The International Law Commission (ILC) was created in 1947 and is an auxiliary body of the United Nations General Assembly. According to the United Nations Charter (Article 13), the ILC's task is to promote the progressive development of international law and its codification. Therefore, the ILC prepares draft conventions, which are then forwarded by the General Assembly to diplomatic conferences of states or adopted by the General Assembly itself.
In 2006, the Commission included the topic "Immunity of State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction" in its long-term work program. In the 73rd session, which started in the spring of 2022, the ILC now reached, after in-depth discussions, the 'first reading' of the already provisionally adopted articles of this topic and was finally able to successfully adopt these articles.
Ms. Seyfried's dissertation project deals with the nature of state immunity under international law and its treatment in Austrian (civil procedure) law. The participation in the sessions for the drafting of articles on the immunity of state officials under international law, in which important issues surrounding the granting of immunity under international law were debated and the diverging state practice was carefully examined, thus represents an extremely useful contribution to Ms. Seyfried's successful research in this area.
Other current topics dealt with in the course of the 73rd session and on which Ms. Seyfried was able to work included "Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts", "Peremptory norms of general international law (jus cogens)" and "sea level rise in relation to international law".
The International Law Commission makes an indispensable contribution to the promotion of the development of international law through the elaboration of draft conventions. This internship allowed Ms. Seyfried to gain valuable experience and food for thought for her research project in the field of international law immunities and, most importantly, to look over the shoulder of Professor Charles C. Jalloh in his work as a very active member of the International Law Commission and to benefit from his expertise.