ESDC/Austria: Closing ceremony of the Legal Advisor Course

With these words, the final stage of a modular three-week course on International Humanitarian Law closed. During the last module, the participants studied a fictitious case of an EU Force Commander accused of three counts of war crimes. In group sessions, they were invited to find the legal arguments for both the prosecution and the defence of the accused general. A team of experienced professional legal advisers, some of them with experience of working in an international court, followed and evaluated the participants on a daily basis. They carefully selected the six best participants, who got an opportunity to plead before the simulated course.

21 participants received their certificates from the Course Director, Dr Thomas Desch, and the Head of the ESDC, Mr Dirk Dubois. The 9th Vienna Course on International Law for Military Legal Advisers was organised by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Defence (MoD) under the auspices of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) and supported by the ICRC. The last module took place at the magnificent location of the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. This historic background provided a magnificent setting for the last module.