Professor Dr. Thilo Marauhn of Justice Liebig University in Giessen, Germany was the first speaker in the tenth annual joint speakers series co-sponsored by the International Legal Studies Program at California Western School of Law and the Institute for International, Comparative and Area Studies at University of California, San Diego. The series is called “Morality, Humanitarianism, and International Law”. The talk was on Wednesday, October 3, 2012, at 12:10 p.m. in the Auditorium at California Western School of Law (350 Cedar Street, at Third Avenue) in San Diego.
This year, our speakers shall examine the following issues: Is international law founded on a set of ethical principles? Should the practice of international law be guided by such principles? Political theorists and legal ethicists have debated these questions for centuries. They appear in discussions about just war theory and humanitarian intervention. They infuse debates on human rights and their presumed universal applicability. And, they are at the heart of contemporary discussions on terrorism and torture.
This year’s Joint Speaker Series examines the role of ethics and morality in international law and considers how these concepts affect the decisions of both individuals and states.
Professor Marauhn spoke on “Credible Fact-finding as a Means to Strengthen the Protection of Victims of Armed Conflict: the Case of Syria”.
The current situation in Syria illustrates that the protection of victims of armed conflict needs strengthening. The 31st International Conference of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, adopting Resolution 31IC/11/R1, recognized the importance of enhancing and ensuring the effectiveness of mechanisms for compliance with IHL, with a view to strengthening legal protection for all victims of armed conflict. So far, the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC), a permanent body available to the international community to investigate violations of international humanitarian law, has not actively been made use of. Instead, the Human Rights Council - and other bodies - have established ad hoc fact-finding missions, among others, in Gaza and in Syria. On 17 September 2012, the Human Rights Council discussed the latest report of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria. We will analyze the report in light of the need to strengthen the protection of victims of armed conflict.
Professor Thilo Marauhn (Dr. jur. utr. (Heidelberg), M.Phil. (Wales)) is Professor of Public Law, International Law and European Law at Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, and permanent visiting Professor of Constitutional Theory at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland. Serving as the Dean of his Faculty from 2006 until 2009, he has been an elected member of Justus Liebig University's Academic Senate since 2009. In 2010 he was awarded the "Excellence in Teaching Award" of the Hessian Universities for his involvement in establishing a Refugee Law Clinic at Giessen. He has coordinated numerous externally funded research projects on the law related to international security, recently on unmanned aerial vehicles in light of public international law. From 2002 until 2009 he served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and since 2008 he has been a Member of the Advisory Board on United Nations Issues of the German Federal Foreign Office. International humanitarian law has always ranked high on his research agenda, being, among others, a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Conflict and Security Law published by OUP. He has been a member of the German National Committee on IHL since 1995 and of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission since 2012. He has been a visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, in 2005, 2008, and in 2011.
