The Law Department together with the Embassy of the Argentine Republic are organising a public lecture on the Malvinas Island Dispute and International Law by Prof. Marcelo G. Cohen. The lecture will take place on Thursday, 23 October at 15.00, Unesco Amphitheatre, University of Nicosia. Invitation details below:
The Malvinas Islands Dispute and International Law
The “Question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)”, as it is known in the United Nations (“Cuestión de las Islas Malvinas (Falkland)”, in Spanish), concerns the sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Malvinas/Falkland, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas. The origin of dispute can be established on 3 January 1833, when Great Britain expelled Argentina from the Islands at a time of peaceful and friendly relations between the two States, after having Argentina inherited the territory from Spain and having acted as sole sovereign of it since its independence.
The United Nations has characterized the Question of the Falklands/Malvinas as a special and particular colonial case. The specificity of it lies in the fact that the UN General Assembly has determined that the way to put an end to this special colonial situation is through negotiations between Argentina and the United Kingdom in order to settle their sovereignty dispute. The current inhabitants of the islands are not considered to be a people entitled to self-determination, and the colonial situation disrupts the national unity and the territorial integrity of Argentina. The interests of their current inhabitants must be taken into account while settling the dispute, but not making them the arbitrators between their country and the State having suffered the disruption of their territorial integrity.
The lecture will address the competing claims of sovereignty and the relevant rules applied in the context of decolonization. It will also briefly refer to the obligation for States to settle their international disputes through peaceful means.
Speakers’ profile
Marcelo Kohen – PhD, Graduate Institute of International Studies and University of Geneva
Member of the Institut de droit international and Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva where he has been a member of the faculty since 1995. He has also worked as legal counsel and advocate for a number of States before the International Court of Justice and other tribunals. He also acts as arbitrator. Professor Kohen has been visiting professor at several European Universities and Rapporteur on matters of State succession and immunity of the Institut de droit international, the International Law and the Council of Europe. He is the author of many publications in the field of International Law, in English, French and Spanish. His research and practice focus on international law theory, territorial, maritime and border disputes as well as international dispute settlement. He was awarded the Paul Guggenheim Prize in 1997 for his book Possession contestée et souveraineté territoriale (Adverse Possession and Territorial Sovereignty).
