Research Project on Treaty Law and Practice
Project Directors: Jill Barrett and Robert Beckman
Project Coordinator: Ranyta Yusran
CIL is engaged in a project to carry out training and research on treaty law and practice. The project aims to improve treaty law and practice in Southeast Asia countries and ASEAN and to publish a handbook on best treaty practice for a broad readership worldwide in governments, international organisations and beyond. The project began with CIL and the British Institute of International & Comparative Law (the Institute) collaboration in holding an International Workshop on Treaty Law and Practice for government officials in Southeast Asia and ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) officials that took place in Singapore in January 2012. CIL and the Institute have engaged treaty experts with extensive practical experience in dealing with treaties to provide advice and contribute to the 2012 Workshop and the initial writing of the handbook.
At the end of its collaboration with the Institute, CIL and the ASEC, with the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, held a second workshop on Treaty Management in International Organisations: Lessons Learnt and ASEAN Practice in Jakarta in December 2016. Apart from contributing to the common understanding on treaty management work in international organisations, especially the ASEC, the second workshop forms an indispensable part in the drafting of the handbook as it discussed the ins and outs of a treaty office in managing its organisation’s instruments.
Both the trainings and the drafting of the handbook have engaged treaty experts with extensive practical experience in dealing with treaties, in particular Jill Barrett, then Senior Research Fellow of the Institute and former Legal Counsellor, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Paul Barnett, then Visiting Fellow of the Institute and former Head of Treaty Section, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; and Gerard Limburg, former Director of Treaties, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. CIL is also grateful for the participation of Elise Cornu and Ana Gomez Heredero, the then and current Head of the Treaty Office Unit, Council of Europe, and Anthony Wetherall, CIL Senior Research Fellow and former Legal Officer at the International Atomic Energy Agency. CIL is also supported in this project by a team of ASEAN Law and Policy Research Fellows and Associates. Associate Professor Robert Beckman, CIL Head of Ocean Law and Policy, is co-authoring the handbook together with Jill Barrett.