both names are still used today, and even the name international private law, they refer to the same instance. Regardless of what you choose to call private international laws, there are steps into which they take effect.

The first step of private international law is for the court to decide whether or not it has jurisdiction over the conflict, and whether it is the proper venue. After this comes the characterization of the cause of action into a legal category which could include an incidental question. After these two decisions are made, it must be looked upon to determine which set of competing laws would be applied to the legal category. After the law that is applicable to the situation has been decided, the law must be proven before the forum court and applied in accordance to reach a judgment. Once all this is done, the party that has succeeded must enforce the judgment., after cross-border recognition of it. The organizations assigned to oversee and protect private international laws meet on a regular basis to discuss and address any issues.

In November of 2009, the Hague Conference on Private International Law held a Special Commission to go over the fulfillment of the 2007 Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. During this meeting, 12 forms were adopted that would be used by parties to the treaty for creating and addressing child support related requests and a country profile form that will describe how each country will perform its treaty obligations. Soon after that, the Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Private International Law (L/PIL) of the U.S. Department of State, met twice in the month of December of 2009 under the backing of the Department of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law. The first meeting concentrated on the utilization of the UNCITRAL Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly By Sea. The second meeting primarily concentrated considering various proposals in the OAS in reference to consumer protection. This recent action in the field of private international laws shows that governing bodies and divisions are in constant pursue of improvement and there to address any current issues and regards.

Public International laws

Public International laws center mainly on the avocation of human rights and protection of the environment. However, they will also include other topics as well. Public international law deals with the structure and conduct of sovereign state, intergovernmental organizations, and analogous entities. In relation to the increase of armed conflict, environmental deterioration, global trade, awareness of human rights violations, a boom in global communications, and fast and large growth in international transportation, public international law has escalated greatly in importance. Aside from its focus on human rights, public international law has been known to focus as well on issues with due process protections, asylum law, nationality and citizenship, and rights of the child. Although its concentration is set on the environment and human rights, it can include these other areas.

Public international law can be divided into two central branches: international agreements and conventions, and the law of nations. The term public international law, itself, was first conceived by Jeremy Bentham, a prominent English philosopher. The four main sources of public international law are: customs, international treaties, teachings, and general principles of law and judicial decisions. The groundwork and foundation for identifying states as principal actors in the international legal system has been instituted by public international law. The main people involved in an issue dealing with public international law would be the head of a nation or organization, the sovereign power. In some cases it would be the Prime Minister, or President of a given country. Later on, most cases involved the department in charge of representing that sovereign power such as the Foreign Ministry, or State Department (U.S.), etc… Even though these departments of government will be the main or lead role in establishing the international law, the leader of that nation may still be needed to approve and endorse such a law. When considering a universal scale, the two most important congregations for creating public international law are the United Nations and the still young but effective European Union. Some branches of international law that public international law deals with would be international trade law, diplomatic law, consular law, and international environmental law. Dilemmas that deal with public international law have an inclination to be more tough to foresee, and more illusive and complicated to decipher, than cases that deal with private international law.

Having taken a look at public international law, its meaning, its reach, and its effect, we can gain a general idea of how it works and its importance to international law. It is in essence a categorization for a group of international laws that fall under it, pertaining to the sovereign power or department creating them, and who they entail to. In conclusion, it is safe to understand that public international law is the law of a political system of nation-states that bestows laws upon national systems it touches, which are not adequately governed.

The French Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen , whose principles still have constitutional value Perancis Deklarasi Hak-hak Manusia dan Warga Negara pada,  prinsip-prinsip yang masih memiliki nilai konstitusional

Constitutional law is the study of foundational or basic laws of nation states and other political organizations. Konstitusional hukum adalah ilmu dasar atau dasar hukum dari negara dan organisasi politik lainnya.

Constitutions are the framework for government and may limit or define the authority and procedure of political bodies to execute new laws and regulations. Konstitusi adalah kerangka kerja bagi pemerintah dan dapat membatasi atau menetapkan wewenang dan prosedur dari badan politik baru untuk melaksanakan undang-undang dan peraturan yang berlaku.