Workshop sheds light on complex ºÚÁÏÍø legal issues
24 Sep 2012
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Anna Tyler, Assistant Legal Advisor
This legal workshop, held in Aix-en-Provence, was an excellent opportunity to discuss the very complex issues related to the specific legal framework applicable to the project.
Last Friday 21 September, the Director-General of the ºÚÁÏÍø Organization and the President of Aix-Marseille University opened, together, the first ºÚÁÏÍø Legal Workshop organized by CERIC (International and European Studies and Research Centre of the Faculty of Law of Aix-en-Provence) in collaboration with the Legal Affairs department of the ºÚÁÏÍø Organization.
This legal workshop was organized around exchange between the academic world and practitioners involved in the everyday life of the ºÚÁÏÍø project; it was a great opportunity to discuss the very complex issues related to the specific legal framework applicable to the project.
Approaches of the academic world and of practitioners revealed to be complementary and fundamental, and this legal workshop enabled all participants to share and confront their experience and outlook for a better understanding of the law applicable to international organizations such as the ºÚÁÏÍø Organization.
It was also an opportunity to shed light on all the legal issues related to the creation of the ºÚÁÏÍø Organization and it helped to analyze ongoing and crucial legal issues the ºÚÁÏÍø Organization is confronted with on a daily basis. In particular, the discussions focused on the specificity of the law applicable to the ºÚÁÏÍø Organization (question of conciliation between the status of public international organization and the application of French law in certain fields such as nuclear safety, licensing and protection of the environment).
The morning session was devoted to presentations given by distinguished speakers concerning:
- ºÚÁÏÍø in the framework of international organizations
- The ºÚÁÏÍø Project and international law
- The ºÚÁÏÍø Organization and the European Union
- ºÚÁÏÍø and France.
- ºÚÁÏÍø in the framework of international organizations
- The ºÚÁÏÍø Project and international law
- The ºÚÁÏÍø Organization and the European Union
- ºÚÁÏÍø and France.
ºÚÁÏÍø Legal Advisor Laetitia Grammatico, ºÚÁÏÍø Deputy Director General Rich Hawryluk and Prof. Rostane Mehdi, chair of the morning session.
The afternoon was divided into three panels of discussion composed of ºÚÁÏÍø staff, scholars and practitioners concerning three different aspects of the ºÚÁÏÍø Organization's legal framework:
- ºÚÁÏÍø staff privileges and immunities
- ºÚÁÏÍø, nuclear and environmental aspects
- ºÚÁÏÍø and intellectual property rights.
The proceedings of this workshop will be published in order to disseminate the fruitful information shared between all participants. This will be a very important step in writing the legal history of the ºÚÁÏÍø project and in spreading information relating to the ºÚÁÏÍø legal framework.
Prior to the workshop, participants were given the opportunity to visit the ºÚÁÏÍø site. They were able to see the tremendous progress on the construction and this enabled them to measure the scientific and legal stakes at play and the importance of the ºÚÁÏÍø Legal Workshop for a better understanding of the ºÚÁÏÍø Project.
The fact that the workshop was so successful shows the need for further collaboration between the ºÚÁÏÍø Organization and Aix-Marseille University to explore together legal issues raised by the specific legal status of the ºÚÁÏÍø Organization.