International Law Day

On June 26, 2020, the International and Comparative Law Research Center conducted the traditional International Law Day. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held online and was broadcast on the Center’s, and also its partner, LF Academy’s, websites, and was watched by more than 250 viewers from 14 countries.

In her welcome speech to the audience and participants of the event, the Center’s General Director, Victoria Manko, told about some of the results of the Center’s work over the past year, new projects and initiatives.

The Special Guest of the event, Sergey Punzhin, Principal Legal Secretary, Head of the Department of Legal Matters of the International Court of Justice, member of the International Law in the XXI Century Award Council, delivered a lecture on the topic “Is the Patient Alive or Dead: What does the Practice of the International Court of Justice Indicate”.

Sergey Punzhin started with a historical overview of the International Court of Justice’s work and noted that, in recent decades, there had been a sharp increase in demand for it: there are 15-17 cases constantly on the docket of the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

In the opinion of Sergey Punzhin, who cited the relevant examples, the implementation of decisions of the International Court of Justice deserves a positive assessment. Besides, he talked about provisional measures as an effective tool for protecting the interests of the Parties to the disputes brought before the International Court of Justice. States with increasing frequency request provisional measures: over half of such requests have been made since 2000. In most cases, provisional measures indicated by the Court are complied with.

While addressing the efficiency of international law in general, Sergey Punzhin noted that "the world legal order is determined not by the occurrence of violations, but by the ability of international law to define the framework for the conduct of States". Sergey Punzhin also answered questions from the audience.

The Center is grateful to Sergey Punzhin for the participation in the International Law Day and for the lecture that sparked a notable interest.

During the second part of the event, the results of the VI annual competition for the International Law in the XXI Century Award for the best long paper on public international law were announced.

The Chairman of the VI competition, Head of the Department of International Law, Academic Director of the Research Institute, Kutafin Moscow State Law University, Natalia Sokolova, and member of the Council of the Award, President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Ivana Hrdličková, shared their impressions about the contest and wishes to future contestants.

Vladimir Trofimchuk with the paper on "Manus manum lavat: can corruption be considered a state-imposed trade barrier?" has become the winner of the VI competition. He thanked the Award Council and the Center, and told about the reasons that prompted him to take part in the competition. Besides, essays by Alexey Ryaguzov, "On the commercial development of space resources", and Irina Artamonova, "Differentiation of indirect expropriation and tax measures in the practice of international investment arbitration", were highly commended by the Award Council and also recommended for publication. We once again congratulate the winner and the authors of the highly commended papers.

The International and Comparative Law Research Center thanks all participants and viewers of the International Law Day, the Award Council and the Board of Trustees, and invites all those interested in international law to participate in our events, use the resources of the Center's Library, and those complying with the competition criteria to submit papers to the VII competition for the International Law in the XXI Century Award, the launch of which will be announced very soon on the Center's website.