Celebrating the scholarship of Professor Guy S Goodwin-Gill

On 14 and 15 April 2016, the Kaldor Centre was proud to co-host a symposium at All Souls College, Oxford to celebrate the scholarship of Professor Guy S Goodwin-Gill.  Professor Goodwin-Gill is a member of the Kaldor Centre’s Advisory Committee, Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, and Emeritus Professor of International Refugee Law at Oxford University. He has been an intellectual pioneer in identifying, mapping and shaping the sub-discipline of international refugee law.  

The symposium brought together leading international refugee law scholars and practitioners. Speakers included UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, who reflected on the influence of Professor Goodwin-Gill’s work in academia, at the bar, and formerly at UNHCR.  Over the course of his career, Professor Goodwin-Gill has shaped a field of scholarship and helped to create a global community of scholars, well integrated with the legion of refugee law practitioners.  

Scientia Professor Jane McAdam, the Director of the Kaldor Centre, said that the event was ‘a fitting tribute to an inspirational and influential scholar.’  Attended by senior academics, UN officials, colleagues, and almost all of his former doctoral students from around the world, the event ‘showed the high esteem in which Professor Goodwin-Gill is held, both as a scholar and a person.’ 

Although the symposium formally marked Professor Goodwin-Gill’s retirement, his work continues with unabated energy and focus – not least on account of the need for his reasoned, informed interventions in current global discussions on refugees.

The symposium was jointly hosted with Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, the Department of International Development, the Law Faculty, All Souls College, and the International Journal of Refugee Law.

 Audio from the event is available below or as a podcast on iTunes. The written papers will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Refugee Law in December 2016, of which Professor McAdam is the Editor-in-Chief.

Thursday 14 April 2016 - Reflections, Experiences, and Contemporary Challenges: Contributions from Professor Guy S Goodwin-Gill’s (Former) Doctoral Students

Welcome – Dr. Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler

Migration and protection
Chair: Dr Violeta Moreno-Lax (QMUL)

• Dr Maria Amor Estebanez (EU Agency for Fundamental Rights): International Protection and Asylum for LGBTI People and their Family Members in the EU, an analysis of the legal situation
• Dr Agnes Hurwitz: If not now when? The global refugee crisis and international policy making
• Dr Pia Oberoi (OHCHR): The challenge of protecting migrants
  
• Ms Marina Sharpe (Oxford): The relationship between the 1951 Convention and the 1969 African Refugee Convention
  
• Dr Siobhan Wills (Ulster) greetings (speaking remotely) 

International criminal law, security, and terrorism
Chair: Prof Dapo Akande (Oxford)

• Dr Emma Collins (3 Raymond Buildings): ICC Admissibility in Practice: The Gaddafi and Al-Senussi cases
• Dr Brid Ni Ghrainne (Sheffield):  International Law and Migration by the Andaman Sea
  
• Prof Ben Saul (Sydney):  GGG on "legislative zealots" and "inconvenient facts" 
  
• Dr Hannah Tonkin (OCHA): Private military and security companies
  
• Dr Robert Wagstaff (litigator): Terror detentions and the rule of law: US and UK perspectives (possibly speaking remotely)

International institutions, development, and democratic participation
Chair: Prof Katja Ziegler (Leicester)

• Dr Natasha Balendra (Chairperson, National Child Protection Authority, Sri Lanka): The interaction between HRL and IHL in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American system
• Dr Michael Boda (Chief Electoral Officer, Saskatchewan): The role of institutions in facilitating electoral participation (speaking remotely)
• Carla Ferstman (Director, Redress): Accountability for peacekeeping violations: roles, responsibilities, and major gaps 
  
• Dr Anna Russell (Oxford): Strengthening the Rule of Law in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: The Role of the International Legal Community
• Dr Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler (Reading): The right to vote: Are international standards achievable or desirable?  
  

Friday 15 April 2016 - An International Gathering

Welcome     Professor Jane McAdam

Panel 1 - Chair: Professor Matthew Gibney

• Professor Jane McAdam  GSGG: The international refugee law scholar
• Jean-François Durieux  The duty to rescue refugees 
  
• Professor Hélène Lambert  Temporary refuge from war: customary international law and the Syria crisis
  

Panel 2 - Chair: Dallal Stevens

• Professor Walter Kälin Reshaping humanitarian action in times of unprecedented displacement crises: the relevance of the World Humanitarian Summit
• Volker Türk A global compact on equitable burden- and responsibility-sharing
  

Panel 3 - Chair: Alexander Betts

• Professor Geoff Gilbert UNHCR and courts
• Professor Michelle Foster Statelessness as a human rights issue: a concept whose time has come?
  
• Raza Husain QC Article 1F(b) and expiation: reflections on Febles

Panel 4 - Chair: Madeline Garlick

• Professor Elspeth Guild Does the EU need a European Migration and Protection Agency?
• Professor Cathryn Costello Safe country? Says who?
  
• Professor Guy S Goodwin-Gill Reflections, responses, and ruminations
  

Photo Credit: Keith Barnes