Post-Soviet Legal Choices 5 Recording Available!

The seminar: Post-Soviet Legal Choices 5-Ukraine Lessons Learned and the Future of Law with Judge James Baker was held on on 30 January 2023.

Watch the seminar here: https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/cfc89af5-f515-4db1-99ea-7c665c74eb8a

The original description of the event:

President Zelensky has said, “lawyers will put an end to this war after the military, after the politicians.” Russia’s war against Ukraine is a battle over territory, but it is also a battle over ideas. Law is one of those ideas. Should and do states observe principles of territorial integrity? Should, and do, states adhere to the Law of Armed Conflict? Should states be free to determine their own destiny, or have that destiny dictated by more powerful states? In this presentation, former U.S. national security official, federal judge, and now professor sets an agenda for looking at some of legal lessons we might derive from Russia’s war against Ukraine addressing, among other topics, United Nations reform, security assurances, and war crimes accountability.

Speakers:


Judge Jamie Baker, Director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law

Post-Soviet Legal Choices 5: Ukraine Lessons Learned and the Future of Law

30 January 2023

Time: 12-13:30 (Helsinki time)
In person at Metsätalo, Alexander room and via Zoom

Registration:

Please register for the event via this form: https://forms.gle/aBqvv4zgGCVtMUeG6.

Please register no later than January 27th!

Event Description:

President Zelensky has said, “lawyers will put an end to this war after the military, after the politicians.” Russia’s war against Ukraine is a battle over territory, but it is also a battle over ideas. Law is one of those ideas. Should and do states observe principles of territorial integrity? Should, and do, states adhere to the Law of Armed Conflict? Should states be free to determine their own destiny, or have that destiny dictated by more powerful states? In this presentation, former U.S. national security official, federal judge, and now professor sets an agenda for looking at some of legal lessons we might derive from Russia’s war against Ukraine addressing, among other topics, United Nations reform, security assurances, and war crimes accountability.

Speakers:


Judge Jamie Baker, Director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law
Judge Jamie Baker is Director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law as well as a Professor at the Syracuse College of Law and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He previously served as a Judge and Chief Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. As a career civil servant, Baker served as Legal Adviser and Deputy Legal Adviser to the National Security Council. He has also served as Counsel to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and Intelligence Oversight Board, an attorney in the U.S. Department of State, an aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and as a Marine Corps infantry officer. In addition to teaching at Syracuse, he has taught at Yale, Iowa, Pittsburgh, Washington University (St. Louis), and Georgetown. He is the author of numerous articles and three books: The Centaur’s Dilemma: National Security Law for the Coming AI Revolution (Brookings 2021); In the Common Defense: National Security Law for Perilous Times (Cambridge 2007); and, with Michael Reisman, Regulating Covert Action (Yale 1992).

Post-Soviet Legal Choices 4 Recording Available!

The seminar: Post-Soviet Legal Choices 4-What Happened in Russian Law in 2022? with Grigory Vaypan, Kirill Koroteev, Denis Shedov, Jeffrey Kahn and William Pomeranz was held on 22nd December 2022.

Watch the seminar here: https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/ae22b809-49dc-4c74-ae74-f7a76c0d08f1

The original description of the event:

The year 2022 has provided many challenges for Russian Law, many of which deal with Russian aggression against Ukraine. In this Talk, our guests who are lawyers, advocates and researchers talk about results and further perspectives of legal development for Russia.

Speakers: 

Grigory Vaypan
Independent Russian Human Rights Lawyer & Scholar

Peter H. Solomon, University of Toronto
Professor Emeritus

Kirill Koroteev
Head of International Practice at Agora International Human Rights Group

Denis Shedov
Russian Human Rights Lawyer and Analyst at OVD-INFO

Jeffrey Kahn, SMU, Dedham School of Law
Professor

William Pomeranz, The Wilson Center
Director of Kennan Institute

Post-Soviet Legal Choices 4: What Happened in Russian Law in 2022?

22 December 2022

Time: 10 am (Washington time)/17 (Helsinki time)
Via Zoom

Registration:

Please register for the event via this form: https://forms.gle/HYzSNDJxUBfZAsAy5. Please register no later than December 21st! 

Event Description: 

The year 2022 has provided many challenges for Russian Law, many of which deal with Russian aggression against Ukraine. In this Talk, our guests who are lawyers, advocates and researchers talk about results and further perspectives of legal development for Russia.

Speakers: 

Grigory Vaypan
Independent Russian Human Rights Lawyer & Scholar

Peter H. Solomon, University of Toronto
Professor Emeritus

Kirill Koroteev
Head of International Practice at Agora International Human Rights Group

Denis Shedov
Russian Human Rights Lawyer and Analyst at OVD-INFO

Mari Davtyan
Head of the Center for Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence

Jeffrey Kahn, SMU, Dedham School of Law
Professor

William Pomeranz, The Wilson Center
Director of Kennan Institute

Post-Soviet Legal Choices 3 Recording Available!

The seminar: Post-Soviet Legal Choices 3-Penal Policies in Post-Soviet Spaces: Contemporary GULAG with a Human Face? with Dr. Alexei Trochev, Anna Markina, Gavin Slade and Mykhailo Romanov was held on 19th October 2022.

Watch the seminar here: https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/874d680d-f272-4ef7-b4ea-ac8e5f9b4791

The original description of the event:

The disintegration of the USSR opened a new chapter in the penal histories of the former Soviet republics, which had all been constituent parts of the penal monolith built by Stalin and perpetuated by his successors.  Since 1991 the successor states have had the opportunity to reform their penal systems; in some cases this has been done within the framework of membership of the Council of Europe whilst others have pursued their own paths hanging on to a greater or lesser degree to legacies from the past.  In this episode of Post-Soviet Legal Choices four experts with knowledge of developments in Moldova, Ukraine, Estonia and Kazakhstan, will discuss the legal responses to the crises that afflicted prison systems in the 1990s and to the opportunities since then, to modernize their systems of penality in the peripheries of the former Soviet Union. This discussion will take place against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine which countless examples of the violation of international norms for the treatment of prisoner in Russia has seen how fragile have been the changes introduced into that country’ system of penality, notwithstanding more than two decades of membership of the Council of Europe. The question we will be asking for the other successor states sufficient to overcome the legacies of the punitive penal culture inherited from the USSR.

Speakers: 

Dr. Alexei Trochev, Nazarbayev University 
Department Chair/Associate

Anna Markina, Tartu University  
Researcher

Gavin Slade, Nazarbayev University  
Associate Professor of Sociology

Mykhailo Romanov, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University
Associate Professor

Post-Soviet Legal Choices 3: Penal Policies in Post-Soviet Spaces: Contemporary GULAG with a Human Face?

19 October 2022
Time: 16:00-17:30 (Helsinki time)
Via Zoom

Registration:

Please register for the event via this form: https://forms.gle/topQ91mdmvNNPPfX6

Event Description: 

The disintegration of the USSR opened a new chapter in the penal histories of the former Soviet republics, which had all been constituent parts of the penal monolith built by Stalin and perpetuated by his successors.  Since 1991 the successor states have had the opportunity to reform their penal systems; in some cases this has been done within the framework of membership of the Council of Europe whilst others have pursued their own paths hanging on to a greater or lesser degree to legacies from the past.  In this episode of Post-Soviet Legal Choices four experts with knowledge of developments in Moldova, Ukraine, Estonia and Kazakhstan, will discuss the legal responses to the crises that afflicted prison systems in the 1990s and to the opportunities since then, to modernize their systems of penality in the peripheries of the former Soviet Union. This discussion will take place against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine which countless examples of the violation of international norms for the treatment of prisoner in Russia has seen how fragile have been the changes introduced into that country’ system of penality, notwithstanding more than two decades of membership of the Council of Europe. The question we will be asking for the other successor states sufficient to overcome the legacies of the punitive penal culture inherited from the USSR.

Speakers: 

Dr. Alexei Trochev, Nazarbayev University 
Department Chair/Associate

Anna Markina, Tartu University  
Researcher

Gavin Slade, Nazarbayev University  
Associate Professor of Sociology

Mykhailo Romanov, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University
Associate Professor

Post-Soviet Legal Choices 2 Recording Available!

The seminar: Post-Soviet Legal Choices 2- Post-Soviet Choices for Women and LGBTQI+ People: Human Rights (Un)Challenged with Maryna Shevtsova, Laura Luciani, and Radzhana Buyantueva was held on 5th October 2022.

Watch the seminar here: https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/1ed5b70f-584f-42f9-81b1-7988e8357940

The original description of the event:

Legal Choices for Women and LGBTQI+ people have been difficult in the post-Soviet period. After the dissolution of the USSR, gender equality project was also dismantled while human rights of LGBTQI+ people were not even on the agenda. Re-traditionalisation provided a framework for the governments to argue cultural angle on human rights. The debate became especially visible when the Istanbul Convention was released for signing and ratification in 2014. The Talk focuses on the cultural sovereignty debate around Istanbul Convention, EU gender equality strategies and responses from activists, NGOs, conservative organisations and governments in South Caucasus, Ukraine, and Russia in the past decade.

Speakers: 

Maryna Shevtsova , University of Ljubljana
Visiting Professor and EUTOPIA Postdoctoral Fellow

Laura Luciani, Ghent University 
PhD Fellow at the Institute for International and European Studies

Radzhana Buyantueva, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB-CEVIPOL)
Postdoctoral researcher of the Fonds national de la Recherche Scientifique

Post-Soviet Legal Choices 2: Post-Soviet Choices for Women and LGBTQI+ People: Human Rights (Un)Challenged

05 October 2022
Time: 16:00-17:30 (Helsinki time)
Via Zoom

Registration:

Please register for the event via this form: https://forms.gle/vhYDYnCR7yRHojUv7

Event Description: 

Legal Choices for Women and LGBTQI+ people have been difficult in the post-Soviet period. After the dissolution of the USSR, gender equality project was also dismantled while human rights of LGBTQI+ people were not even on the agenda. Re-traditionalisation provided a framework for the governments to argue cultural angle on human rights. The debate became especially visible when the Istanbul Convention was released for signing and ratification in 2014. The Talk focuses on the cultural sovereignty debate around Istanbul Convention, EU gender equality strategies and responses from activists, NGOs, conservative organisations and governments in South Caucasus, Ukraine, and Russia in the past decade.

Speakers: 

Maryna Shevtsova , University of Ljubljana
Visiting Professor and EUTOPIA Postdoctoral Fellow

Laura Luciani, Ghent University 
PhD Fellow at the Institute for International and European Studies

Radzhana Buyantueva, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB-CEVIPOL)
Postdoctoral researcher of the Fonds national de la Recherche Scientifique

Post-Soviet Legal Choices 1 Recording now available!

The seminar ‘Post Soviet Legal Choices Talk 1-Introduction to Post-Soviet Legal Choices What Have We Learned in the Past 30 Years?’ with Dr. Alexei Trochev, Irene Kull and William Pomeranz was held on the 21st of September 2022.

Watch the seminar here: https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/f66b7e0a-c8e2-45f4-899d-9caad171e9cf

The original description of the event:

Putin’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine has made us all re-think the role of our scholarship and research in current events as well as to reflect on what topics, issues and themes have been overlooked or marginalized. Post-Soviet Legal Choices Talks is a new series of Talks, in which the main focus is on post-soviet legal developments in the former USSR republics- now independent states. In this inaugural talk we will be discussing legal transformations of the past 30 years in both public and private law as well as how legal tradition and history were revived, receipted, and used as a foundation for new legal order.

Speakers:

Dr. Alexei Trochev, Nazarbayev University 
Department Chair/Associate Professor

Irene Kull, Tartu University  
Professor

William Pomeranz, The Wilson Center  
Director of the Kennan Institute