ELS Partnering in a New Academic Programme

ELS is partnering in a newly launched academic programme initiated by the Barcelona-based International Criminal Bar (ICB). The academic programme, known as the “Luis del Castillo” Permanent Seminar and Master’s in International Criminal Justice, seeks to establish itself as “an instrument of training, research, intellectual debate and exchange of ideas” on issues related to the broader topic of international criminal justice. Supervised by an academic director from the University of Tarragona (locally known as Universitat Rovira i Virgili), the programme will be implemented in collaboration with several other partners of the ICB, one of which is ELS. The programme was officially inaugurated at a ceremony hosted by the City Council of Tarragona (in the Catalonia Region of Spain) in the evening hours of 29 November 2017. Over the next two days, members of the academic programme discussed the design and contents of the different modes to be taught, harmonisation of teaching methodologies, including the techniques of virtualised e-learning, as well as strategies of legal training and the role of international legal actors. The programme takes its name from the Honorary President of the ICB, Mr. Luis del Castillo Aragón, also by way of honouring his contribution to the ICB in particular and to international criminal justice in general. The Executive Director of ELS (Dr. Daniel R. Mekonnen), in collaboration with the Secretary-General of the ICB, Mrs. Erika Torregrossa Acuña and the Centre for International Humanitarian Law of the Spanish Red Cross, will be teaching International Humanitarian Law. The academic staff of the programme include former judges, prosecutors, staff of international criminal tribunals, lawyers representing the ICB and other bar associations, as well as university professors and researchers. The courses in the academic programme will be offered in English and Spanish, with the Spanish edition set to begin in 2018 and the English edition in 2019. A pictorial report of the inaugural ceremony of the academic programme is available here: https://goo.gl/413JfN (Edited on 15 December 2017)