The Deputy Director of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy, Dr. Viviane Dittrich, gave a keynote lecture during the official opening of the new academic year (“rentrée solennelle”) at the Sciences Po Paris campus in Nancy, France, on 29 August 2019. She was invited to give the inaugural lecture in French on “Mémoire, État de droit, Justice : des défis actuels de l’Europe” (Memory, Rule of Law, Justice: Current Challenges in Europe).
Dr. Dittrich spoke on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall and German and European memory culture, the importance of the rule of law, rule of law backsliding and the role of the European Union to promote the rule of law in Member States and worldwide. Moreover, her lecture highlighted the significance of the Nuremberg trials and the Nuremberg Principles for modern international criminal law and referred to a number of recent examples of justice and accountability efforts on both the international and national level.
The audience comprised approximately 300 undergraduate students, elected officials of the city and region as well as professors and officials from Sciences Po Paris. Other speakers included, inter alia, Frédéric Mion, Director of Sciences Po, Stéphanie Balme, Dean of the College of Sciences Po, Laurent Hénart, Mayor of Nancy and André Rossinot, President of the Métropole du Grand Nancy.