Seminar Programme

Plurality at Last? Legal Internationalism beyond Eurocentrism and Patriarchy                     

22 -26 August 2022

P674, Porthania building (Yliopistonkatu 3, University of Helsinki, Finland)

Monday, 22 August
10:00 – 10:30 Registration at P674, Porthania building (6th floor)
10:30 – 10:45 Welcome & Introduction
Immi Tallgren (University of Helsinki) & Kaius Tuori (University of Helsinki)
10.45 – 12:15 Lecture: The Power of Legal Imagination: From Europe to the World
Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki)
12:15 – 13.30 Lunch break
13.30 – 15:00 Lecture: Re-thinking ‘Race’ and International Law
Christopher Gevers (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
15:00 – 15:15 Break
15:15 – 17:00 Workshop: Re-thinking ‘Race’ and International Law
Christopher Gevers and Immi Tallgren
17:00 Welcome reception
Hosted by the Dean of the Faculty of Law
 
Tuesday, 23 August  
10:00 – 11:00 Lecture: Reparations for Slavery and Colonialism: Material or Immaterial Justice?
Parvathi Menon (University of Helsinki)
11:00-11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:15 Continued: Reparations for Slavery and Colonialism: Material or Immaterial Justice?
Parvathi Menon (University of Helsinki)
12:15 – 13:45 Lunch break
13:45 – 14:45 Lecture: Refugee scholarship and the Transformation of the Concept of Justice
Kaius Tuori (University of Helsinki)
14:45 – 15:00 Break
15:00 – 16:30 Group work: Transformation of the Concept of Justice in International Law
Kaius Tuori (University of Helsinki) & Pamela Slotte (Åbo Akademi/University of Helsinki)
17:00 Social Programme: Trip to Suomenlinna Island
 
Wednesday, 24 August  
10:00 – 12:00 Panel: Portraits of ‘Women’ in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces?
Hilary Charlesworth (International Court of Justice), Christopher Gevers (UKZN School of Law), Miriam Bak McKenna (Roskilde University), Parvathi Menon (University of Helsinki), Ksenia Shestakova (St Petersburg University), Immi Tallgren (University of Helsinki),
12:00 – 13.30 Lunch break
13:30 – 15:00 Lecture: Feminist Approaches to International Law
Sari Kouvo (European External Action Service & University of Gothenburg)
15:00 – 15:30 Break
15:30 – 17:00 Lecture: Gender-based Violence and International Law
Johanna Niemi, University of Helsinki, Dean of the Faculty of Law
17:00 Social Programme: Drinks
Thursday, 25 August
09:30 – 12:30 Panel: Plurality in Institutional Practice of Legal InternationalismLeena Avonius (Human Resources Specialist, Crisis Management Centre), Sari Kouvo (European External Action Service), Ambassador Marja Lehto (International Law Commission member, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Finland), Christopher Gevers (University of KwaZulu-Natal), Immi Tallgren (University of Helsinki)

The panel discussion will take place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A light lunch will be served after the panel discussion.

13:00 – 14:15 Panel: Migration, Whiteness and Eastern EuropeDaria Krivonos (University of Helsinki), Kolar Aparna (University of Helsinki), Jukka Könönen (University of Helsinki) & Magdalena Kmak (Åbo Akademi)
14:15 – 14:30
Break
14:30 – 15:30 Lecture: Law, Migration and Human MobilityMagdalena Kmak (Åbo Akademi)
15:30 – 15:45 Break
15:45 – 17:00 Workshop: Law, Mobility and RacialisationMagdalena Kmak (Åbo Akademi) & Reetta Toivanen (University of Helsinki)
Friday, 26 August
10:00 – 12:00 Lecture: Eastern Europe and Legal Internationalism
Lauri Mälksoo (University of Tartu)
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch break
13:30 – 15:00 Lecture & Workshop: Plurality and Current Affairs in Legal Internationalism – Indigenous Perspectives
Reetta Toivanen (University of Helsinki)
15:00 – 16:00 Wrap-up
Martti Koskenniemi, Reetta Toivanen & Immi Tallgren (University of Helsinki)

Lectures and panels (excluding the Thursday morning panel at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) will be only streamed live and are not recorded. Note that workshops and group work sessions are not streamed or recorded.

The programme is subject to changes.

 

About the Helsinki Summer Seminar 2022 speakers

 

Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki)

Martti Koskenniemi is a Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights. He is well known for his critical approach to international law. His research concerns international law, and international legal history, state succession human rights, and the fragmentation of international law.

Christopher Gevers (University of KwaZulu-Natal)

Christopher teaches international law, Jurisprudence/legal theory and Foundations of Law in the School of Law. His research focuses on Pan-Africanism, International law & ‘decolonisation’, Third World Approaches to International Law, Critical Race Theory, and Law & Literature.

Parvathi Menon (University of Helsinki)

Parvathi Menon is a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki. Her research concerns the history of governance, slavery, colonialism, international adjudication, and minority peoples.

Kaius Tuori (University of Helsinki)

Kaius Tuori is a professor of European intellectual history at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki. He is also Director of the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence for Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie.org). His research focusses on the history of diplomacy, human rights, conflict, identity and memory, historical narratives, Roman law, and ancient cultures.

Pamela Slotte (University of Helsinki/Åbo Akademi)

Pamela Slotte is a Professor of Religion and Law at the Åbo Academy. She is also the Vice-director of the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (eurostorie.org) at the Centre for European Studies, Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki. Her research publications relate to the field of systematic theology, history of ideas, political theology, and the field of law & religion.

Hilary Charlesworth (ICJ)

Hilary Charlesworth is an international lawyer, Judge of the ICJ, and a Professor of Law at the Melbourne Law School and the Australian National University. Her research includes the structure of the international legal system, peacebuilding, human rights law and international humanitarian law, international legal theory, particularly feminist approaches to international law, and the art of international law.

Miriam Bak McKenna (Roskilde University)

Miriam Bak McKenna is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Sciences and Business at the Centre for Gender, Power, and Diversity at Roskilde University. Her research has predominantly focusses on the theory and history of international law. Her research draws in particular on feminist, decolonial, and critical political economy analysis.

Sari Kouvo (European External Action Service & University of Gothenburg)

Sari Kouvo is an Associate Professor in international law and a lectureship in legal theory at Gothenburg University. She has published extensively on Afghanistan, European Union, international law, especially human rights, humanitarian law and international criminal law, and gender-related subjects.

Johanna Niemi (Dean of the Faculty of Law, UH)

Johanna Niemi is the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki. In her research, Niemi has focused particularly on regulation pertaining to over-indebtedness, criminal procedure and gendered violence, always underlining the perspective of people’s rights.

Leena Avonius (Human Resources Specialist, Crisis Management Centre)

Leena Avonius is a Human Resources Specialist at the CMC. She has also worked as an OSCE Gender Adviser and as part of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. Her specialties lies in anthropology, human rights, gender, Southeast Asia, OSCE region, peace and conflict studies.

Ambassador Marja Lehto (International Law Commission member, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Finland)

Ambassador Marja Lehto is Senior expert at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and Adjunct Professor of international law at the University of Helsinki. She is a member of the UN International Law Commission and Special Rapporteur for the topic ‘Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts’.

Daria Krivonos (University of Helsinki)

Daria Krivonos is a doctoral researcher at the Department of at the Cultures Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives. Her research concerns the interconnections of race, class, and gender in the context of East-West and post-Soviet migration.

Kolar Aparna (University of Helsinki)

Kolar Aparna is a postdoctoral research at the Department of Cultures at the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives. Her research concerns borders, displacement, and mobilities in imperial, colonial, and settler spaces.

Jukka Könönen (University of Helsinki)

Jukka Könönen is a researcher at the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy. His research concerns immigration detention, irregular migration, deportation apparati, and border policing.

Magdalena Kmak (Åbo Akademi)

Magdalena Kmak is Professor of Public International Law at the Åbo Akademi, with a specialisation in migration and minority research. Her current research focuses on the multifaceted relationship between law and mobility, in particular in the context of global migration and minority regimes.

Lauri Mälksoo (University of Tartu)

Lauri Mälksoo is a Professor of International Law at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and a Member of the Institut de Droit International. His research concerns Russian perspectives on international law and human rights as well as its relation with European law.

Ksenia Shestakova (St Petersburg University)

Ksenia Shestakova is a docent and researcher at St Petersburg University. She is an academic director of the Master’s Program in Public International Law at St Petersburg University. Her current research focuses on history of international law and feminist approaches to international law; her past research included cultural heritage and space law projects.

Reetta Toivanen (University of Helsinki)

Reetta Toivanen is a Professor at the University of Helsinki, a Docent at the Faculty of Social Sciences, and vice director of the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives. Her research concerns indigenous peoples, legal anthropology, the Artic, human rights, European narratives, critical feminism, European minorities, and international terrorism.

Immi Tallgren (University of Helsinki)

Immi Tallgren is a researcher and docent at the Faculty of Law. Her research focuses on the history of international law, women in international law, critical feminism, the ICC, and visuality and power.