The 11th Annual Cape Town Convention Academic Project Conference took place at Robinson College, University of Cambridge, and on Zoom on 13-14 September 2022. The Conference was organised by the Cape Town Convention Academic Project, which a partnership between UNIDROIT and the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, under the auspices of the Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law (3CL). The Aviation Working Group is the founding sponsor of the project.
The Conference had 138 registered participants, 82 of which attended in person, with the rest participating via Zoom. The year, the focus was on Public International Law and the Cape Town Convention. The first day Keynote Address by Professor Philippa Webb (King’s College London), which was followed by a presentation from Jessica Gladstone (Clifford Chance) on the ‘Application of public international law concepts to actions taken in Russia which have an impact on CTC obligations’.
This was followed by an examination of ‘The Impact of the CTC in a post-pandemic world’ by the Secretary-General of UNIDROIT, Professor Ignacio Tirado. Thereafter, Professor Louise Gullifer and Dr Anton Didenko welcomed input from the attendees on areas of possible future research relating to the CTC which could be conducted under the auspices of the Academic Project.
Day 1 also featured a discussion on ‘Public and private aviation treaties: CTC and the Chicago Convention’, with a presentation from Professor Donal Hanley (McGill University), and comments from Professor Pablo Mendes de Leon (The Hague). The day was concluded with a reception and a dinner at the Gonville and Caius College of the University of Cambridge.
Day 2 of the Conference was started with a presentation on ‘Sanctions and the CTC: the relationship between sanctions and treaty obligations affected by sanctions’ by Professor Antonios Tzanakopoulos (University of Oxford), with comments from Paul Ng (Milbank, Singapore). This was followed by a presentation on ‘Private actor recourse against states in respect of treaty violations’ by Professor Andrew Sanger (University of Cambridge), and comments from Professor Jeffrey Wool (AWG, Harris Manchester College, Oxford).
Following this, day 2 of the Conference included a remarks by Harold Burman (retired, attorney Office of Legal Advisor, Department of State, Washington DC; previously Executive Director Advisory Committee on Private International Law) on ‘State-to-state diplomatic practice on treaty compliance and impact on CTC obligations’, and a presentation on ‘The internationality of property interests: what can the we learn in the CTC context from the intellectual property experience?’ by Professor Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan (University of Cambridge), and comments from Professor Louise Gullifer (University of Cambridge).
The Conference was concluded by a presentation on ‘Public international law and institutional items: case study on supervisory authority role in CTC’ by Professor Orfeas Chasapis-Tassinis (University of Cambridge), with comments from Professor Ignacio Tirado (UNIDROIT).
The Programme for the event can be found here. Registered participants can access all the Conference material at: https://ctcap.org/11th-cape-town-convention-academic-project-conference-participants-panel/. Learn more about the Cape Town Convention Academic Project and its activities at: www.ctcap.org.