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APCML ANNUAL REPORT
July 2005-June 2006
The Report is now available.

Select for text

HIROSHIMA PEACE INSTITUTE WORKSHOP
8-9 December 2006

APCML Director Professor Tim McCormack and Senior Research Fellow Dr Helen Durham have been invited to participate in a Hiroshima Peace Institute (HPI) project on civilian bombing and to present a paper at the HPI workshop in San Francisco on 8-9 December. The HPI is an international peace research institute committed to help resolve all problems facing the international community by peaceful means. Dr Durham will deliver the paper on international laws relating to the bombing of civilians during armed conflict.

Select for the HPI website

VISIT BY APCML DIRECTOR TO GENEVA AND STOCKHOLM
26-30 November 2006
APCML Director Professor Tim McCormack will travel to Geneva to chair the annual meeting of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law on 26 November, and to participate in the ICRC/Asser Institute Expert Working Group on Taking a Direct Part in Hostilities on 27-28 November.

On 30 November in Stockholm Professor McCormack will deliver a lecture on Lessons from the Milosevic Trial to the Swedish branch of the International Law Association in conjunction with Swedish Red Cross.

PRESENTATION OF SECOND REPORT TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Expected Civilian Damage and the Proportionality Equation
9 November 2006

Following his presentation of the Report on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) to the Group of Governmental Experts of the States Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW) at the UN in March 2006, APCML Director Professor Tim McCormack was asked to prepare a second report on expected civilian damage from ERW and the proportionality equation.

This Report, written with APCML research student Paramdeep Mtharu, was presented to the Review Conference on the CCW by Ambassador Edvardus Borisovas, the Coordinator of the Group of Governmental Experts, on 9 November.

Select for text of the Report

MALCOLM FRASER - PROFESSORIAL FELLOW
The Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser AC CH has recently been appointed by the University of Melbourne as a Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne Law School and will be located in the APCML. Mr Fraser is well-known as a champion of human rights and the Rule of Law and we are honoured to have him associated with us. Last year Mr Fraser presented his papers to the University of Melbourne and part of the Fraser Collection will be housed in the Law School at the APCML.

Select for the Statement by Mr Fraser at the Presentation of the Fraser Collection to the University of Melbourne on 5 May 2005, in which he acknowledges the role of Professor Tim McCormack and the APCML in his decision to offer his papers to the University.

Select for information on Mr Fraser’s activities in recent years.

COMMONWEALTH HUMAN RIGHTS MEETING IN DELHI
10-11 October 2006
APCML academic staff member Ms Alison Duxbury is attending a meeting of the International Advisory Commission of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative on 10-11 October, in New Delhi, India. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is a pan-Commonwealth human rights organisation with offices in Delhi, Accra and London.

CHALLENGES PROJECTS PARTNERS MEETING – STOCKHOLM
26-30 September 2006

COL Mike Kelly and Bruce 'Ossie' Oswald attended the combined DPKO Workshop on doctrinal development and Challenges Projects Partners Meeting held in Sweden between the 26-30 September 2006.

The Workshop re-examined the principles of UN peacekeeping by drawing on the experiences of UN peace operations. In addition, the impact of emerging norms and concepts such as the "responsibility to protect", "legitimacy", "Rule of Law", and "national ownership" were considered.

The Challenges Projects Partners Meeting discussed progress on promoting implementation of the Phase II report findings, and finalised plans for the future work of the Challenges partnership and the establishment of the International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations.

HILARY CHARLESWORTH LECTURE
The text of Professor Charlesworth’s lecture, Picking up the Pieces: Building Democracy in Post-Conflict Societies, presented on 28 September 2005 at the Melbourne Law School during her term as the APCML 2005 Sir Ninian Stephen Visiting Scholar, is now available.

PROFESSOR MICHAEL SCHMITT VISIT
4-20 September

Sir Ninian Stephen, Professor Schmitt and Professor McCormack

The APCML 2006 Sir Ninian Stephen Visiting Scholar, Professor Michael Schmitt, has now returned home after an outstandingly successful visit.
Professor Schmitt is Director of the Program in Advanced Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.  During his visit to Australia he gave two public lectures, at the Department of Defence in Canberra on 11 September and at the Melbourne Law School on 13 September. 
In his lectures, entitled 'International Humanitarian Law and Contemporary Armed Conflict: Can the Law Survive?', Professor Schmitt considered how the changing nature of warfare is affecting the content, application and interpretation of the Law of Armed Conflict and International Humanitarian Law, with particular reference to the use of technology in armed conflict.  The text of the lecture will be published next year in the Melbourne Journal of International Law.

BRUCE 'OSSIE' OSWALD PROMOTION
The Centre is delighted to announce that APCML Associate Director Bruce Oswald CSC has been romoted to Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne Law School from 1 September 2006.  Warmest congratulations to 'Ossie'!


PROFESSOR STUART KAYE TO JOIN APCML
The Centre is delighted to advise that Professor Stuart Kaye, currently Dean of Law at the University of Wollongong, will take up an appointment as Professor of Law in the Melbourne Law School and the APCML from 1 January 2007.  Professor Kaye is Australia's leading expert on the law of the sea and national security issues and we look forward to expanding our program of activities to reflect this additional area of expertise.

Select for more information on Professor Kaye

NEW BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION WEB PAGE
Following the second BWC regional workshop, co-hosted by the Australian Department of Defence and the Indonesian Department of Foreign Affairs under the auspices of the APCML and held in Bali on 6-7 March 2006, a website has been developed by APCML Research Fellow Bob Mathews and APCML research
student Sarah Finnin.

The website has been designed specifically to allow South-East Asian government officials and experts to participate in follow-up activities to the workshops, and to provide a forum for the ongoing exchange of views on regional efforts to reduce the risk of inadvertent support for the hostile use of biological agents or bio-terrorism.  The website also seeks to engage the broader scientific community in our region in efforts to improve national implementation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

Select to visit the Biological Weapons Convention website

BOB MATHEWS APPOINTED TO INTERPOL EXPERTS BOARD
APCML Research Fellow Associate Professor Bob Mathews has been invited to join the Informal Board of Experts for the Bioterrorism Prevention Programme currently being undertaken by Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organisation.  Bob will attend the first meeting of the Board in France in
August.

NEW APCML DEPUTY DIRECTOR ANNOUNCED
We are pleased to announce that Captain Dale Stephens CSM RAN has been appointed APCML Deputy Director, effective 10 July 2006. Former APCML Deputy Director LTCOL Geoff Cameron CSC has been promoted to COL and appointed to the newly-created position of Registrar of Military Justice for the Department of Defence.


PRESENTATION OF REPORT TO THE UNITED NATIONS
9 March 2006

International Humanitarian Law and Explosive Remnants of War
APCML was asked by the Coordinator of the Working Group on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) to prepare a Report to be presented to the UN, analysing the responses to a questionnaire and recommending future action. The questionnaire, distributed to all 90 States Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW), aimed to identify the relevant International Humanitarian Law principles applicable to ERW and to establish the status of implementation of the relevant principles by the various States Parties. The Report was written by APCML Director Professor Tim McCormack , with APCML research students Sarah Finnin and Paramdeep Mtharu, and presented to the Group of Governmental Experts of the States Parties on 9 March 2006 at the United Nations in Geneva.

PROFESSOR MICHAEL SCHMITT TO VISIT APCML
4-20 September 2006
The 2006 Sir Ninian Stephen Visiting Scholar to the APCML is Professor Michael N. Schmitt, Director of the Program in Advanced Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, who will be visiting the Melbourne Law School from 4 to 20 September. Professor Schmitt will give a public lecture on Wednesday 13 September at 6pm on the changing nature of warfare and the challenges posed to the existing regime of international humanitarian law.

Select to view flyer for Lecture 13 September at 6pm

Select to view Professor Schmitt Home Page

MILITARY LAW SEMINAR AT LAW STUDENTS CONFERENCE
7 July 2006

The APCML (University node) was invited to host an afternoon seminar on Military Law at the recent 28th Australian Law Students' Association (ALSA) Conference held at the Melbourne University Law School from 3-9 July. Speakers at the seminar were Professor Tim McCormack (Overview of Military Law), Bruce Oswald CSC (Military Operations Law), Brigadier Ian Westwood (Military Discipline Law), and Sarah Finnin (David Hicks and Military Law).
For further information on the ALSA conference

SEMINAR ON PROTECTING CIVILIANS IN CONFLICT
7 July 2006

The APCML (University node) and Oxfam Australia co-hosted a seminar given by Liam Mahony of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (Geneva), entitled 'Making Presence Effective', which focussed on the role of unarmed international humanitarian staff in protecting civilians in areas of conflict.
For further information on the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and on the forthcoming manual on this topic


INTERNATIONAL PEACE OPERATIONS SEMINAR
5-6 July 2006

APCML Associate Director Bruce Oswald CSC, COL Mike Kelly and CMDR Dale
Stephens gave presentations during the 2006 Australian Defence Force
International Peace Operations Seminar held in Canberra 5-6 July 2006.
Topics covered included The Impact of Culture on Peace Operations,
Introduction to the Rule of Law on Peace Operations, The Law Applicable to
Peace Operations, Key Legal Principles and Standards, Peace Operations in
Collapsed States, and Rules of Engagement and the Use of Force on Peace
Operations.  Students also participated in a case study based on 'planning
the deployment' of UN peacekeepers to Darfur.

ROYAL THAI ARMY TRAINING COURSE
5-8 June 2006
Bruce 'Ossie' Oswald was invited by the Royal Thai Armed Forces to speak at their 2nd Annual Rules of Engagement Training Course held in Bangkok from 5-8 June 2006. He spoke on 'Rules of Engagement: Some Key Legal and Operational Issues'.

DR HELEN DURHAM JOINS APCML
APCML is delighted to welcome Dr Helen Durham to the academic staff. Dr Durham has been appointed as a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre and will manage major research projects and strategic relationships with other organisations. She brings a wealth of experience in international humanitarian law to the Centre. From 2002 she was the Legal Adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross Regional Delegation for the Pacific, and from 1997-2002 she was the National Manager, International Humanitarian Law, for the Australian Red Cross.

RECENT GRADUATIONS BY APCML PERSONNEL
Three of the APCML's RHD students have graduated at the University of Melbourne and two members of staff have graduated from Cambridge University.

  • Michael Carrel, PhD : 'Australia's Prosecution of Japanese War Criminals: Stimuli and Constraints'
  • Sarah Finnin, BA/LLB (Hons) DipML(French)
  • Thomas Paul Muggleton, SJD: 'The International Crime of Aggression'
  • Andrew Mitchell, PhD : 'Legal Principles in WTO Disputes'
  • Tania Voon, PhD: 'Cultural Products in the WTO'

THE RULE OF LAW IN PEACE OPERATIONS CONFERENCE
16-21 May 2006

APCML Associate Director Bruce Oswald attended the XVII International Congress of the
International Society for Military Law and the Law of War
, in Scheveningen, The Netherlands
.

RALPH ZACKLIN SEMINAR AT APCML
1 May 2006

Mr Ralph Zacklin, former Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs at the UN 1998-2005, presented a lunchtime seminar on 1 May at the Law School. He spoke on the future of international law and international institutions.

CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW STUDY ROUNDTABLE
3 March 2006

APCML personnel LTCOL Geoff Cameron CSC, Bob Mathews, Tim McCormack, LTCOL Paul Muggleton and Bruce Oswald CSC attended the roundtable discussion organised by Australian Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross, in conjunction with the APCML and the Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Participants reviewed and considered the findings contained in the recently published
ICRC report on Customary International Humanitarian Law.

SECOND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION WORKSHOP
6-7 March 2006

The Second Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Regional Workshop, co-hosted by the Australian Department of Defence and the Indonesian Department of Foreign Affairs under the auspices of the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law (APCML), was held in Bali, Indonesia on 6-7 March 2006. This was a follow up to the First BWC Regional Workshop held at the University of Melbourne Law School in February 2005. The Workshops provide a regional forum for discussion of effective national implementation of the 1975 Biological Weapons Convention.

Thirty seven participants attended the Second Workshop, with representatives from Indonesia, Australia, Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The Australian delegation included representatives from the APCML (Dr Bob Mathews, LTCOL Geoff Cameron CSC, Treasa Dunworth and Sarah Finnin), the Department of Defence, Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

The objectives of the Second Workshop were to promote regional awareness of and engagement in the BWC; to discuss the importance of bio-security; to examine national mechanisms for maintenance of the security and oversight of pathogenic micro-organisms and toxins; to facilitate the establishment of a forum for networking with a view to developing partnerships in enhancing bio-security and bio-safety; and to provide a forum for sharing of information.

Select to visit the Biological Weapons Convention website

Select for a full report on the Workshop


APCML AT CHALLENGES OF PEACE OPERATIONS REPORT PRESENTATION, UN HQ, NEW YORK
19 January 2006
APCML Deputy Director LTCOL Geoff Cameron CSC and Associate Director Bruce Oswald CSC, represented the APCML at the presentation of the multi-national report Meeting the Challenges of Peace Operations: Cooperation and Coordination to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. COL Michael Kelly AM, former APCML Deputy Director, also attended in his capacity of Director, UN and Peace Operations, International Policy Division, Department of Defence. The report is the culmination of the Challenges Project Phase II for which the APCML has been the designated Australian partner organisation. The formal handover ceremony was held at UN HQ New York on 19th January 2006 and was attended by ambassadors and representatives of partner organisations from many countries, international organisations and military training institutions.

Select for a copy of the Report and further information on the Challenges Project

Select for more details of the presentation on 19 January and the follow-up meetings

AMICUS CURIAE
AT THE MILOSEVIC TRIAL
6-10 February 2006

APCML Director Professor Tim McCormack is attending the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague for the trial of Slobodan Miloševic in his capacity as
amicus curiae on international law matters to the judges of Trial Chamber II
I.


CHEMICAL WEAPONS SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
8-10 February 2006

APCML Principal Fellow Dr Bob Mathews is attending the 8th Annual General Meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, to present a paper on 'Salts of Scheduled Chemicals and Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Numbers'.

RESEARCH EXCHANGE – UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
February – May 2006
APCML RHD student Britt Conidi will participate in a research exchange at the War Crimes Studies Center, University of California – Berkeley from February to May 2006. During the 3 month exchange, Britt will continue with her PhD research and will establish links with the War Crimes Studies Center and other US institutions with research interests similar to those of the APCML.

RESEARCH FELLOW – LAUTERPACHT CENTRE, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
January to May 2006
APCML academic staff member Alison Duxbury will return to the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, as a Visiting Fellow from January to May 2006. Alison will carry out research into the role of human rights and democracy in determining the participation of states in international organisations.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY APCML STAFF & STUDENTS
The Proposed Trials by the US Military Commissions
Sarah Finnin in Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, volume 6, 2003, 409-423


Combating the Trafficking of Persons on Peace Operations
Bruce Oswald and Sarah Finnin in The Yearbook of International Peace Operations, Volume 10, 2006, 1-32

Self-Defence in International Criminal Law
Tim McCormack in Hirad Abtahi and Gideon Boas (eds), The Dynamics of International Criminal Justice (2006 Koninklijke Brill NV, The Netherlands) 231-255


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