Legal - 6th Committee ★

Delegates,

 Several of you have either emailed me or posted inquiries on this blog, expressing concerns that you cannot grasp specific policy positions for your delegation in some of these topics. I understand why this may be the case, especially given that both topics deal with specific issues that many nations may not have had previous experience with. Hence, I would like to offer you some guidelines to help you in writing your Position Papers.

1) The first thing I suggest would be to try to look into the history of your nation and see if there were any remotely similar conflicts. Obviously, it does not have to be necessarily coincide with the Turkey/Cyprus Border Dispute or Japanese War Crimes.

2) With regards to the Turkey/Cyprus Dispute, see if there were border conflicts at all in your country. See if your nation itself was colonized by imperial powers. Look into how the borders of that country was established in the first place. If your country is relatively small, then try to figure out if there had been any conflicts in the past against big states with regards to territorial issues. Go back 10, 30, 50, 100 years. There are very few countries that have been perfectly peaceful with regards to border issues when they are i) completely surrounded by different states or ii) dominate a natural resource such as ocean route, river (trade route), minerals, and so forth.

3) With regards to the Japanese War Crimes issue, try to find out if there had been any human rights violation imposed in your country throughout history. Delegates have actually been very good at this (as I observed in your submitted position papers). Try to place yourself in the shoes of either party and assess which position must be the most appropriate for you. If you have been victimized in any human rights issues in the past, for example, it would be appropriate for your nation to demand reparations from Japan, as opposed to some of the nations that have never experienced such issue. If you have been a nation that has violated human rights in the past, based on how you dealt with it, you may take a specific position either for or against this resolution. For example, I am very much interested in how Germany will officially establish its position in this conference.

4) Now, if everything fails, you can think what their opinion would be if they were in a similar situation. Some delegations have been establishing their country position based upon how their allies vote. It is necessary that you include some nations with similar voting history as your country within the topic synopsis, but this is not a sufficient way to establish your position. Of course, if you ultimately cannot find any information. you cannot make things up. In the case that you will have to rely only on countries with similar vote history, I will have to see a detailed analysis in which why you believe your delegation will end up voting like these countries again on these issues.

Now with that said, I want you to keep in mind that the goals of this year’s Legal Committee is not mainly to have a debate between nations, but to approach a single topic as a whole international body. As mature global citizens, how can we go about solving issues such as the border dispute and the reparations needed for past war crimes? I want to see you offering positions that are relevant to providing a resolution with an international approach at large. You will mainly be assessed with the depth of your knowledge in how international law works and how they can be applied (and should be applied) in our two topics. I want to keep this debate as professional and analytical as possible.

I wish you all good luck with your research. See you in about three weeks.

Hyo Jeong Kwon
Head Chair, 6th Legal Committee
University of California, Berkeley

Delegates,

 After many hours of attempting to embed this YouTube video directly into the blog, I have officially failed in making this post look “fad.” So until I figure out how to upload this video right into this post so that it stares right at you when you come into the Relevant Articles category……….here is a sad link.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca15_honda/comfortwomentestimony.html

 I wrote my Topic Synopsis right after watching this. Although I have directly included the content of this video in only about two sentences, this media presentation will add a new light in approaching your research. (Or at least I hope so.)

 Best,

Hyo Jeong Kwon
Head Chair, 6th Legal Committee
University of California, Berkeley

Hi guys, here are some relevant articles that you are required to read before the conference. This research has been done by my vice-chairs, Zach, Tiffany and Eric. Remember that intellectual comments and responses to the article are highly smiled upon. Good comments will be awarded extra credit points. Please refer to the “Extra Credit” tab for a description of what constitutes an “intellectual comment.”

Required:

1) Very political but an appropriate article that talks about the lack of diplomatic skills and questionable legitimacy the next candidate for Japan’s Prime Minister harbors.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/HE03Dh01.html
2) An insightful article on Comfort Women
http://davisiaj.com/content/view/23/86/
3) This is a more recent article about how people have been fighting for justice since WWII
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4749467.stm
4) Article that discusses how Korea rejects Asia Women’s Fund
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/world/asia/25japan.html?scp=1&sq=Asian+Women%92s+Fund+&st=nyt

Suggested Supplements (not required)

1) This is a website that provides a really comprehensive look at Japanese war crimes in WWII. It consists of attacks on issues from various angles. The reason why this is under “suggested supplement” and is not required is due to two reasons: i) the website deals with topics and nations that are outside of our committee’s issue scope; and more importantly ii) it contains very gruesome pictures which may be held inappropriate for some of you to see. Therefore, if you wish to limit the scope of your knowledge only to the relevance of this conference and do not wish to view the horrific graphical representation of the Japanese War Crimes posted here, you are more than welcome to bypass this link. However, if you wish to further delve into the issues and history in question, the door is open to you. This website has been discovered due to the courtesy of your vice-chair, Tiffany Wang.
http://www.kimsoft.com/kr-japan.htm

Hi guys, here are some relevant articles that you are required to read before the conference. This research has been done by my vice-chairs, Zach, Tiffany and Eric. Remember that intellectual comments and responses to the article are highly smiled upon. Good comments will be awarded extra credit points. Please refer to the “Extra Credit” tab for a description of what constitutes an “intellectual comment.”

Required:

1) This article brings to light how the border dispute is affecting turkey’s accession bid to the EU
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-12/2006-12-05-voa50.cfm?CFID=265385696&CFTOKEN=49708914
2) Turkey warns Lebanon, Egypt against oil exploration deal with Cyprus
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/30-01-2007/86901-oil_deal-0
3) Article from the LA TIMES reflecting the current status
 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-turkgreek24jan24,1,6566591.story?track=rss
4) Diplomatic stage of the involved nations
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/world/europe/24turkey.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Suggested Supplements (not required)

1) I believe this is a thesis written by a law school student on the Vienna Convention on Law of Treaties with its many faults. This is a long document and you are not in any way required to finish this reading. However, studying it may help you to acquire a deep understanding of the VCLT, consequently bringing a quality debate to your delegation at the conference.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=747364

Dear Delegates,

——————————————————————————–

Camille Pecha and Gwen Walsh posted the following inquiry: 

We are having difficulty finding evidence that the Japanese government publishes textbooks condoning the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during World War II. We were only able to find a source suggesting that a government committee recommends downplaying these atrocities. Can you point us in the right direction?

Looking forward to meeting you all at Berkeley!

——————————————————————————–

 Well, it’s actually very easy to find sources for them. They’re all over the internet! For example, type in the search engine Japanese textbook controversy Korea and you’ll get loads of publishings. Let me know if you still have trouble.

 Good luck.

Best,

Hyo Jeong Kwon

Delegates,

One of the merits of model united nations program is that we get to learn how to suppress our personal opinions and be a diplomat to the delegation in which represent. But this also marrs our true colors and extinguish a much ambitious and passionate discussion that may potentially arise. I am very interested to see what all of you think based on your person goals, ideals, cultural backgrounds, partisanship, ethnicity, race, gender, regional ties, and so forth.

This space is open for discussion with regards to the Turkey/Cyprus Border Dispute. I encourage you to express whatever your beliefs may be with regards to the issue, but with that said, please limite your discussions to the relevant range of the topic. Also, if you have any questions with regards to the topic, do not post them here, but visit the category on “Questions and Issues.”

Please make sure to include your name and your country within your comment so that you may receive credit for participation.

 Have fun everyone.

Looking forward to being enlightened.

Best,

Hyo Jeong Kwon
Head Chair, 6th Legal Committee
University of California, Berkeley

Delegates,

One of the merits of model united nations program is that we get to learn how to suppress our personal opinions and be a diplomat to the delegation in which represent. But this also marrs our true colors and extinguish a much ambitious and passionate discussion that may potentially arise. I am very interested to see what all of you think based on your person goals, ideals, cultural backgrounds, partisanship, ethnicity, race, gender, regional ties, and so forth.

This space is open for discussion with regards to the Japanese WWII Crimes in Korea. I encourage you to express whatever your beliefs may be with regards to the issue, but with that said, please limite your discussions to the relevant range of the topic. Also, if you have any questions with regards to the topic, do not post them here, but visit the category on “Questions and Issues.”

Please make sure to include your name and your country within your comment so that you may receive credit for participation.

 Have fun everyone.

Looking forward to being enlightened.

Best,

Hyo Jeong Kwon
Head Chair, 6th Legal Committee
University of California, Berkeley

Delegates,

 In order to encourage active use of this blog, several chairs of this conference are offering extra credit for active participation within the committee blog.

I will give you several ways in which you can earn these extra points:

1) Soon, news updates with regards to the topics will be loaded under the category, “Relevant Articles.” All delegates are required to check up on these documents before attending the conference. Should anyone choose to leave an intellectual comment with regards to these articles, you will receive an extra credit point.  Factors that qualify as an “intellectual comment” includes, but are not limited to, fishing out key points/issues, addressing follow-up issues relevant to the article already posted, suggesting a connection between the article and how it may affect your country, dissent against the author, and so forth. Post them as “comments” under the articles in which you want to speak for. Remember, only those comments with substance will be awarded extra credit. If all of you leave great comments, all of you will receive credit. If none of you do so, then unfortunatley, no comments will be awarded.

2) There will also be a category labeled “Discussion Forum.” This is a space in which delegates may argue with one another with regards to the issues before the conference.  A very important, yet special, aspect of this forum will be that you will be required not to argue as a representative of a country, but from your own personal point of view. I will create separate forums for the topics on Japan and Cyprus. You may post your opinions as “comments” to the relevant forums. I will be serving, only as a moderator.

 At this point in time, I have not decided on the limits of the extra credit points you may earn. Most likely this will not be decided until a few days before the Conference. I will make an annoucement later on as to when the extra credit opportunity ends, and a few days before the conference, I will post a list here with all those delegations that have received extra credit (along with how many points you earned).

With that said, I highly encourage all of you to take part in this opportunity to earn points even before the conference. Because there are two opportunities which include several news articles + two topic forums, you obviously have at least 5-6 different options to earn your points from. This also means that you are not limited to one extra credit point. Do as much as you can, and I will award the points based on generating a minor curb.

Another key aspect of this opportunity is that this is your chance to let me know who you are. In such a large committee as this, it is almost impossible for the chairs to personalize which each delegation. Voicing your presence through the blogs before it gets hectic in March (with over 100 students in the room), is indeed a way for you to make an impression on the chairs beforehand. It will work to your advantage if we are already familiar with you when we see you up on the podium.

Again, those who have taken active participation in the blog will be noticed: by your chairs and by your fellow delegates.

I trust that you will use your best judgment to take advantage of this opportunity.

Best,

Hyo Jeong Kwon
Head Chair, 6th  Legal Committee
University of California, Berkeley

All delegates should be aware that this committee is dual delegation. Please be advised that one of the criteria in grading your performance rests with the depth of knowledge expressed by the delegates for both committee topics. Often times in large conferences, partners divide up the topics to write the position paper and speak in the committee separately. The chairs will take note of this and grade your performance accordingly. We expect to see both delegates for each topics and coherence within the consolidated form of the position paper will be highly smiled upon.

Best,

Hyo Jeong Kwon
Head Chair, 6th Legal Committee
Berkeley Model United Nations

Delegates,

You may well be aware that your position paper requires four sections: historical background, past UN actions, delegation policy, and proposed solutions. I want you to focus the least on historical background and past UN actions since they have already been provided in my topic synopsis. In many cases, students just paraphrase what is already published in the topic synopsis, and this will be unacceptable. Because I am the author of the paper, I will be able to tell if you have used significant amount of the synopsis to write your sections on historical background and UN actions.

I am much more interested on your delegation policy and proposed solutions. The sections on historical background/past UN actions will therefore be graded on “completeness” and “originality” (meaning not necessarily new research in this case, but that you haven’t just paraphrased the topic synopsis) only. The remaining two sections will take the bulk of your grade. This section will be graded on depth of research, relevance to the topic, accurate assessment of the delegating position, and so forth.

As is the case with any other respectable academic institutions, academic honesty will strictly be enforced. We will be monitoring plagiarism by random sampling, and those who have violated the provision will not be dealth lightly. Please take heed in citing your sources carefully.

Hyo Jeong Kwon
Head Chair, 6th Legal Committee
Berkeley Model United Nations