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Workshop
Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC): Developments and Challenges
Speakers include:
Colonel Justin Emerson Director of Defence Legal Services & Director of Military Prosecutions
New Zealand Defence Force
Colonel R.F. Holman Office of the Judge Advocate General / Canadian Armed Forces
Professor John Tobin University of Melbourne
Kirby Abbott International Commitee of the Red Cross
Jonathan Horowitz Open Society Justice Initiative
Bridget Dunne Supreme Court of Tasmania
Associate Professor Robert Mathews University of Melbourne
Associate Professor Chris Jenks SMU Law School
Sasha Radin Stockton Center U.S. Naval War College
Colonel Penny Cumming Defence Legal
Major Rafe Harris British Army
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Welling United States Air Force
Chris Coles Australian Federal Police
Dr Carrie McDougall Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Sue Robertson Attorney-General’s Department
Tobias Rehfeld Department of International Law, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Venue:18 March | University House | Level 10 | Melbourne Law School
19 March | Melbourne Law School | Level 9, Room 920
Email: law-apcml@unimelb.edu.au
Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC):
Developments and Challenges
Workshop
18 & 19 March 2015
Melbourne Law School
Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC): Developments and Challenges
18 March | University House Woodward | Melbourne Law School, Level 10 | 185 Pelham St. Carlton
0900-0930
Welcome
Mr Mark Cunliffe PSM, Associate Professor Bruce Oswald
0910-1045
Roundtable Panel 1
Chair: Group Captain Ian Henderson TBC
Colonel Justin Emerson, Director of Defence Legal Services & Director of Military
Prosecutions, New Zealand Defence Force
Colonel R.F. Holman, Office of the Judge Advocate General / Canadian Armed Forces
IHL Accountability, Military Justice and IHRL Standards
1045-1115
Morning tea
1115-1300
Roundtable Panel 2
Chair: Associate Professor David Letts, Australian National University
Professor John Tobin, University of Melbourne
Children and NIAC
Kirby Abbott, International Committee of the Red Cross
NIAC: An ICRC Perspective
Jonathan Horowitz, Open Society Justice Initiative
Asymmetries in the Law Applicable to Non-State Actors in Armed Conflict
Bridget Dunne, Supreme Court of Tasmania
Does Article 8 of the Rome Statute deal adequately with war crimes in NIACs?
1300-1400
Lunch
1400-1530
Roundtable Panel 3
Chair: Professor Tania Voon, Melbourne Law School
Associate Professor Robert Mathews, University of Melbourne
The Application of International Law to NIAC: The Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria
as a Case Study
Associate Professor Chris Jenks, SMU Law School/APCML
Tadić Realized: Improving Accountability in NIAC
Sasha Radin, Stockton Center, U.S. Naval War College
Relevance of Links for Conflict Characterization and Targeting: From Charlie Hebdo
to a Global Armed Conflict
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Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC):
Developments and Challenges
Workshop
18 & 19 March 2015
Melbourne Law School
1530-1600
Afternoon tea
1600-1800
Roundtable Panel 4
Chair: Mr John Reid, International Law and Human Rights Division AttorneyGeneral's Department
Colonel Penny Cumming, Defence Legal
The Interaction between IHL and IHRL: An ADF Perspective
Major Rafe Harris, British Army
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Welling, United States Air Force
Force Legal Service, Directorate of Operations and International Law
Chris Coles, Australian Federal Police
Policing in NIAC
1830-1930
Workshop participants are invited to attend the Dean's Distinguished Public Lecture
to be presented by Professor Martti Koskenniemi, Academy Professor and Director
of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights at the University
of Helsinki and Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School, on 'Sovereignty and
Property'. Bookings are essential for this free public lecture: registration is available
http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/melbourne-law-school/news-and-events/eventregistration-forms/the-dean-s-distinguished-public-lecture-sovereignty-andproperty/ . For full details refer to the Melbourne Law School website.
2000-2200
Private dinner
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Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC):
Developments and Challenges
Workshop
18 & 19 March 2015
Melbourne Law School
Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC): Developments and Challenges
19 March |Melbourne Law School, Level 9 | Room 920 | 185 Pelham St. Carlton 3053
0900-0910
Welcome
Associate Professor Bruce Oswald
0910-1045
Roundtable Panel 5
Chair: Air Commodore Chris Hanna, Defence Legal
Dr Carrie McDougall, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Assistant Director,
International Law Section)
The application of APII to States intervening in NIAC
Sue Robertson, Attorney-General’s Department
Whose criminal jurisdiction? The challenges of securing privileges and immunities in
non-international armed conflicts’
Tobias Rehfeld, Department of International Law, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1045-1115
Morning tea
1115-1300
Government Roundtable
Chair: Associate Professor Bruce Oswald
1800-1900
Public Lecture
Professor Dapo Akande, Oxford University
APCML Sir Ninian Stephen Visiting Scholar
Detention in Armed Conflict: The Interaction between International Humanitarian
Law and Human Rights Law
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Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC):
Developments and Challenges
Workshop
18 & 19 March 2015
Melbourne Law School
Biographies
Roundtable Panel 1
Colonel Justin Emerson, Director of Defence Legal Services & Director of Military Prosecutions, New
Zealand Defence Force
NIAC and the Queen’s Peace
Colonel Justin Emerson completed an LLB(Hons) at Victoria University of Wellington in 1988. After
admission as a Barrister and Solicitor he commenced work as a commercial lawyer in Wellington. In
1991 he enlisted in the New Zealand Army and graduated from Officer Cadet School into the Royal
New Zealand Infantry Regiment. He held a number of command positions within the First Battalion,
and completed a tour of duty with the Singaporean Armed Forces as part of 1 Commando Battalion.
2009 Colonel Emerson was posted to Headquarters New Zealand Defence Force in the position of
the Director of Personnel Law, followed by the Director of Operations Law. In June 2011 he
graduated with a Master of Laws with First Class Honours from the University of Auckland. On 27
September 2013 he was promoted to Colonel and assumed the duties of the Director of Legal
Services. He concurrently also holds a statutory warrant as the Director of Military Prosecutions.
Colonel Emerson has served on overseas operational deployments with the Multinational Force and
Observers in the Sinai, the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (now Timor
Leste), and on Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. In 2006 Colonel Emerson was made a
member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to military law and the NZDF.
Colonel R.F. (Rob) Holman, Office of the Judge Advocate General / Canadian Armed Forces
IHL Accountability, Military Justice and IHRL Standards
After graduating from the Royal Military College of Canada, Col Holman served as a pilot before
undertaking sponsored legal studies at Queen’s University. His service as a legal officer has been
divided between the military justice and operational law spheres. He was a military prosecutor at
both the trial and appellate levels and deployed to Afghanistan as a legal mentor to the Judge
Advocate General of the Afghan National Army. His operational law service has included work in the
areas of detention, intelligence law and air security. Colonel Holman received an LL.M. in
international law from McGill University in 2011. He served as Special Assistant to the Judge
Advocate General before assuming his current responsibilities in 2013.
Roundtable Panel 2
Professor John Tobin, University of Melbourne
Children and NIAC
John Tobin is a Professor in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne. He has a
combined commerce/law degree with honours and a PhD from the University of Melbourne. He
also has an LLM with distinction from the University of London. In 2010 he was awarded the Barbara
Falk Award for Teaching Excellence by the University of Melbourne and in 2011 he was awarded a
national citation for outstanding contribution to student learning in the area of human rights. In
2006 he was a Visiting Professor at both the American Academy of Human Rights and Humanitarian
Law, Washington College of Law, American University and in the Law School at New York University.
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Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC):
Developments and Challenges
Workshop
18 & 19 March 2015
Melbourne Law School
In 2011 he was the Senior Scholar in Residence at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at
NYU Law School.
Kirby Abbott, International Committee of the Red Cross
NIAC: An ICRC Perspective
Kirby Abbott has been the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Delegate to the Armed
and Security Forces for South East Asia and the Pacific since August 2014. He is responsible for
relations between the ICRC and the militaries of: Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Fiji, Australia,
New Zealand and the United States’ Pacific Command.
In 2014, after a career of 25 years, Mr. Abbott retired as a Colonel, and a barrister, with the
Canadian Forces’ Office of the Judge Advocate General. His previous positions included Deputy JAG/
Strategic Coordination, Chief of Staff, Deputy JAG/Operations, Director of International Law and
Assistant Legal Advisor to NATO military headquarters. He has advised , at various levels, on
operations and post operations litigations/inquiries arising relating to Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo,
Afghanistan and Libya as well as various maritime and special operations.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts (honours, first class), a Master of Arts (distinction), a Bachelor of Laws
from Dalhousie Law School, a Master of Law from the London School of Economics and Political
Science (distinction, prize winner-public international program) and has been a Visiting Fellow at the
Lauterpacht Center for International Law, University of Cambridge.
Jonathan Horowitz, Open Society Justice Initiative
Asymmetries in the Law Applicable to Non-State Actors in Armed Conflict
Jonathan Horowitz is a legal officer for the Open Society Justice Initiative where he focuses on issues
relating to human rights, counterterrorism, and the law of armed conflict. Horowitz previously
worked at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on detention policy; documented human rights abuses in
Afghanistan and Sudan; and worked as an analyst for the ICC. Horowitz received his LLM from the
University of Essex and has published on the application of human rights in armed conflict;
international law pertaining to conflict-related detainees; and human rights fact-finding
methodologies. He is the author and co-authored of several reports that document human rights
abuses in the context of armed conflict and counterterrorism.
Bridget Dunne, Supreme Court of Tasmania
Does Article 8 of the Rome Statute deal adequately with war crimes in NIACs?
Bridget Dunne is currently associate to Chief Justice Blow OAM of the Supreme Court of Tasmania. In
2013 she worked at the International Criminal Court in The Hague as Legal Assistant to the Special
Advisor to the Prosecutor on International Humanitarian Law, Professor Tim McCormack. Bridget has
previously worked for the Australian Red Cross as an International Humanitarian Law Officer, and as
a sessional lecturer and tutor at the University of Tasmania. She graduated with a BA-LLB with First
Class Honours from the University of Tasmania in 2011 and was awarded a University Medal.
Roundtable Panel 3
Associate Professor Robert Mathews, University of Melbourne
The Application of International Law to NIAC: The Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria as a Case Study
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Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC):
Developments and Challenges
Workshop
18 & 19 March 2015
Melbourne Law School
Robert (Bob) Mathews is Head of the Nuclear Biological and Chemical (NBC) Arms Control Unit of the
Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), and is an honorary Associate
Professor at the University of Melbourne Law School.
He spent his early years at DSTO undertaking scientific research in the detection and analysis of
chemical warfare agents, including several years of international collaboration with UK, USA and
Canada on the development of the Chemical Agent Monitor (CAM). He served as Scientific Adviser
to the Australian Delegation to the UN Conference on Disarmament in the negotiation of the
Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in Geneva from 1984, and since 1993 has provided scientific
support to the Australian delegation to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
(OPCW) which is located in The Hague. He has also provided support to Australia’s efforts towards
the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including support for the Australia Group
export licensing measures since its inception in 1985, and in the efforts to strengthen the Biological
Weapons Convention (BWC).
Mathews was awarded the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Secretary’s Award in 1993 and
an Order of Australia Medal in 1994 for his contribution to chemical disarmament. He was elected
Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute in 1995, and in 2003 was awarded a Doctor of
Science degree for his contribution to chemical defence and disarmament, In 2013, he was
appointed a Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and he was
recently named as the first Recipient of the ‘OPCW-The Hague’ award, based on his contribution to
achieving a world free of chemical weapons.
Associate Professor Chris Jenks, SMU, Dedman School of Law
Tadić Realized: Improving Accountability in NIAC
Chris Jenks is an assistant professor of law and director of the criminal justice clinic at the SMU
Dedman School of Law in Dallas, Texas, where he teaches and writes on international humanitarian
law. He is currently working at the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law at Melbourne Law School as
part of a Fulbright Scholars Grant researching how emerging technologies impact accountability in
armed conflict. Prior to joining the SMU faculty in 2012, Professor Jenks served for more than 20
years in the U.S. military, first as an infantry officer and then as a judge advocate.
Sasha Radin, Stockton Center, U.S. Naval War College
Links and organised armed groups
Sasha Radin is the Managing Editor of International Law Studies and Associate Director of Research
at the Naval War College’s Stockton Center for the Study of International Law. She is currently
completing her doctorate on ‘Organized Armed Groups under International Humanitarian Law’ at
Melbourne University Law School. Previously, she was a researcher and outreach coordinator in the
International Humanitarian and Criminal Law Department of the T.M.C. Asser Institute in the Hague,
the Netherlands and has held various other non-legal positions involving frequent travel within
Belarus, the Netherlands, Russia and Ukraine. She has an LL.M. in International Law from
Amsterdam University and a B.A. in Slavic Studies from Harvard University.
Roundtable Panel 4
Colonel Penny Cumming, Defence Legal
The Interaction between IHL and IHRL: An ADF Perspective
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Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC):
Developments and Challenges
Workshop
18 & 19 March 2015
Melbourne Law School
Colonel Penny Cumming joined the Australian Army in 1994 as a legal officer. She has served in a
variety of postings both within the Army and the Joint Services environment, most recently serving
as the Deputy Director of Operations and International Law within the Department of Defence. She
has undertaken operational deployments to Iraq, Timor Leste and Afghanistan. She is admitted as a
legal practitioner to the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia and holds a
Master of Laws, majoring in international law from the University of Melbourne.
Major Rafe Harris, British Army
The challenges of legal training in a NIAC
Maj Harris joined the Army Legal Service in January 2008 having worked as a criminal lawyer in
Cambridge. After completing initial officer he deployed to Iraq on OP TELIC 12. On his return he was
posted to HQ 2nd Division in Edinburgh, dealing with general discipline and advisory work.
Maj Harris was then posted to the Service Prosecuting Authority, dealing with the prosecution of a
broad range of cases at court martial including the first UK detainee abuse case from Afghanistan.
Most recently Maj Harris was a Legal Advisor within UK Special Forces.
Maj Harris took over as the UK Exchange Officer in the Directorate of Operations and Security Law in
July 2013 and is due to return to the UK later this year.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Welling, US Air Force
Status-based Targeting: A lawful means in a NIAC?
Lieutenant Colonel Welling entered the Air Force in 2002 after graduating from the University of
Minnesota Law School with a Juris Doctorate and following his admission to the Colorado Bar. He is
also a graduate of Brigham Young University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications with
an emphasis in Public Relations and a minor in Business Administration. Lieutenant Colonel Welling
began his military career as an Air Force Judge Advocate by direct commission in November 2002
and attended the Judge Advocate Staff Officer Course at Maxwell AFB, Alabama during FebruaryApril 2003. He assumed the duties of the United States Military Personnel Exchange Program with
the Australia Defence Force Legal Service Directorate of Operations and International Law in 2013.
He is admitted to practice law before the Colorado Supreme Court, the United States Court of
Appeals for the Armed Forces, and the United States Supreme Court.
Chris Coles, Australian Federal Police
Policing in NIAC
Chris is Coordinator of the Executive Support Team of the AFP’s International Deployment Group
with responsibility for the development and implementation of key doctrine and policies in respect
of AFP police development missions and stability operations. He has deployed with the AFP to the
Solomon Islands and PNG.
Chris is also an active RAAF reserve legal officer with a background in joint and combined military
operations and has undertaken ADF and UN operational deployments to Timor Leste, Iraq and
Afghanistan.
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Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC):
Developments and Challenges
Workshop
18 & 19 March 2015
Melbourne Law School
Roundtable Panel 5
Dr Carrie McDougall, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Assistant Director, International Law
Section)
The application of APII to States intervening in NIAC
Dr Carrie McDougall (BA (Hons), LLB (Hons), PhD) is an Assistant Director of the International Law
Section at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where she is responsible for a
range of security law issues, including the use of force and international criminal law. Before joining
DFAT, she held a number of positions at Melbourne Law School, worked on projects for the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the ICRC, and was a commercial
litigator. Her book, The Crime of Aggression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal
Court was published in 2013.
Sue Robertson, Attorney-General’s Department
Whose criminal jurisdiction? The challenges of securing privileges and immunities in noninternational armed conflicts
Sue Robertson is the Assistant Secretary of the International Human Rights Law Branch of the
Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. Previously she worked for the Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade including as the international legal adviser at the Australian Permanent
Mission to the United Nations in New York. Sue has held various international legal policy positions
in the United Nations in the High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt, the UN Development Program
in Bhutan and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in Sudan. She has a LLB (Hons) and BA
(Hons) from Melbourne University and an LLM (First Class Hons) from Australian National University.
Tobias Rehfeld, Department of International Law, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Tobias Elling Rehfeld is Head of the Department of International Law in the Danish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (MFA). Before taking up this position Mr. Rehfeld served as Principal Private Secretary
to the Danish Prime Minister. Mr. Rehfeld has previously held the position of Deputy Head of the
Department for Human Rights and worked as Special Advisor on international law in the Danish MFA
and was posted as advisor on human rights to the Danish Permanent Representation to the United
Nations in New York. Mr. Rehfeld holds a LL.M. from University of Copenhagen, DK, and an MA in
International Relations from University of Exeter, UK.
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Non-International Armed Conflicts (NIAC):
Developments and Challenges
Workshop
18 & 19 March 2015
Melbourne Law School
Public Lecture:
Professor of Public International Law Dapo Akande, Oxford University
APCML Sir Ninian Stephen Visiting Scholar
Ninian Stephen Public Lecture: International Law expert Dapo Akande, talks on "Detention in
Armed Conflict: The Interaction between International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law"
Sir Ninian Stephen Visiting Fellow Public Lecture
Each year the Asia-Pacific Centre for Military Law invites a distinguished scholar to present the Sir
Ninian Stephen Visiting Fellow Public Lecture. We are delighted that Professor Dapo Akande will
present this lecture entitled Detention in Armed Conflict: The Interaction between International
Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law
Guest Speaker
Professor Dapo Akande is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Oxford. He is also
the Yamani Fellow at St. Peter’s College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and
Armed Conflict (ELAC) and the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations.
He has varied research interests within the field of general international law and has published
articles on aspects of the law of international organizations, international dispute settlement,
international criminal law and the law of armed conflict. His articles have been published in leading
international law journals such as the American Journal of International Law, the British Yearbook of
International Law and the European Journal of International Law . His article in the Journal of
International Criminal Justice on the "Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over Nationals
of Non-Parties: Legal Basis and Limits" was awarded the 2003 Giorgio La Pira Prize.
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