Nyhetsarkiv

On 4 April 2025 the Jurisconsult of the European Court of Human Rights, Anna Austin, visited the UiT Faculty of Law. The Jurisconsult is a leading position at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, responsible for assisting the Court in ensuring the quality and consistency of its case-law. Ms Austin gave a talk about the Court’s Knowledge Sharing platform, the use of research in the Court’s work, and the Court’s dialogue with national judicial systems and academic institutions.

ECHR Jurisconsult Anna Austin 

Anna Austin has worked at the Council of Europe for 30 years, first as a lawyer at the European Commission of Human Rights and later at the European Court of Human Rights. Ms Austin served as Deputy Jurisconsult from 2015 to 2020 when she was appointed Jurisconsult of the Court. As Jurisconsult, she worked to develop and launch in 2022 the Knowledge Sharing platform, which has revolutionised access to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Council of Europe standards.

What is the ECHR Knowledge Sharing Platform?

The ECHR Knowledge Sharing platform provides access to comprehensive and up-to-date information on the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. This information is supplemented by references to the relevant international and Council of Europe standards as well as academic publications. The Knowledge Sharing platform is a very useful tool for scholars and students doing research on European human rights law.

Tasks of the Directorate of the Jurisconsult

Among the other tasks of the directorate of the Jurisconsult are providing information on the case-law to members of the Court as well as external audiences, conducting research on ECHR case-law and on international and comparative law, facilitating dialogue with national courts and exchanges with the Council of Europe bodies and academic institutions.

Relevant Elective Law Courses at UiT

Are you interested in human rights? JUR-3615 European Human Rights is an elective subject at master degree level at UiT Faculty of Law. Other relevant elective subjects are JUR-3617 Barns menneskerettigheter (in Norwegian), JUR-3620 International law and armed conflict, and JUR-3626 International Criminal Law, Atrocity Crimes, and Transitional Justice.

Members of the Human Rights and International Law Research Group discuss the role of justice in achieving lasting peace in Ukraine.

Accountability is neccessary for lasting peace

Upholding international law is vital

Professor Sondre Torp Helmersen highlighted the fundamental nature of the international law rules prohibiting the unlawful use of force by one state against another. These rules exist to protect state sovereignty and territorial integrity. Professor Helmersen warned about the dangers of recognising any Ukrainian territories that Russia occupies by force as Russian. Such recognition would undermine the fundamental rules of international law and legitimise wars of territorial conquest.

Newly published article

To find out more, read the article on justice and accountability for the war in Ukraine ("Rettsoppgjøret i Ukraina: de største utfordringene") co-authored by Gaiane Nuridzhanian and Sondre Torp Helmersen (in Norwegian).

Professor i rettsvitenskap Sondre Torp Helmersen har nylig utgitt en oppdatert og utvidet lærerbok om den alminnelige folkeretten. 

 

Bokas innholdsfortegnelse

1. Kapittel - Innledning 
2. Kapittel - Rettskilder
3. Kapittel - Rettssubjekter
4. Kapittel - Jurisdiksjon 
5. Kapittel - Havrett
6. Kapittel - Immunitet og privilegier 
7. Kapittel - Forbudene mot intervensjon og maktmisbruk
8. Kapittel - Folkerettsbrudd
9. Kapittel - Tvisteløsning

For jusstudenter og praktikere

Folkerett er ment å være en del av pensumlitteraturen i folkerettsfaget, og retter seg dermed mot jusstudenter i Norge. Den vil likevel være nyttig for andre som arbeider med folkeretten. 

-Jeg håper at den også kan være til nytte for praktikere som skal løse folkerettslige problemstillinger, som advokater, dommere eller ansatte i departementene, forteller Helmersen. 

On 24 October 2024, the FAKENEWS project at UiT, in cooperation with the Constitutional Law Research Group at the UiT Faculty of Law, hosted a workshop on Law and Disinformation.

The workshop began with an address by the leader of the FAKENEWS project and the Grey Zone Research Group, Professor Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv. Gjørv highlighted the importance of the topic by referring to two major disinformation events in Nordic countries, the 2015 refugee crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, and discussed how disinformation is still a part of the debate on climate change even though the underlying scientific facts are not in doubt.

The workshop continued with a keynote speech by Professor Marko Milanovic of the University of Reading on the topic ‘State Lies as Violations of Human Rights’. Milanovic examined which human rights and in what circumstances may be violated when a State lies. Milanovic defined the ‘State’ as individuals whose statements can be attributed to the State under the international law of State responsibility. Moreover he distinguished between a State lying to its own people and to people in other States, both of which may human rights instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Examples of rights that may be involved include the right to freedom of opinion and expression, right to respect for private life, the right to health, and the prohibition of propaganda for war. Possible scenarios include a State lying about political opponents as punishment for exercising their human rights, States systematically feeding a population lies, lying about information in the State’s possession, and lying during the investigation of crimes that violate the victim’s human rights. Milanovic also drew historical lines, back to Hugo Grotius, who argued that State could lie in order to achieve a common good, such as saving human lives or defeating an enemy. Whether lying can be justified and if so in which circumstances is also a major topic in moral philosophy. Milonavic made the point that some types of State lies are clearly allowed under international law, such as the use of undercover agents in law enforcement.

Research presentations during the workshop were organised into four panels touching on various aspects of law and disinformation.

The first panel was dedicated to international law and disinformation. Agata Kleczkowska from Polish Academy of Sciences, in a presentation entitled ‘Does disinformation violate international law?’, discussed disinformation from the perspective of such rules and principles of international law as State sovereignty, the prohibition of intervention, and self-determination. Cristina Lloyd from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, presented on ‘Due Diligence and Platform Regulation: do obligations of due diligence in international law compel states to regulate social media platforms?’, concluding that States do have an obligation to regulate such platforms and to perform due diligence. Ricardo Vasquez Dazarola from the University of Copenhagen spoke about ‘Regulating Disinformation in the XXI Century: Is the remedy worse than the disease?’, and discussed and compared domestic regulation in various States.

The second panel was titled ‘Disinformation in conflict and post-conflict context’. Onur Dur from the Social Sciences University of Ankara spoke about ‘Tackling Disinformation in Occupied Territories: Interplay Between International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights and Counter-terrorism’. He noted that both international humanitarian law and human rights law apply in occupied territories, and that disinformation may come from the occupier as well from the local population. Loïc Vandeput from the Royal Military Academy of Belgium gave a presentation titled ‘White lie or violation of IHL? A legal examination of the disinformation campaign against the White Helmets in Syria’. He examined whether the disinformation campaign against the White Helmets could violate international humanitarian law, concluding that it probably does not. Rigmor Argren from Örebro University spoke about ‘Disinformation and other Harmful Communication: Safeguarding Freedom of Expression while Harnessing Risk in the Post-truth Era’, arguing that the scope of the restrictiction of freedom of expression should depend on the potential harm of the targeted disinformation.

The third panel was called ‘Countering Disinformation and Cognitive Warfare’. The panel started with a presentation by Pontus Winther from the Swedish Defence Research Agency on ‘Legal Possibilities to Counter Foreign Election Interference – An Analysis of Sweden’s Position on the Application of International Law in Cyberspace’. He examined the international law prohibition of intervention, concluding that elections are within a State’s reserved domain for the purpose of this prohibition. States that spread disinformation may violate the prohibition against using their own territory to violate other States’ rights as well as a population’s right to vote and to be elected. Next Miguel João Costa from the University of Coimbra gave a presentation titled ‘On Quantitative and Qualitative Transformations: Discussing the Criminalisation of Deliberate Misinformation for Electoral Purposes’. Here the focus was on domestic criminal law and its potential to combat election disinformation. A presentation by Nikolas Sabján and Igor Hron from Comenius University in Bratislava was titled ‘From Disinformation to Cognitive Warfare: The Case of Slovak Republic’. They examined and compared legal responses to the phenomena of disinformation and ‘cognitive warfare’.

The fourth and final panel was dedicated to ‘Human rights and constitutional law perspectives on disinformation’. Annika Knauer from Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law presented on ‘Gendered Disinformation under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’. She emphasised the need for legal protection of women against mysoginistic narratives and gendered disinformation. Kirill Koroteev from the International Network of Civil Liberties’ Organisations discussed the topic ‘Disinformation and Freedom of Speech: Comparative Constitutional Law in the Absence of Human Rights Standards’. He argued that laws providing for criminal reponsibility for spreading disinformation are, for various reasons, considered unconstitutional in many domestic jurisdicitons. Maike Middeler from Helmut-Schmidt-Universität spoke about ‘Truth, Power, and Disinformation: Human Rights Implications in the Creation of State Narratives’. She critiqued instrumentalisation of human rights languge in memory laws which contributed to deligimisation of alternative historical accounts.

Finally, Vice-Dean for Research the UiT Faculty of Law Professor Magne Frostad concluded the workshop. Frostad pointed that disinformation remains one of the major challenging facing the modern society, not least because it is willingly employed by many State and non-state actors. He noted that the law plays an important, albeit limited role in countering disinformation.

Sondre Torp Helmersen tar over stafettpinnen som ny forskergruppeleder.

Sondre er professor ved det juridiske fakultet på UiT, og forsker hovedsakelig på folkerettslige spørsmål. Herunder maktforbudet og humanitærretten, havretten og tvisteløsning, og forholdet mellom folkeretten og nasjonal rett, og videre har han skrevet doktorgrad om juridisk litteratur som rettskilde i folkeretten.

I det siste har han blant annet publisert artikler om utviklingen av det dualistiske prinsipp i norsk rett og synet på livet i havet i mellomstatlige tvister. Som forskergruppeleder vil han bygge videre på det gode arbeidet som har skjedd i gruppa under Magne Frostads kyndige ledelse.

- Magne har ledet gruppen med stødig hånd i en periode der vi har fått nye medlemmer og nye eksternfinansierte prosjekter, slår Sondre fast.

Hankan videre avsløre at forskergruppas nærmeste fremtid byr på både en markering av Russlands fullskalainvasjon av Ukraina i februar, en europatur i månedsskiftet april/mai og en workshop om falske nyheter inne utløpet av året.

Frostad er professor ved det juridiske fakultet og har statsrett og folkerett som sine spesifalfelt. Særlig reglene om når stater kan bruke militær makt (jus ad bellum) og hvilke regler som gjelder når de gjør dette (jus in bello), samt menneskerettigheter og havrett.