Amal cancels Australian speaking date, been called to The Hague

Morning sickness?

Er, no. She's been called to the European Court of Human Rights in The Hague.

Work

Sorry, I was looking at the link, I did not notice the Re:...

Daily Fail again has a fail article how people are upset. She cancelled well in advance and over work commitments. No reason to be upset.

I read somewhere that only a handful of tickets for her had been sold.  I'll try and find it.

George and John are supposedly going to implicate that Australian officials are part of the problem in the Sudan at their conference next week.  I'll bet that is the reason Amal isn't going to Australia for this little gathering.  Other than lack of sale of tickets.

You could have a point, Mel, but I'm pretty sure it's a fact that she has to be in The Hague. Both the ICC and ECHR are there.

I did wonder if she would be involved in any legal ramifications leading from what we may or may not be about to hear, but she has a number of ongoing cases that she and fellow counsel could have been called for by the judges concerned

She must know this when she make commitment to 2 talks other side of world.She need to manage time better.For lawyer not look good.Give will she won't she to turn up.Commitment is commitment!

I would think Amal would not have specifically used hearings in The Hague as a reason to get out of her speaking commitment. She could have easily just said she had legal commitments that conflict with this event. With the number of cases she works on there is no way of knowing at this point what is taking her to The Hague or when these hearings were scheduled.

I have read in a couple of articles regarding Amal's cancellation that attendees can get a full refund.

Alison, the ICC and ECHR have panels of judges who come to their joint decisions on each individual case over time. 

Nobody can tell how long it will take them to make such decisions and they would certainly not do this according to counsel's (in this instance Amal) own individual timetable.

In this particular instance a month's notice was given to the organisers. Perhaps she ought not to accept speaking invitations at all, Alison, as you suggest!

I have to say that things can come up last minute in the legal world and you don't always get notice.  It's the nature of the beast.  You can't stop planning your life though.  Personal family issues  (like a death) can occur and you can't know about that ahead of time either.  So you can't say I'm not going to accept a speaking engagement because something may come up.  No one can live life that way.

Amal's job has to come first, if she knew she wouldn't be able to attend she wouldn't have accepted. Judges don't ask attorneys what their schedule is the the attorney appears when given a date and time. All the money will be refunded to 
the people who payed.

I doubt Amal would make a commitment she knew she couldn't keep. She's a lawyer. She knows that broken contracts can lead to lawsuits as well as a boatload of ill will.

In this case, though, I think the anger is directed more to the man who organised the event. Apparently he's had similar problems with other events.  I hope annemarie is right, and refunds are being offered to the people who paid so much to meet Amal.