Successful Conclusion of the Third Training Session of the China-AALCO Exchange and Research Program in International Law
Beijing and Hong Kong - The Third Training Session of the China-AALCO Exchange and Research Program (CAERP) in International Law, which was held from 3rd to 24th September, was successfully concluded on 24th September 2017 at the Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong.
The three-week session, which was held in two phases, the first two weeks at the Taikang Business School, Beijing and the third week at Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong saw participation by 50 trainees—comprising an assortment of diplomats and members of the respective governments’ foreign affairs and justice ministries—from 38 AALCO Member States and one from African Union and the AALCO Secretariat. Over the course of an intensive three weeks, the trainees attended lectures by scholars and practitioners of international law covering a wide range of topics in both public and private international law and spanning the theoretical and practical facets of a range of diverse and contemporary issues such as: “Custom and Jus Cogens in International Law”, “Legal Regime on Cyber Space”, Identification of Customary International Law and International Dispute Settlement”, “Law of Global Governance”, “The WTO Jurisprudence and International Law”, “International Arbitration and Dispute Settlement”, “Compulsory Arbitration Under UNCLOS”, The Nature and Function of International Law in the Contemporary World Order”, One Country, Two Systems”, Belt and Road Initiative”, and many others. In total, 15 different topics were covered. Furthermore, unlike the previous two sessions, a Participants Forum was organized at the end of the programme wherein the trainees were divided into three groups and each group had to elect a representative to give a lecture on any international law topic of contemporary relevance.
The CAERP initiative—conceived and executed with great efficiency by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, in conjunction with the Wuhan University School of Law and the Asian Academy of International Law and the AALCO Secretariat—was received with great acclaim by all the participating trainees, who saw the CAERP Program as a platform for enhanced cooperation between AALCO Member States on an academic, professional and intellectual level, and as a crucial step towards improved capacity-building in the field of international law for the countries in the region.
