A third public hearing for the Airspace Tribunal – an international forum to consider the case for and against a new human right to protect the freedom to live without physical or psychological threat from above – will be hosted online, from Toronto, next month.
The Airspace Tribunal is a public forum established two years ago by Kent School of Arts Reader Shona Illingworth and Kent Law School Emeritus Professor Nick Grief.
The public tribunal is examining the impact of accelerating geopolitical, technological and environmental change on the composition, nature and use of airspace, and considering the case for and against a proposed new human right to protect all people from physical or psychological threats from above.
This year’s hearing in Toronto will take place over three two-hour panel discussions via Zoom on:
- Sunday 1 November (14.00 – 16.00)
- Wednesday 4 November (14.00 – 16.00)
- Saturday 7 November (14.00 – 16.00)
- A final one-hour summative session will be held on Saturday 14 November (14.00 – 15.00).
All the webinars are free, with times indicated in Eastern Standard Time.
The first webinar (on Sunday 1 November) will feature presentations by Shona and Nick. Shona is an artist whose video and sound installations investigate memory, cultural erasure and structures of power in situations of social tension and conflict. Nick was a member of the legal team which represented the Marshall Islands in the International Court of Justice in cases against India, Pakistan and the UK concerning the obligation to negotiate in good faith towards nuclear disarmament. He also practises at the Bar from Doughty Street Chambers in London.
Additional contributors to this session include Kent Law School Reader in International Commercial Law Dr Gbenga Oduntan, who has written extensively on air and space law, including the privatisation and commercialisation of outer space activities. Dr Oduntan is also a barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The Toronto hearing of the Airspace Tribunal is co-presented by The Power Plant and the Master of Visual Studies program at the Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto. The Power Plant’s Director, Gaëtane Verna, will Chair each session and Counsel to the Tribunal, Kirsty Brimelow QC of Doughty Street Chambers will pose questions to the experts. Members of the audience – acting as judges – will also be able to ask questions.
Speakers for all four webinars come from a broad range of expertise, disciplines and lived experience – including Climate Change, Human Rights, Artificial Intelligence, Geopolitics, Contemporary Warfare, Biopolitics and Psychology. A full programme is available on The Power Plant website.
All sessions will be recorded, transcribed and incorporated in a special issue of the Journal of Digital War. They will contribute to Shona’s Autumn 2021 exhibition at The Power Plant as well as to the drafting history, helping to build and refine the case for the proposed new human right to be submitted to the UN and other bodies.
The Airspace Tribunal’s inaugural hearing was at Doughty Street Chambers, London in September 2018 supported by The Wapping Project, Doughty Street Chambers and the University of Kent. The second hearing took place at the Ethics Centre, Sydney in October 2019 as part of the Big Anxiety Festival, supported by The Wapping Project and the University of Kent.
Further hearings are planned in other parts of the world.