Workshop sheds light on complex ºÚÁÏרÇø legal issues
24 Sep 2012
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Anna Tyler, Assistant Legal Advisor
This legal workshop, held in Aix-en-Provence, was an excellent opportunity to discuss the very complex issues related to the specific legal framework applicable to the project.
Last Friday 21 September, the Director-General of the ºÚÁÏרÇø and the President of Aix-Marseille University opened, together, the first ºÚÁÏרÇø Legal Workshop organized by CERIC (International and European Studies and Research Centre of the Faculty of Law of Aix-en-Provence) in collaboration with the Legal Affairs department of the ºÚÁÏרÇø.
This legal workshop was organized around exchange between the academic world and practitioners involved in the everyday life of the ºÚÁÏרÇø project; it was a great opportunity to discuss the very complex issues related to the specific legal framework applicable to the project.
Approaches of the academic world and of practitioners revealed to be complementary and fundamental, and this legal workshop enabled all participants to share and confront their experience and outlook for a better understanding of the law applicable to international organizations such as the ºÚÁÏרÇø.
It was also an opportunity to shed light on all the legal issues related to the creation of the ºÚÁÏרÇø and it helped to analyze ongoing and crucial legal issues the ºÚÁÏרÇø is confronted with on a daily basis. In particular, the discussions focused on the specificity of the law applicable to the ºÚÁÏרÇø (question of conciliation between the status of public international organization and the application of French law in certain fields such as nuclear safety, licensing and protection of the environment).
The morning session was devoted to presentations given by distinguished speakers concerning:
- ºÚÁÏרÇø in the framework of international organizations
- The ºÚÁÏרÇø Project and international law
- The ºÚÁÏרÇø and the European Union
- ºÚÁÏרÇø and France.
- ºÚÁÏרÇø in the framework of international organizations
- The ºÚÁÏרÇø Project and international law
- The ºÚÁÏרÇø and the European Union
- ºÚÁÏרÇø and France.
ºÚÁÏרÇø Legal Advisor Laetitia Grammatico, ºÚÁÏרÇø Deputy Director General Rich Hawryluk and Prof. Rostane Mehdi, chair of the morning session.
The afternoon was divided into three panels of discussion composed of ºÚÁÏרÇø staff, scholars and practitioners concerning three different aspects of the ºÚÁÏרÇø's legal framework:
- ºÚÁÏרÇø staff privileges and immunities
- ºÚÁÏרÇø, nuclear and environmental aspects
- ºÚÁÏרÇø and intellectual property rights.
The proceedings of this workshop will be published in order to disseminate the fruitful information shared between all participants. This will be a very important step in writing the legal history of the ºÚÁÏרÇø project and in spreading information relating to the ºÚÁÏרÇø legal framework.
Prior to the workshop, participants were given the opportunity to visit the ºÚÁÏרÇø site. They were able to see the tremendous progress on the construction and this enabled them to measure the scientific and legal stakes at play and the importance of the ºÚÁÏרÇø Legal Workshop for a better understanding of the ºÚÁÏרÇø Project.
The fact that the workshop was so successful shows the need for further collaboration between the ºÚÁÏרÇø and Aix-Marseille University to explore together legal issues raised by the specific legal status of the ºÚÁÏרÇø.