News and Events

Career Seminars

Numerous career seminars are organized throughout the year. The seminar speakers in the past include officers and employees of UNESCO, the Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Court, the World Bank, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Organization for Migration, and the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor.
There was also a series of seminars for Japanese graduate students to enhance their writing, listening and speaking skills in English.

GSICS alumni who currently work in international organizations also hold career advice seminars. Currently a career advice seminar is planned on 30 May 2011 by an associate expert working in the Inter-American Development Bank.

Model Case for Legal Officers

The courses in English conducted in 2010-2011 were Law of the International Civil Service, International Human Rights Law, Multilateral Treaty Negotiation, International Coopertaion Law and Special Lecture on International Cooperation Law (international institutional law). Courses on International Criminal Law and Special Lecture on international Cooperation Law (law of the sea) will also be organized in 2011-2012.

(Left: Course on international investment law by Professor Armand de Mestral, McGill University, in 2009)

Seminar Series and Lectures

"Careers in International Organizations" (Lectures in Japanese, presentations and discussions in English)

In April 2011, Teruo Jinnai, former head of UNESCO Office in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) organized two intensive courses: "Careers in international Organizations" and "Management in International Organizations."Follow-up sessions are planned in Phnom Penh in September, which consist of lectures by and interviews of personnel working in international organizations there.

Career seminar by officers of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity
18 October 2010

"The Role of International Law and Lawyers in Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA) Negotiations: Canadian and Japanese Perspectives"
2 October 2008
The main speaker was Anne Daniel, General Counsel of the Public International Law Section of the Canadian Department of Justice. She has taken part in numerous negotiations of environmental and marine-related treaties as a member of the Canadian delegation. The examples include the past negotiations under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter. She and the discussant, Professor Akiho Shibata of GSICS, discussed the role of international law and lawyers in negotiations dealing with multilateral environmental agreements, where both of them have extensive experience.

"Current State of Play in the Liability and Redress Negotiations under the Cartagena Protocol"
2 February 2009
The Convention on Biological Diversity has a protocol on biosafety, the Cartagena Protocol, which governs the international movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology. Mr. Lyle Glowka, the Senior Legal Advisor in the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, exposed the current state of play in the liability and redress negotiations under this Protocol. The issues that Mr. Glowka covered were later discussed by the Group of the Friends of the Co-Chairs at the end of February 2009, in Mexico City.

"Prosecuting War Crimes in International and Internationalized Courts"
5 February 2009
Beginning in the end of the twentieth century, an unprecedented growth of criminal justice bodies to prosecute war crimes and other international crimes was witnessed in the international community. This session introduced the audience to two such bodies: the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY); the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, assisted by the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT). Dr. Nakako Onishi, associate professor of GSICS and an assistant legal officer of the ICTY, spoke about her tribunal as well as about some recent cases and their challenges. Mr. Ahmed Anees, Senior Assistant Prosecutor of the UNAKRT, spoke about recent developments concerning the Khmer Rouge trials. He was leading the prosecution teams in the cases of the two senior surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge at the time of this seminar.