As we turn the page on 2015, the Peace Palace Library looks back on the most notable international law news and Peace Palace Library events. A lot can happen in 12 months. A look back on international news over 2015, unfortunately opened with the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris and closed the year with the terrible terror attacks in Paris. We had the war in Syria, Europe's refugee crisis, South Africa threatened to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, while one of its greatest sporting stars Oscar Pistorius was convicted of murder.
In sports we had the FIFA/UEFA corruption case. But there were also achievements and milestones. The United States reopened relations with Cuba, gay rights activists celebrated around the world, as the US Supreme Court extended marriage equality to all 50 states, just after it had ensured the survival of Obamacare. Bosnian courts issued a landmark ruling, granting the first ever compensation to a wartime rape victim during the 1990s conflict, while Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing the Russian constitutional court to give the country’s constitution priority over international human rights rulings. And last but not least there were the Climate Talks. World leaders came together in Paris where a historic long-term global and sustainable agreement was adopted. 195 countries agreed to reduce their carbon output and do their best to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. Did you know that the Peace Palace Library had a Library Special on this event on the website called the Paris Global Climate Agreement?
Most of these important news, events and more were selected by the Peace Palace Library staff and brought to you via our news service “International law news”. During this year we enhanced our news service. The news service is now automatically updated and can show you 64 articles. If you’re interested in a specific topic, you can even search within this batch of articles.
Events and Lectures
The Peace Palace Library organised several events and lectures. These events and lectures involve issues of general international law. Hereby some highlights of these events and lectures. We had our own Peace and Security Salons: “Peace Palace Library blog "Drones and Robots as means of Modern Warfare"” in April and "Migration" in October. In June was a Commemorative Lecture: ‘Organizing for Peace: Bertha von Suttner, Dr. Aletta Jacobs and the International Congress of Women. In July there was the Hague Academy Model United Nations. Another notable event in July within the Peace Palace, especially the Carnegie Foundation was the welcome of the new Director Erik de Baedts. In September we organised the Hague Open Doors Event and in November the Trade Talks. Finally also in November we had the Peace Palace Library Lectures ’70 Years Nuremberg'. On this event we also escpecially composed the Library Special "The Nuremberg Trials Legacy" and a Newsletter the Nuremberg Special.
We composed a list with your favorites. These are a selection of the most popular newsletter posts, blog posts, publications you searched via our plinklet resolver and popular research guides and databases.
1. Newsletter posts
- Hague Academy 2015 Summer Courses - Programme, Social Media & Links
- Ladies of The Hague Academy
- Advanced Course International Criminal Law Hague Academy
2. Blog posts
- International Congress of Women of 1915
- Mixed Migration Flows Across the Mediterranean: The EU Agenda on Migration
- The Data Retention Saga: Dutch Court Declared National Data Retention Law Invalid!
3. Publications
- Donia, R.J., "Truths, Memories and Historians in the Archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia", in Wilt, H.G. van der, The Genocide Convention : the legacy of 60 years, pp. 223-228, Leiden, Nijhoff, 2012.
- Hausler, K. and R. MacCorquodale, "Climate Change and Its Impact on Security and Survival", in Commonwealth Law Bulletin, 37 (2011), No 4, pp. 617-627.
- Dunne, T. and B.C. Schmidt, "Realism", in Baylis, J., The globalization of World politics : an Introduction to International Relations, pp. 90-106, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008.
4. Research Guides
- Research Guide International Criminal Law
- Research Guide International Organizations
- Research Guide International Court of Justice
5. Databases
- Hein Online (journals)
- Westlaw International (journals)
- Oxford University Press (journals)
Library Services
In the summer we changed our annual membership fee because of a change in Library policy. A full membership fee provide borrowing and consultation privileges to all our classic materials such as books, journals and other documentation. However, we have taken the opportunity to broaden our library services regarding our online resources. These digital Library resources are also accessible from outside the Library. In addition, we introduced a one-day membership card. This card will be valid from the moment of application and provides access to all materials available for consultation as well as to our online resources only from inside the Library. After the summer the Peace Palace Library renewed the website in order to improve our (online) library services and optimize the accessibility of our resources. With the renewed interface we hope our services to be clear, attractive and user friendly for you. We also introduced a new service the "Library Special". Library Specials are posts on our website concerning specific topics or actual events. These specials are created for you to provide you easy access to our collection about the specific topics. The last few months we have already composed Library Specials about "The Nuremberg Trials Legacy" and the "Paris Climate Change Conference 2015". In 2016 we certainly like to continue to create Library Specials about specific topics. I also like to mention that we will extend our opening hours for you in 2016. From the 4th of January the reading room of the Peace Palace Library will be open from 9:00-17:00, every day in the week (from monday to friday). We do hope you will appreciate all this.
On behalf of the Peace Palace Library Staff, I like to thank our members, users and readers. We wish you a very happy new year and if you like, we will keep you updated, so be or stay tuned!!!