On Wednesday, 26 April 2023, Rethinking SLIC* team members Jindan-Karena (‘Nina’) Mann and Nicky Touw presented at a symposium on ‘Colonisation in, of and through Business & Human Rights’ which was organised by the University of Tilburg & Working Group on Business and Human Rights of the Netherlands Network of Human Rights Research (NNHRR) and hosted at Tilburg University.
On 17 April 2023, Rethinking SLIC* member Marc Tiernan gave a talk at UCLA Law School titled "The People v. AI". The event was hosted by the UCLA Promise Institute, moderated by Jessica Peake, and co-sponsored by UCLA Law's International and Comparative Law Program, Institute for Technology, Law and Policy, and Visiting Scholars, Jurists, and Researchers Program.
Marina Aksenova and SLIC* member Tom Hamilton published an article, originally released on Opino Juris, in Nexos titled "Mexico's Civil Litigation against US Gun Manufacturers and Dealers for Cartel Violence: Developing a Standard of Corporate Complicity in Gross Human Rights Violations" which is translated and available in Spanish. It is available at: https://eljuegodelacorte.nexos.com.mx/la-demanda-de-mexico-contra-fabricantes-y-vendedores-de-armas-en-ee-uu-y-el-estandar-de-complicidad-empresarial-por-violaciones-graves-a-los-derechos-humanos/
On 11 January 2023, the English Language Based Master of Law (ELBML) Program of the Royal University of Law and Economics successfully organised a webinar on "Rethinking Corporate Accountability in the Arms Trade: Criminal and Civil Liability Perspectives” in collaboration with Rethinking SLIC* and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (WRI). The engaging discussion, spearheaded by Socheata SAO, director of ELBML, in Phnom Penh received wonderful attendance and participation.
On 7 November 2022, the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, UC Berkeley, hosted an event where Rethinking SLIC* member Tom Hamilton shared his insights and research on Arms Trade and International Criminal Law.
Tom, in his research, focused on how the prioritisation of military and political actors in international prosecutions have adversely drawn away from the significant role of business entities in atrocities and violations of human rights.
Moderated by Professor Saira Mohamed of Berkeley Law, and organised by Professor Christopher Kutz with Professor Mohamed, the event was met with a wonderful turnout of over fifty members of faculty and students.
Check out this exciting post-doctoral opportunity to join our team at the University of Amsterdam on a leading international research project, looking at criminal complicity, secondary civil liability and state responsibility for atrocity crimes and serious human rights abuses: https://vacatures.uva.nl/job-invite/10622/.
On 16 and 17 June 2022, the second Rethinking SLIC* Expert Group Meeting will take place in Amsterdam.
This meeting presents an opportunity for the experts to share the progress of the different working groups on the evaluative framework of the Rethinking SLIC* project, and to discuss the Principles of Secondary Liability emerging from our research.
After the interruptions of the last two years, we are happy to be able to reconvene the project community in Amsterdam.
Recent attention on how business activities impact human rights has resulted in the emergence of new legal norms, including mandatory human rights due diligence obligations. The most recent example is the Sustainability Directive proposal by the European Commission. Much remains uncertain about the impact of these new laws and regulations, but ultimately, the way that business is done is changing. Please join us for an in-person conversation on how corporations and their advisors are adjusting their practices in anticipation of emerging business and human rights initiatives.
On Thursday 14 April, Principal Investigator of the Rethinking SLIC project Göran Sluiter will present his paper "Police Bystander Liability: A Comparative Approach" at William & Mary Law School.
For more information, see: https://events.wm.edu/event/view/law/129279
Last week, Rethinking SLIC* published Göran Sluiter's blog post on the secondary liability of social media platforms in relation to 'image-based sexual abuse' (I-BSA, also known as 'revenge pornography'). The blog has prompted Dutch Member of Parliament Michiel van Nispen of opposition party SP to submit written questions on the matter to Minister of Justice Grapperhaus.
The definition of ecocide proposed by the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide lies at the centre of the current debate surrounding ecocide as an international crime. Rethinking SLIC* is very fortunate to welcome Kate Mackintosh, one of the driving forces behind the ecocide definition and a leading member of the Panel, to speak and update us on recent developments. She will be joined by researchers from the University of Amsterdam who will shed their light on some issues surrounding the definition.
This will be a hybrid event. Register here to participate via Zoom.
The regulation of multinational corporations, especially in situations of negative impact, poses challenging questions. This conference, organised by the Open Universiteit, will address these questions from a Dutch and comparative perspective. Current developments show a transformation of voluntary and sector driven guidelines into legally binding CSR obligations that have extraterritorial application. What will this mean for corporations and the people impacted by their conduct?
