The 47th Annual Conference of the Canadian Council on International Law: Navigating the Frontiers of International Law

The 47^th Annual Conference of the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL) was held on November 1^st and 2^nd, 2018, at Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa. The theme of this year’s conference, International Law at the Boundaries, allowed a symposium on the pressures under which the international legal order currently operates. Experienced speakers from all over the globe and evolving in diversified areas including criminal law, foreign relations, international humanitarian law, trade and investment and legal history, touched upon many different subjects that are extremely relevant in the light of our current political climate. The CCIL Conference is a key event for all Canadian scholars, practitioners and students interested in international law. Held annually since 1972, its theme is always topical and sparks the discussion on current affairs and latest developments in international law. The first Annual Conference was also held in Ottawa and was themed New Approaches to International Law. At the time, the conference only hosted eighty attendees, who were mainly academics and government representatives, and the discussion revolved around a paper written by Allan Gotlieb and Charles Dalfen, raising questions about the foreign policies of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s administration. This year, hundreds of people were present on the morning of November 1^st in the Victoria Hall, reflecting the success of the event. This article highlights the important issues that were addressed at the 2018 Conference. The diversity of the chosen topics in the following pages are connected by a common thread: this paper focuses on the transnational challenges pertaining to human rights, international criminal law and general international public law. Trade and investment law issues were set aside for purposes of brevity. This review aims at informing anyone interested in these issues, and in particular those who did not get the opportunity to attend this national event, by addressing in a rather comprehensive way the emerging problems and solutions discussed at the 47^th CCIL Annual Conference. The 2018 edition’s keynote speeches, by Professors Harold Hongju Koh and Jutta Brunnée, set the tone of the Conference by exploring various topical aspects of international boundaries. Both took place in the afternoon, respectively on the first and second day of the event and emphasized the importance of transnational issues within the current political context. Mr. Harold Hongju Koh, Professor of law at Yale University and recipient of the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award for his role as State Department Legal Adviser, subjugated his audience while discussing Trump’s administration with much needed humor. The issue of Donald Trump ignoring international law has been recurrent since his election in 2016, but Mr. Koh emphasized that there is still hope to have that his conduct will not be imitated by many States and that multilateralism will continue to prevail. The President of the United States has created massive disruptions in international law by multiplying crisis, notably in North Korea and Iran. However, many institutions are working in the opposite direction and their actions are creating a pattern that is increasingly difficult to ignore. According to Professor Koh, Trump’s show of power is inappropriate. The expert used the comparison of Mohammed Ali’s rope-a-dope signature move to reflect that Donald Trump has been punching himself out, not only by expending energy and capital on various initiatives, but also by creating hebdomadary crisis that do not advance his or his party’s chance for re-election. On the other hand, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s “smart power” doctrine is much more suitable to address international challenges. This doctrine, which consists of a combination of “hard” and “soft” …