Dr Alexander Orakhelashvili presents two papers in Paris

Birmingham Law School's Dr Orakhelashvili recently presented papers at two high-level academic conferences in Paris. 

The first paper was on "State Practice, Treaty Practice and State Immunity," and was delivered at the From Fragmentation to Convergence conference, organised by the Centre Franco Norvegien en Sciences Sociales et Humaines in Paris, 31 January – 1 February 2013. Dr Orakhelashvili’s paper concentrated on the issue of the sufficiency of State practice to justify the approach to immunities as was recently done by the International Court of Justice in Germany v Italy. The conference was chaired and moderated by HE Judge Ronny Abraham of the International Court of Justice. Other participants included Professors H Ruiz-Fabri (Paris), M Andenas (Oslo), R Kolb (Geneva) and P Tavernier (Paris).

The second paper was "Sanctions and Fundamental Rights of States," presented at the interdisciplinary conference on Embargos and Sanctions: between Legality and Reality, organised at the Faculte Libre de Droit de Paris (6eme), Paris, 1 February 2013. This  paper concentrated on the impact of sanctions on the rights of target States and their population, especially in the context of the difference between countermeasures under the law of State responsibility and sanctions as collective security measures in the context of EU sanctions against Iran and Syria. The co-panellists included the former UNSG HE B Boutros-Ghali and the former foreign minister of France HE Roland Dumas.