4:15 pm – 5:30 pm
Co-Sponsored by American University Washington College of Law
Lecturer: Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University
Discussant: Rachel Kyte, International Finance Corporation
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Co-Sponsored by American University Washington College of Law
7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
7:45 am – 8:45 am
Africa Interest Group
International Organizations Interest Group
9:00 am – 10:30 am
This panel will survey efforts to address climate change through adjudicative and quasi-adjudicative mechanisms at the international level in the face of the failure of institutional responses such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol to meaningfully address the specter of climate change. Panelists will discuss actions initiated in international forums such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as well as potential actions in other international forums, such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.
Moderator: Andrew Strauss, Widener University School of Law
Panelists: William C.G. Burns, Santa Clara University School of Law; Don Goldberg, Center for International Environmental Law; Hari Osofsky, University of Oregon School of Law
The Canada-U.S. Border: Free Trade in a Time of Enhanced Security
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Co-sponsored by the Canadian Council on International Law
As the Canadian and U.S. economies become increasingly integrated, border security measures are on the rise. This panel will feature Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson with commentary by Canadian and US experts on issues including border thickening and its effect on trade flows and competitiveness, data collection and privacy issues, and pre-clearance matters.
: Jonathan Fried, International Monetary Fund
: Ambassador Michael Wilson, Canadian Foreign Ministry
Jon Johnson, Goodmans; Peter Lichtenbaum, BAE Systems
Social Justice Advocacy in the United States: What Role for International Law?
9:00 am – 10:30 am
U.S. social justice advocates are increasingly resorting to international human rights standards and strategies to advance their domestic agendas, notwithstanding significant obstacles that range from a lack of awareness about these standards to official hostility. This session will explore this trend. It will examine how and why social justice advocates are using international law, what impact it has on recognition of these norms in the United States, and how it will likely affect international human rights institutions.
Moderator: Steven M. Watt, American Civil Liberties Union
Panelists: Aryeh Neier, Open Society Institute; Clifford Bob, Duquesne University; Monique Harden, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights; Walter Kalin, U.N. Human Rights Committee
Roundtable on Citizenship
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Citizenship has traditionally been considered a core element of sovereignty, part of a domain beyond the reach of international law. Changing state practice suggests the possible emergence of new international norms regarding naturalization, birthright citizenship, and dual citizenship. However a parallel trend, in which the rights of non-citizens receive international legal protection as human rights, is also visible. Citizenship, like sovereignty and property, can be disaggregated into its constituent components; it is not surprising that there are now a number of competing conceptions of citizenship in circulation in the international order. These developments generate a number of questions for the emerging global legal order. What are the salient forces and who are the influential actors? How do international law and domestic law interact, and where are there conflicts within emerging international norms?
Moderator: Peter Spiro, Temple University School of Law
Panelists: Linda Bosniak, Rutgers University; Gerald Neuman, Harvard Law School; Karen Knop, University of Toronto; Kim Rubenstein, Australian National University; Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago
The Future of Food
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
Agriculture and food supply are crucial for sustainable human development. Multilateral legal regimes significantly affect this supply, but so too do regional arrangements. Indeed, the future of our food supply could be strongly influenced by South-South cooperation and regional programs designed to promote local food production and food processing both for domestic consumption and for exports. Of course, the regional efforts must progress within the confines of existing international trade and investment agreements concerning market access, domestic and export subsidies, food safety and environmental requirements, and investment incentives, among others. The panelists, experts in their fields, will lead the audience through the current and future regional legal developments that will influence the future of our food supply and will debate the relative importance of the national, regional and multilateral rules and case law.
Moderator: Janet Nuzum, Former U.S. International Trade Commissioner
Panelists: Peggy Clarke, Powell Goldstein LLP; Derick Moyo, Embassy of South Africa; Victor Mosoti, Development Law Service UN Food and Agriculture Organization
Tsunamis, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and Asteroids: Are We Ready for the Next 100 Years?
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
Despite countless advances in science and technology, little can be done to prevent catastrophic events such as tsunamis, hurricanes, or earthquakes. And as recent events have graphically demonstrated, these natural disasters can cause untold destruction and human suffering on a massive scale. But what have these disasters revealed about international law? While international law cannot control nature, can it mitigate its negative effects?
Moderator: James Gathii, Albany Law School
Panelists: Michael Cohen, The New School; David Fisher, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; Arthur Lerner-Lam, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Queering International Law
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
With recent expansion of international legal discourse to encompass new approaches, it is no longer tenable to understand international legal theory only in terms of its origins in mainstream liberal thought. However, the process of opening up legal theory to hitherto ignored intellectual developments is an ongoing one, and a continuing gap in the intellectual canon of international law is the tradition of ‘queer theory,’ an approach to ideas rooted in the subaltern position of non-heterosexual sexualities in the world. The application of queer theory to the subject has a rich potential to enhance understandings of the discipline and intellectual tradition of international law. Panelists from diverse viewpoints will offer insights from queer theory to understandings of international law, including the nature of the treatment of gay lesbian bisexual and trans people in international law and the controversy concerning the non-accreditation of the International Gay and Lesbian Association (ILGA) as an NGO at the United Nations.
Moderator: Ralph Wilde, University College London
Panelists: Doris Buss, Carleton University; Aeyal Gross, Tel Aviv University; Diane Otto, University of Melbourne; Amr Shalakany, American University in Cairo
Africa: A New Voices Panel
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
This panel will feature new voices addressing themes at the intersection of African governance and its international legal obligations. The panel will feature a rich combination public and private governance issues. One of the presentations will focus on the challenges of designing a framework for the protection of the rights of women in Africa, while another will focus on the rights of foreign investors and the contractual obligations of the Chadian government in relation to the Chad pipeline project. Another new voice will address constitution making in post conflict countries. A final presentation will examine the contemporary global trading system in light of the Berlin West African conference.
Moderator: Joel Ngugi, University of Washington Law School
Panelists: Angela Banks, Harvard Law School; Chinwe Esimai, MetLife, Inc.; Marjorie Florestal, University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law; Sevidzem Kingah, Institute for European Studies, Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit
Jordan Paust, University of Houston Law Center
Laura Olson, International Committee of the Red Cross; David Graham, U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School ; Koji Teraya, University of Tokyo
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Andreas Lowenfeld, New York University School of Law
Harold Hongju Koh, Yale Law School
Paving the Way? Africa and the Future of International Criminal Law
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
The establishment of new human rights courts in the continent, the continued work of the ad hoc criminal tribunals for Rwanda and Sierra Leone, and all of the cases pending before the International Criminal Court make Africa the testing ground for international accountability for gross violations of human rights. This panel of leading jurists and experts will explore the impact of these international legal institutions on peace building efforts in Africa, and in turn, how the African experience will shape the future of international criminal law.
Moderator: Vincent Nmehielle, Special Court for Sierra Leone
Panelists: Vernice Guthrie-Sullivan, ABA Africa Law Institute; Jeremy Levitt, Florida International College of Law;
Simone Monasebian, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Institutions and the Rule of Law: A New Voices Panel
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
This ASIL new voices panel will consist of four papers offering different perspectives on the development and effectiveness of different institutions in fostering the international “rule of law.” The panelists’ presentations will address this topic with reference to different institutions as examples, including the WTO, UN peacekeeping operations, UN sanctions programs, and domestic courts.
Moderator: Richard Gardner, Columbia Law School
Panelists: Sungjoon Cho, Chicago-Kent College of Law; Jeremy Farrall, Australian National University; Susan Notar, American Society of International Law; Christopher Whytock, Duke University
Collapse: Can International Law Protect the Earth’s Natural Resources?
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Drought and famine have caused more deaths around the world in the past 100 years than any military conflict. At the same time, human consumption is depleting a number of natural resources, including fish, timber, minerals, natural gas, and oil. Access to clean water and arable land pose significant challenges in many parts of the world. Environmental changes, demographic trends, and economic progression play a role in these developments. Does international law offer any solutions to the increasing scarcity of natural resources? Or is a paradigm shift necessary to prevent a collapse of the global ecosystem?
Moderator: John Setear, University of Virginia School of Law
Panelists: David Freestone, The World Bank; Lakshman D. Guruswamy, University of Colorado School of Law; Edith Brown Weiss, Inspection Panel, The World Bank; Georgetown University Law Center
2:45 am – 4:15 pmGlobalization, and what it
means for the development of law, raise important questions for law schools
and lawyers. Past Annual Meetings have explored manifestations of this
phenomenon in the substantive curriculum taught in U.S. law schools. This
session will examine the institutional efforts now underway by American law
schools to build global linkages. The globalization of the American law
school appears to be multidirectional, involving not only greater
extraterritorial extension of U.S. faculty and students through enhanced
international exchange programs, study abroad opportunities for students,
and teaching abroad for American faculty and international internships; but
also deeper integration of foreign law faculty and students into domestic
education. This roundtable will survey recent developments and discuss
their implications.
Chantal Thomas, University of Minnesota Law School
Joseph Weiler, New York University School of Law; William Alford, Harvard Law School; Alex Aleinikoff, Georgetown University Law Center
- Election of ASIL Officers and Members of the Executive Council
- Election of the 2007 Nominee for ASIL Honorary Member: Professor Brigitte Stern
- Presentation of Honors and Awards
- 2007 Recipient of the Manley O. Hudson Medal: Professor Andreas Lowenfeld
- 2007 Recipients of the Goler T. Butcher Medal:
Mr. José Miguel Vivanco and Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade
- Recipients of the 2007 Book Awards and Deák Prize: To be Announced.
- President's Address, The Future of Our Society
- José E. Alvarez, Columbia University School of Law
Judge Theodor Meron, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
Leila Nadya Sadat, Washington University School of Law; Brigitte Stern, University of Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne; Tibor Varady, Emory Law School
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Transportation to Georgetown University Law Center
6:00 pm – 9:45 pm
Buses will circulate between the Fairmont Hotel and Georgetown University Law Center.
The Future of International Law— Members' Reception and Plenary Panel, Georgetown University Law Center
6:30 pm – 9:30 pm - Members' Reception
7:30 pm
– 9:00 pm - Plenary Panel
Hosted by Georgetown University Law Center
As the Society enters its second century, the 101st Annual Meeting will challenge scholars and practitioners to reflect on "The Future of International Law." While the future cannot be predicted, certain trends are shifting the stakes of the international order. Our challenge is to assess these and other trends while at the same time interrogating claims of their "newness." We must temper our visions of the future's promise and peril with the recognition that such visions, whether utopian or dystopian, can distract from our treatment of the present. Understanding and molding our transition into the future will require critical thinking, creativity, interdisciplinary focus, and a willingness to take risks.
Moderator: Anne-Marie Slaughter, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
Panelists: Barry Carter, Georgetown University Law Center; Lori Fisler Damrosch, Columbia Law School; Judge Hisashi Owada, International Court of Justice; Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade, Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Co-sponsored by Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP
Interest Group Meetings
7:45 am – 8:45 am
International Economic Law Interest Group
What Future for the Doha Development Agenda and the Multilateral Negotiating Regime?
9:00 am – 10:30 am
This panel will discuss the implications of the suspension of the Doha Development Agenda in 2006 for the future of the multilateral trade regime. Panelists including leading experts and participants in the Doha negotiations will consider the actual effect of Doha on the "Development Agenda" and developing country issues in general and whether there will be a recovery in the form of Doha-lite or something more substantial. They will also consider the impact of Doha on the WTO, as well as the U.S., the E.U. and developed countries, and also discuss the role played at Doha by newly active members China, Brazil, India and the G-20. Finally, they will look to the future and consider whether Doha marks the end of multilateral negotiating rounds in favor of a swing toward regional or bilateral trade agreements.
Moderator: C. Don Johnson, University of Georgia School of Law
Panelists: Raj Bhala, University of Kansas School of Law; David Walters, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; Sonia E. Rolland, University of Cambridge Faculty of Law
Implementation of International Health Law: A Challenge for the Future
9:00 am – 10:30 am
This panel will discuss the legal and practical dimensions of contemporary international health regulation. The speakers will discuss the nature of the major international health law instruments and touch on the “soft law versus hard law” issue. The speakers will then discuss the challenges to implementation in terms of “compliance versus cooperation,” creating incentives, resources and political will of States Parties and international organizations. Finally, the panel will consider the role of civil society in implementation and in promoting research towards future cures.
Moderator: Fernando Gonzalez-Martin, World Health Organization
Panelists: Gian Luca Burci, World Health Organization; Lawrence Gostin, Georgetown University Law Center; Bruce Plotkin, World Health Organization
Customary International Law as Federal Law after Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain
9:00 am – 10:30 am
2007 marks the tenth anniversary of Bradley and Goldsmith's classic Harvard Law Review article challenging the status of customary international law (CIL) as domestic federal law. That article generated a flood of academic debate, and the issue has found its way in front of various courts in various guises. A recent Supreme Court case, Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, acknowledged and weighed in on the debate, although what it said remains a matter of debate. This panel of leading thinkers will present the contending sides, to address the future of customary international law in the wake of Sosa. The debaters will consider: what is the core meaning of Sosa for the CIL debate? How have lower courts reacted, and how should they be expected to react? What are the implications for future debates, both among legal academics and in court? Is the debate over the status of CIL over or only just beginning?
Moderator: Martin Flaherty, Fordham University School of Law
Panelists: Julian Ku, Hofstra University School of Law; David Moore, University of Kentucky; Ralph Steinhardt, George Washington University School of International Affairs; Beth Stephens, Rutgers University
Slave Trafficking 200 Years After Abolition
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Marking the 200th anniversary of the passage of laws in Congress and the British Parliament abolishing slave trafficking, this multidisciplinary panel of experts will survey that 200-year history. Topics to be explored will include the transformation of slave trafficking from an accepted international practice to one of the first international crimes against humanity; vestiges of slavery and reparations proposals; and contemporary manifestations of slavery and slave trafficking.
Moderator: Adrien K. Wing, University of Iowa College of Law
Panelists: Diane Amann, University of California, Davis School of Law; Kevin Bales, Free the Slaves; Adrienne Davis, University of North Carolina School of Law
Charlotte Ku, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law and the University of Illinois College of Law
Shinya Murase, Sophia University; Dante M. Negro, Organization of American States; Hélène Ruiz-Fabri, University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne), President of the European Society of International Law; Sir Michael Wood, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge and 20 Essex Street Chambers
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
As the experiences of international criminal courts reveal, the relationship between national and international courts has become a key issue in creating an international justice architecture that works. What role can and should transnational prosecutions play in this architecture? Can international justice mechanisms take into account local or informal forms of justice while maintaining due process standards and the need to combat impunity? Are hybrid tribunals, which incorporate elements of both national and international systems, better able than international criminal courts to investigate and prosecute cases, and to act as a catalyst for national courts to act? This panel will survey recent controversies and attempt to look forward.
Moderator: Naomi Roht-Arriaza, University of California, Hastings College of the Law
Panelists: Laura Dickinson, University of Connecticut School of Law; Christopher K. Hall, Amnesty International; Paul Seils, Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court; Kimberly Theidon, Harvard University
Toward International Order in Migration and Trade?
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
As wealthy countries with aging workforces seek new pools of labor, and as many poor people in developing countries yearn to improve their position, it is likely that states will increasingly work together to allow workers to be more mobile. Compared to the law that regulates the flow of goods, services, and investments, the international law of labor migration is rudimentary. The U.N. Secretary General has called for a high level dialog on international migration and development. This panel will evaluate the possibilities for greater international legal order in the field of labor migration, and the extent to which such a legal regime might contribute to global and local security by reducing population pressure in poor countries, enhancing incomes through migration itself and through remittances, and increasing cross-cultural exchange.
Moderator: Joel Trachtman, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Panelists: Tomer Broude, Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Howard Chang, University of Pennsylvania; Bimal Ghosh, International Organization of Migration; Susan Martin, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University
Indigenous Rights, Traditional Knowledge, and Access to Genetic Resources - New Participants in Future International Law Making
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
The international legal system is being tested by non-state actors, including indigenous peoples, who, thanks to their unique relationship with state actors and their claims to a right of self-determination challenging state sovereignty, may have a particularly profound impact on international law making. The State Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are currently negotiating an international regime on access and benefit sharing respecting genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. Indigenous rights and interests are fundamentally implicated, and indigenous peoples are playing a significant role in the process. Using this example of international law making as a case study, the panel will discuss the implications of indigenous peoples’ participation for the future of international law.
Moderator: Stefan Matiation, Privy Council Office, Government of Canada
Panelists: Mattias Ahrén, Saami Council; Merle Alexander, Boughton Law Corporation; Valerie Phillips, University of Tulsa College of Law
Ethics, Legitimacy, and Lawyering: How Do International Lawyers Speak Truth to Power?
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
How do we define the responsibility of international lawyers in advancing the legitimacy and fairness of international law? How have international lawyers historically participated in public discourse on the applicability of international law to political controversies of the day? What role can and do lawyers’ associations play in expanding awareness of international law and its implications? How should international lawyers work, both in the academy and in practice, in the face of governmental disregard of legal norms? Should “relevance” be defined in terms of affiliation with power?
Moderator: Thomas Franck, New York University School of Law
Panelists: Richard Bilder, University of Wisconsin Law School; Kathleen Clark, Washington University School of Law; Ben Davis, University of Toledo College of Law; William H. Taft IV, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Dean C. Rowan, University of California at Berkeley; Mary Rumsey, University of Minnesota Law School
Christopher Borgen, St. John's University School of Law;
Ellen Callinan; John Louth, Oxford University Press
Women in International Law Interest Group Luncheon
12:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Speaker: Judge Taghrid Hikmet, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Isabella Bunn, Oxford University
Karen Bravo, Indiana University School of Law; Colin Picker, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law; Amy Porges, Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood LLP; Gregory Shaffer, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Moderator: Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
Panelists: John B. Bellinger III, U.S. Department of State; Franklin Berman, Essex Court Chambers; Sean Murphy, George Washington University School of Law; Jide Nzelibe, Northwestern University School of Law; Dinah PoKempner, Human Rights Watch
Roundtable on the News Media and International Law
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
In a global information society, the media plays an ever-increasing role in identifying, clarifying and analyzing the relevance of international law to current affairs. This discussion with leading members of the media will explore how journalists cover international legal developments, the role they perceive international law to play in current events, the obstacles they face in explaining international law to their audiences, and how international lawyers might help journalists increase the public's understanding and appreciation of international law.
Bruce Stokes, National Journal
Roy Gutman, McClatchy Newspapers; Jim Landers, Dallas Morning News; Moisés Naím, Foreign Policy; Ari Shapiro, National Public Radio
Divergence and Harmonization in Private International Law
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Once conceived as focused on issues of conflicts of law, recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, service of process and collection of evidence, the field of private international law today sweeps ever more broadly. Efforts are underway to harmonize diverse national laws and to adopt new international instruments in such varied areas as international commercial arbitration and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, secured transactions, government procurement, family law (abduction, adoption, maintenance), insolvency, transportation law, commercial fraud and consumer protection, wills and trusts, etc. This panel will explore recent developments in these areas and, at the same time, highlight the ways in which harmonization and modernization efforts serve to build bridges between differing legal systems in areas of procedural and substantive conflict, sometimes at the national level (i.e. through model laws), sometimes on a regional basis (through the EU and the OAS) and perhaps more successfully on a global basis (for example, the Hague Conference's recently adopted Choice of Court Agreements Convention and UNCITRAL's work on insolvency).
David P. Stewart, U.S. Department of State.
Panelists: Christophe Bernasconi, The Hague Conference on Private International Law; Edwin E. Smith, Bingham McCutchen LLP; Robert G. Spector, University of Oklahoma Law Center; Louise Ellen Teitz, Roger Williams School of Law
Moderator: Mark Wojcik, John Marshall Law School
Panelists: Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson School of Law; Craig Jackson, Thurgood Marshall School of Law; Ved Nanda, University of Denver School of Law; Mary Ellen O'Connell, Notre Dame Law School
The Future of Transnational Litigation in U.S. Courts: Distinct Field or Footnote?
2:45 pm – 4:15 pm
Twenty years after the first edition of Gary Born’s International Civil Litigation in U.S. Courts suggested that litigation with an international dimension had to be understood as a distinct field, separate in important ways from domestic litigation, law schools across the U.S. offer courses on transnational litigation and more than a half dozen case books now cover the “field.” Has the anticipated transformation in how American lawyers think about transnational disputes come about? Or are such disputes largely seen as footnote-worthy variations on familiar domestic frameworks? Evaluating US legal developments with respect to jurisdiction, choice of law, sovereign immunity, and the relevant Hague Conventions, the panel will draw on experience from other jurisdictions and consider what the future will bring in terms of separate and specialized US procedural rules for transnational disputes.
Moderator: Paul R. Dubinsky, Wayne State University Law School
Panelists: Donald Francis Donovan, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; Mathias W. Reimann, University of Michigan Law School; Linda Silberman, New York University School of Law
Democracy, Gender, and Governance
2:45 pm – 4:15 pm
Since at least the mid-1990s and the Fourth World Conference for Women in Beijing, gender – as an analytic category, as a programmatic concern - has become a mainstream part of international law. While feminists have traditionally understood their relation to international law in critical terms and from their positions as outsiders, this turn toward gender equality places at least some feminists and some of their projects within part of the governance structure of international law itself. What are the implications of understanding gender activism as a part of global governance? How is a focus on gender equality justified, and what do these institutions hope to gain from embracing it? What should we make of the moving trajectory of international women’s rights concerns? What issues still remain outside the international agenda, and why?
Darren Rosenblum, Pace Law School
Sonia E. Alvarez, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; Janie Chuang, Washington College of Law, American University; Janet Halley, Harvard Law School
Kerry Rittich, University of Toronto Law School
The Future of International Labor Law
2:45 pm – 4:15 pm
The field of international labor law, and its leading institution, the International Labor Organization, have recently been rejuvenated in defense of "fair globalization." This session offers a discussion with leading commentators and actors in the field of international labor law, including one of its pioneering and preeminent scholars, Dr. Virginia Leary. The panelists will draw on their areas of experience and expertise to identify the challenges that face international labor law in the future.
Moderator: Adelle Blackett, McGill University
Panelists: Janelle Diller, International Labour Organization; Laurence R. Helfer, Vanderbilt University Law School; Brian Langille, University of Toronto; Virginia Leary, University of Buffalo Law School
Lucinda Low, Steptoe and Johnson LLP
Thomas Gottschalk, General Motors; Alberto Mora; Walmart; Paul Wright, ExxonMobil
President’s Reception
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Co-sponsored by George Washington University Law School
6:30
pm – 8:00 pm
Event is open to current and former staff of the Legal Adviser's Office
Interest Group Meetings
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Opinio Juris Reception on International Law Blogging
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Annual Dinner
The Future of International Security--Four Scenarios
8:00 pm – 11:00 pm
In this address, Prof. Bobbitt will present four alternative futures for the next 30 years. These possible worlds---called "American Buffalo," "The Real Thing," The Spanish Prisoner," and "Otherwise Engaged,"---clarify the choices to be made in the coming era of WMD proliferation, multipolarity, and increasing civilian vulnerability to catastrophe.
Introduction: Sarah Cleveland, Harvard Law School (visiting)
Speaker: Philip C. Bobbitt, University of Texas School of Law
Interest Group Chairs Breakfast
7:45 am – 8:45 am
9:00 am - 10:30 am
Does the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the
International Sale of Goods (CISG) succeed in regulating global business
law?With well over sixty signatories, the CISG has contributed to the
harmonization of contract law across territorial boundaries. At the same
time, difficulties persist in the interpretation and implementation of the
CISG, arising under a range of key issues such as "gap-filling" mechanisms,
contract avoidance, and remedies. Moreover, the CISG's reach has remained
limited both formally, in that most developing countries have refrained
from joining it; and informally, as some courts and tribunals in signatory
states resist applying CISG norms. This session will examine current
controversies and issues and address possible solutions.
Moderator: Gabriel Wilner, University of Georgia School of Law
Panelists: Eduardo Grebler, Catholic University of Minas Gerais Law School and the International Law Association, Brazilian Branch; Ingeborg Schwenzer, University of Basel,
Switzerland; Paul Stephan, University of Virginia School of Law
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Over the past few years, reform has ranked high on the agenda of the United Nations and the regional human rights systems. Featuring experts with U.N. and regional experience as well as outside commentators, this panel will explore the strengths and weaknesses of current human rights structures, with particular focus on their capacity to address contemporary human rights crises.
Moderator: John Cerone, New England School of Law
Panelists: Ngonlardje Mbaidjol, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; Judge Cecilia Medina, Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Judge Fatsah Ouguergouz, African Court of Human Rights; Judge Christos Rozakis, European Court of Human Rights
9:00 am - 10:30am
The North Korean nuclear test, the Iranian nuclear program, the A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network, the U.S.-India nuclear deal, the U.S.'s faulty intelligence on Iraqi WMD, the increasing availability of nuclear technology (including over the Internet), and al Qaeda efforts to acquire nuclear weapons have all raised questions about the viability and scope of the current nuclear nonproliferation regime. The regime has been criticized for having weak verification mechanisms, inconsistently sanctioning noncompliance, insufficiently addressing non-state actors, being slow to adapt to the diffusion of nuclear technology, and being "discriminatory" for accepting five nuclear weapons states while prohibiting others. The panel will discuss how and why the nuclear nonproliferation regime is failing, how it can be improved, how a cascade of proliferation might affect international law, and what lessons from nuclear nonproliferation’s challenges may be applicable to other weapons proliferation initiatives such as those relating to chemical and biological weapons.
Moderator: Orde F. Kittrie, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Panelists: Jack Beard, University of California Los Angeles School of Law; Joseph Cirincione, Center for American Progress; Patricia McNerney, U.S. Department of State
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
This panel will look at the increasing convergence of two of the key modern challenges to the law of war: first, the phenomenon of insurgencies led by non-state groups with the aim of territorial control, spanning the spectrum from Franco’s fascist insurgency in the 1930s to anti-colonial movements in the 1950s and 1960s to the anti-American Iraqi and Afghan insurgencies in the 2000s; and second, the phenomenon of transnational ideologically-based movements employing violence to achieve political ends, spanning the spectrum from the Communist International in the 1930s to the left-wing internationalism of the Che Guevara variety in the 1960s to Al Qaeda in the 2000s. The panel will discuss how the convergence of these two phenomena challenges the laws of war to such an extent as to place that law in a troubled relationship to the key conflicts in the world.
Moderator: Nathaniel Berman, Brooklyn Law School
Panelists: Catriona Drew, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; David Kennedy, Harvard Law School; Philip Sundel, International Committee of the Red Cross
Investment Law, Dispute Resolution, and the Development Promise: Back to the Future
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
This panel of leading experts and practitioners will explore the historical evolution of investment law and its current challenges. Panelists will assess initiatives to balance legal security and development goals in cross-border investment through discussion of two regional examples: bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and commercial law harmonization initiatives in Africa, and increasing cooperation and competition in administrative law for investment in Latin America. Looking to the future, they will also discuss the merits and prospects of an appellate body structure for resolving international investment disputes.
Moderator: Doak Bishop, King & Spaulding
Panelists: Adesegun Akin-Olugbade, African Development Bank; Jack Coe, Pepperdine University School of Law; Susan D. Franck, University of Nebraska College of Law; W. Michael Reisman, Yale Law School; Javier Robalino, Pérez Bustamanate & Ponce
Roundtable: A Multiplicity of Actors and Transnational Governance
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
This roundtable will critically consider the variety of roles that sub-national or non-state actors play in shaping, reshaping or resisting transnational norms. Panelists will explore how actors such as multinational corporations, immigrants, cities, local governments and financial intermediaries are influencing or being affected by transnational governance in a variety of areas. While some panelists will focus on migrant worker remittances and the role of financial institutions such as Central Banks, others will focus on the role of domestic courts in international investment and environmental disputes as well as on the human rights responsibilities of multinational corporations and the complex effects of the global economy on poverty, wealth and inequality at the individual level. This panel challenges us to think of the multiple and interconnected arenas within which law, politics and power intersect to constantly renovate and renew international legal norms.
Moderator/Discussant: Jose Gabilondo, College of Law, Florida International University
Discussants: Timothy Canova, Chapman University Law School; Robert Wai, Osgoode Hall Law School; Erika George, University of Utah College of Law; Branko Milanovic, The World Bank; Dan Danielsen, Northeastern University Law School
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
Human Rights Interest Group
|
