Miguel Galvão Teles, partner in Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva, was invited to participate in an absolutly singular session honouring Professor Rosalyn Higgins, who was awarded the Hague Prize, which is reserved for people who are distinguished in international law.
In an unprecedented event for Portugal Miguel Galvão Teles joined the greatest international law specialists from all over the world to give a speech on “State Responsibility and Defaults of the Past”.
The conference “Temporal Issues in International Law” took place on December 3,2010, at the T.M.C. Asser Institute.
The presence of a Portuguese lawyer and partner in Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva at this conference of distinguished academicians was a notable event in Portuguese legal history.
Besides the Portuguese lawyer there were other speakers: Alain Pellet from the University of Paris (Temporal Issues in Jurisdiction); Michael Reisman from Yale University (Temporal Issues in Arbitration),Vaughan Lowe from Oxford University (Temporal Issues and the Concept of Applicable Law), Peter Kooijmans, appointed Minister of State by the Cabinet of the Netherlands and judge of the International Court of Justice (Temporal Issues in Treaty Law), Philippa Webb, Special Assistant to the President of the International Court of Justice (Temporal Issues in International Criminal Law) and Lord Rodger of Earlsferry from the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (Temporal Issues in Human Rights Law).
Rosalyn Higgins, Professor of international law at London School of Economics, was part of the Portuguese team in the case concerning East Timor. She was a judge in the International Court of Justice from 1995 to 2009 and president of the Court from 2006 to 2009.