Almudena del Castillo and Zitan Peng, both research assistants and PhD students of the project led by Dr. Sanz on the crisis of the rule of law in the EU, attended the different sessions of the AEPDIRI Network held at the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Tourism and International Relations of the University of Murcia.
On September 6, 2024, the First Conference of researchers in the early stages of their university career of the Network of the Spanish Association of Professors of International Law and International Relations (AEPDIRI) took place at the University of Murcia.
The idea of this initiative carried out by AEPDIRI was that it would become a link for the exchange of proposals, opinions and points of view between those in the early stages of their university careers and senior researchers.
The conference, which was divided into four sessions around four round tables on various topics such as the main challenges currently facing the legal system, the normative challenges of private international law and the European Union (EU) as a political and legal project, began with a welcome speech by Professor of Public International Law and President of the Association Ana Salinas de Frías, in which she highlighted the important role played by young researchers in the academic field and as well as the need to establish links and networks to contribute to the advancement and improvement of research.
Next, Dr. Esperanza Orihuela Calatayud, Professor of International Public Law at the University of Murcia was in charge of giving the inaugural lecture that opened the conference, in which she dealt with the issue of resource to the International Court of Justice by non-injured third States that apply as plaintiffs. The Professor, who dealt with several case studies such as the recent cases of South Africa v. Israel and Ukraine v. Russia, spoke in favor of the transition towards the recognition of an actio popularis in International Law, as well as a greater institutionalization of international society or the creation of a greater number of obligatory mechanisms for the resolution of disputes as a means to achieve objectivity in the actions of international organizations.
This was followed by simultaneous panels of communications held in three different rooms and structured around three thematic axes: 1) The challenges of the international legal system today; 2) The European Union as a political and legal project; and 3) Regulatory challenges of Private International Law.
During the communications panels, young PhDs and pre-doctoral researchers had the opportunity to present and discuss their research, as well as to receive feedback and comments from senior researchers on the progress of their doctoral dissertations.
After the presentation of all the papers, participants went to the Faculty of Tourism and International Relations of the University of Murcia where the event was closed with the intervention of Guillermo Palao Moreno, Professor of Private International Law at the University of Valencia and Vice President of AEPDIRI, concluding with a common lunch that brought together all attendees.
Zitan Peng and Almudena Del Castillo, members of the research team led by Dr. Sanz, were able to take advantage of this opportunity to meet other doctoral students and PhDs researching in different areas of international law, so it has served as a day of encouragement for the completion of their own PhD projects.
