The Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria, Professor Tawana Kupe, cordially invites you to the 25th virtual lecture in the UP Expert Lecture Series:

Can International Law Address the Most Pressing Concerns of Society? In Search of Solidarity.

Presented by Professor Dire Tladi, a professor of international law in the Department of Public Law at the University of Pretoria and a Fellow in the Institute for Comparative and International Law in Africa (ICLA).

Date                                        Thursday 10 September 2020

Time                                        17:00 – 18:15

RSVP                                      Click here  to book

Our society is facing a myriad of challenges, many of which have been exacerbated and highlighted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. These include, among many others, the scourge of poverty, and environmental issues such as anthropogenic climate change. Academic literature has observed that the rise in populism has eroded the ability of international law to play a positive role in addressing many of the world’s current challenges. The point of departure of this lecture is that for international law to address contemporary global challenges, it needs to be based on solidarity. The lecture seeks to assess the system of international law against this background of solidarity.

Professor Tladi is a professor of international law in the Department of Public Law, and a Fellow in the Institute for Comparative and International Law in Africa (ICLA), at the University of Pretoria. He is a member of the International Law Commission and its Special Rapporteur on Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens). Professor Tladi holds membership of Institut de Droit and is on the institute Commission on Pandemics and International Law.

Professor Tladi was formerly Principal State Law Adviser for International Law at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. Between 2009 and 2013, he was the legal counsellor of South Africa’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, the period which coincided with South Africa’s non-permanent tenure on the Security Council.

In addition to his academic and government experience, Professor Tladi has been involved in international litigation, and has represented both South Africa and the African Union before the International Criminal Court, Pre-Trial and Appeals Chambers, and was part of a legal team in an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes arbitral tribunal.

In his capacity as an independent consultant, Professor Tladi has been involved in several political processes related to international law, including being legal adviser to the mediation team of former Presidents Mbeki, Chissano and Mogae on the dispute concerning Lake Malawi. Currently he is an AU legal expert on the Trilateral Negotiations on the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, and is also an adviser to ongoing UN negotiations on a new treaty to address biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The UP Expert Lecture Series provides a public platform for UP researchers to engage with a general audience on significant developments in their fields of expertise that are likely to have an impact in the future. We invite you to participate in our hour-long Expert Lecture Series and to be enriched and informed by the University’s research output.