Nuremberg and Transitional Justice: Civilising Influence or Institutionalised Vengeance?
19 November 2005

The Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law, together with Australian Red Cross (ACT), and the Centre for International and Public Law (The Australian National University), presented a highly successful one day seminar commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the commencement of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and assessing the subsequent development of international criminal law, on Saturday 19 November at the ANU Law School.

Speakers in the first plenary session, The Impact of the Nuremberg Tribunal, included the Rt Hon Sir Ninian Stephen on the Legacies of the Nuremberg Tribunal, Prof. Tim McCormack and COL Mike Kelly on the Subsequent Development of International Criminal Law, and Prof. Susanne Karstedt on German Society and Post-conflict Reconstruction.

In the second plenary session, Alternative Approaches to Justice, Graham Blewitt, former Deputy Prosecutor ICTY, spoke on the Importance of a Retributive Approach, Lia Kent spoke on Reconciliation in East Timor and Prof. John Braithwaite spoke on Restorative Approaches to Justice.

A number of workshops were presented in the afternoon, including the Crime of aggression (Carrie McDougall), Investigating war crimes (John Ralston), Appropriate tribunal models (Madelaine Chiam), War crimes and the AAT (Alison Duxbury), the Future of the ICC (Tim McCormack & Geoff Skillen), Justice betrayed post 1945 (Mark Aarons), Peacebuilding and transitional justice (COL Mike Kelly), and the Social and psychological impact of transitional justice (Jennifer Balint).

The speaker at the Seminar dinner, held at the National Museum of Australia, was Prof. William Maley, Director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the ANU.

Papers from the Seminar (including workshop papers) have now been published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers in Leiden (The Netherlands) as Volume 20 in their International Humanitarian Law Series.

 
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Please select for Professor William Maley's dinner speech on 'The Atmospherics of Nuremberg'

Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Workshop
21-25 February 2005

Photo LtoR: Dean of Law at the University of Melbourne, Professor Michael Crommelin; Defence Minister Robert Hill; and Indonesian Consul-General to Melbourne Mr Wahid Supriyadi, at the opening of the BWC Workshop 21 February 2005. Photo Les O'Rourke.

The APCML organised a Regional Workshop for South East Asian Government Officials on more effective national implementation of the 1975 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) from 21-25 February 2005. The Workshop was co-hosted by the Australian Department of Defence and the Indonesian Foreign Ministry and convened by Associate Professor Bob Mathews, a Principal Research Scientist with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

The Workshop was officially opened by the Minister for Defence, Senator Robert Hill. He was joined by the Indonesian Consul-General to Melbourne, Mr Wahid Supriyadi. Both speakers identified the growing threat of bio-terrorism in the Asia-Pacific Region with Senator Hill suggesting that the rapid advances in the biological sciences and bio-technology, and the widespread availability of this information and associated material make the regional threat of terrorist use of biological weapons all the more real.

Workshop participants discussed the obligations of States Parties to the BWC, codes of conduct for scientists involved in biological research, different approaches to national implementing legislation, biological defence and surveillance, detection and combating of infectious diseases.

Papers from the 2005 Workshop have now been published by the APCML.

Select to visit the BWC website for further information.

Contact details:

University Node Cathy Hutton Administrator Asia-Pacific Centre for Military Law Law School The University of Melbourne VIC 3010 AUSTRALIA Tel: + 61 3 8344 4775 Fax: + 61 3 8344 0054 Email: law-apcml@unimelb.edu.au

Military Node Amy Hoskin Training Administrator Asia-Pacific Centre for Military Law Building 100 Randwick Barracks Avoca Street RANDWICK NSW 2031 AUSTRALIA Tel: + 61 2 9349 0115 Fax: +61 2 9349 0757 Email: mlc.admin@defence.gov.au