Profile of some of the Washington & Lee Law Faculty with international law interests

Professor Rick Kirgis continues to write book reviews for the American Journal of International Law. He remains on its Board of Editors, as an Honorary (i.e. emeritus) Editor. He continues to serve on the Executive Committee and Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, and also as ASIL Secretary and its historian.

In the academic year 2009-2010, Professor Kirgis will be teaching a section of the newly required first-year course in Transnational Law, using original materials that he is preparing this summer as well as some materials prepared by others. The other section will be taught by Professor Mark Drumbl, who also has prepared a set of materials for this exciting new initiative. Transnational Law introduces first-year students to core principles of public international law, comparative law, and the extraterritorial reach of domestic law. Professor Drumbl currently is working on a new book-length project on the intersection between child soldiers and international criminal law. In addition to the mandatory Transnational Law Course, he also teaches in international criminal law and transitional justice at the law school.

Professor Susan D. Franck will be teaching International Litigation and Arbitration. Professor Franck's course is designed to familiarize students with the special substantive and procedural issues that arise in international commercial disputes and help students understand the commercial implications of working with other legal systems and cultures. This course addresses issues that U.S. courts face when international disputes arise, including core issues related to jurisdiction, foreign evidence gathering, choice of forum, the act of state doctrine and sovereign immunity; it considers similar issues related to arbitration and evaluates the effectiveness of different methods for resolving international commercial disputes. Professor Franck's scholarship explores international economic law and dispute resolution. It uses, amongst other methods, an empirical approach to analyze international investment conflict, particularly disputes arising under investment treaties, and make normative observations about the future of international economic law. Her most recent work on development and outcomes of investment treaty arbitration is featured in the Harvard International Law Journal.

Professor Johanna Bond will be teaching a practicum in international human rights law in the fall 2009. The course will engage students in international human rights fact-finding, involving extensive documentation of a human rights problem, analysis of the government's response to the problem, and an assessment of the government's obligations under national and international human rights law. This project, which is envisioned as a collaboration between a Tanzanian NGO called the Women's Legal Aid Center and law students and faculty from Washington and Lee, will contribute to legal advocacy on issues related to sexual violence in Tanzania. The project will involve a fact-finding investigation followed by the production of a human rights report that will be used by local NGOs as a tool for law reform and advocacy. Professor Bond's most recent scholarship includes a contribution to a book on African customary law, entitled, The Future of African Customary Law (forthcoming Cambridge University Press) and an article entitled Gender, Discourse, and Customary Law in Africa.

Professor Christopher Bruner joined Washington and Lee as an Associate Professor in 2009. His teaching and scholarship focus on corporate law and securities regulation, including international and comparative dimensions of these subjects. Professor Bruner's articles have appeared in a variety of law and policy journals, including the Alabama Law Review, the Wake Forest Law Review, the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics, the Michigan Journal of International Law, and the Journal of Public Policy (Cambridge University Press). As a Research Associate at Harvard Business School, he co-authored a number of case studies and technical notes on U.S. and international legal issues published by Harvard Business School Publishing. Professor Bruner has presented his scholarship in Denmark, Mexico, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and conducted comparative research on U.S. and U.K. corporate governance as a Visitor to the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge.