As we turn the page on 2016, a lot has happened in the world and also specific on the international law arena. In this blog the Peace Palace Library looks back on the most notable international law news and Peace Palace Library events. The Paris Agreement on Climate Change has been ratified, withdrawal of South-Africa, Burundi and Gambia from the International Criminal Court (ICC), the ICC Trial Chamber VIII sentence of Mr Al Mahdi to be guilty of the war crime of attacking historic and religious buildings in Timbuktu, the South China Sea Arbitration Award and International Court of Justice 70th Anniversary! On behalf of the Peace Palace 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! Stay tuned!
As we turn the page on 2016, the Peace Palace Library looks back on the most notable international law news and Peace Palace Library events. What a year 2016 was! Again there were terror attacks around the world, in Brussels, Istanbul, Nice, Berlin, Ankara, Orlando and Aleppo. The Syrian civil war continues and thus the violence, human rights violations and the terrible humanitarian crisis. The migrant crisis is still ongoing. This year has been a huge increase in the numbers of displaced people globally. Turkey had a failed military coup, the Zika virus and a plane crash carrying Brazilian the top soccer team to the biggest game in its history. A lot of famous people died as well as in the music sector, sports as in politics: David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, Muhammad Ali, Fidel Castro, the world's longest reigning monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyade of Thailand, former United National Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, former Israeli leader Shimon Peres and former U.S. first lady Nancy Reagan.
2016 was also a very surprising year: there was a US presidential election with an unexpected result, the Clinton emails, Brexit: a UK referendum on leaving the European Union with an unexpected result, the mysterious disappearance of Dutch Second World War shipwrecks from the bottom of the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia and a constitutional referendum in Italy with again an unexpected result!
On international law also a lot has happened.The Paris Agreement on Climate Change has been ratified, withdrawal of South-Africa, Burundi and Gambia from the International Criminal Court (ICC), the ICC Trial Chamber VIII sentence of Mr Al Mahdi to be guilty of the war crime of attacking historic and religious buildings in Timbuktu, the South China Sea Arbitration Award, the Panama Papers and International Court of Justice 70th Anniversary!
Library Services
Did you know that the Peace Palace Library has so-called Library Specials? 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 past year we have composed several interesting Library Specials for you:
- Brexit
- Paris Global Climate Agreement
- South China Sea Territorial Disputes
- Syria Crisis: Humanitarian Law, Warfare, Refugees
- Refugee Crisis in Europe
- The Nuremberg Trials Legacy
All these Library Specials on specific topics provide you easy access to our collection: a selective bibliography, newsletters, books, articles and online resources. Explore them!
Do you also know that the Library has an extensive Arabic collection? Since 2011 we have built a collection of law books in the Arabic language. The books come from diverse countries, from Mauritania and Morocco to Egypt and Sudan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq to Yemen and Oman. The main topics we have selected are: public international law, international criminal law, Islamic law (almost 400 titles), national positive law and related subjects. In our Arabic collection you will find issues concerning human rights, the rights of women, children and minorities, freedom of religion, slavery, borders, humanitarian law, water, the Nile, constitutional law, the Islamic state, electoral law, Islamic criminal law, corruption, medical ethics, family law, commercial law, inheritance law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, etc. You will find also comparative studies between Islamic and positive law, contemporary collections of fatwas and judgments and to a lesser extent books on international relations, history and political issues, such as the Arab Spring and the civil war in Syria. See also the Research guide Islamic Law.
Events and Lectures
The Peace Palace Library and the Carnegie Foundation organised several events and lectures on issues of general international law. Hereby some highlights of these lectures and events. In January the Carnegie Foundation held an official farewell to its former General-Director and Treasurer of The Hague Academy of International Law, Mr. Steven van Hoogstraten. We had a Peace and Security Salon on Biological and Chemical Weapons in May. In June was a Bertha Von Suttner Master Class and Commemorative Lecture and in September the annual Hague Open Doors Event that allowed the public to catch a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of the Library. In November the Carnegie Foundation held the Carnegie Wateler Peace Prize 2016 Event. The Peace Palace Library will announce early 2017 about new upcoming events and lectures!
Your most favorite@
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, library specials and databases.
1. Newsletter posts
- Ladies of The Hague Academy of International Law
- Academy Students in the Spotlight: Private International Law Session 2016
- International Law at the Movies That Matter Festival 2016
2. Blog posts
- Africa and Withdrawal from the ICC
- The South China Sea Arbitration (12 July 2016) PCA Case No. 2013-19
- Essequibo, the territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana
3. Publications
- Oliveira Mazzuoli, V. de , The law of treaties : a comprehensive study of the 1969 Vienna Convention and beyond, Rio de Janeiro : Editora Forense, GEN, 2016 (e-book)
- 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.
- Tomlinson, J., "Globalization and Cultural Identity", in Held, D. and A. McGrew (eds.), The global transformations reader : an introduction to the globalization debate, pp. 269-277, Cambridge, Polity, 2003.
4. Library Specials
- South China Sea Territorial Disputes
- Brexit
- Refugee Crisis in Europe
5. Research Guides
- Research Guide International Organizations
- Research Guide International Criminal Law
- Research Guide International Court of Justice
6. Databases
- Hein Online (e-journals)
- Oxford University Press (e-journals)
- Westlaw International (e-journals)
If you subscribe to alerts via our alert service, we will notify you on the new acquisitions on topics of your interest. These new titles can be books, book chapters, journals and journal articles, either in print or electronic.
On behalf of the Peace Palace 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! Stay tuned!