On May 24th – 25th 2019, the TRICI-Law project hosted their first conference on ‘The Theory and Philosophy of Customary International Law and its Interpretation’ featuring over 40 presenters and a keynote address from His Excellency Judge Raul Pangalangan of the International Criminal Court .
With over 100 attendees, this inaugural conference was a roaring success. TRICI-Law’s mission is embodied by its acronym: ‘The Rules of Interpretation of Customary International Law’. Seeking to demonstrate that interpretation plays a pivotal role in the content-determination of the rules of customary international law as it does with any other legal rule. Thus, this first conference, co-organized with the ESIL IGILTP, sought to lay the foundation for dialogues on the various facets of interpreting customary international law.
The conference was superbly opened with an intriguing opening keynote address from H.E. Judge Pangalangan, ‘On Reading the Unwritten: Constraints on Codified Rules and the Enduring Power of Custom.’ Additionally, there were nine themed panels during the event, with topics such as ‘The Relevance of Hermeneutics and Interpretation in CIL’, ‘Actor Variety in the Content-Determination of CIL’, ‘Domestic Courts Lessons on the Theory and Interpretation of CIL’ and the ‘Ontological Critiques of CIL’, which helped cement the critical and collaborative tone of the conference.
In an exciting development, the TRICI-Law project is thrilled to announce the official launch of their podcast and research paper series in the coming weeks. In addition to their video series, podcast content will include the presentations from current, and future, conferences, in addition to other special featurettes relating to TRICI-Law’s research.
The booklet of the conference can be found here.
TRICI-Law - The Rules of Interpretation of Customary International Law 