The Program
International law and transnational legal issues are appearing with increasing frequency in domestic courts, raising complex and diverse questions of law and procedure. Through its Judicial Education and Training Program, ASIL provides judges and court personnel from around the world with educational programs, networking opportunities, resources, and tools for understanding an increasingly internationalized legal landscape and for effectively using international law when it arises in their courts.
This program, launched in 1999, addresses international law issues from the perspective of the judiciary and benefits from the guidance of an advisory board comprised of more than a dozen US federal and states judges and other leading experts in the field.
Seminars and Workshops
Since 2000, ASIL has organized more than twenty international law seminars, workshops, and presentations for judges and court personnel on the basic sources of international law, principally treaties, customary international law, and decisions of international tribunals. Among the specific topics addressed by ASIL educational programs are the Alien Tort Statute, foreign sovereign immunity, discovery proceedings, parallel litigation, enforcement of foreign judgments, child custody, consular relations, asylum, extradition, and mutual legal assistance.
ASIL also supports study tours and onsite visits by judges to important international institutions and tribunals in The Hague, including the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
Transnational Judicial Dialogue
Through its transnational judicial dialogue initiatives, ASIL strengthens networks of national and international judges that focus on comparative judicial practice in the interpretation, domestic application, and enforcement of international law. ASIL also facilitates judicial leadership in setting donor priorities and techniques for rule of law promotion and international judicial assistance in areas such as judicial ethics, education, and strengthening judicial independence and the role of a judge in a democratic society.
Resources and Tools
ASIL provides judges and other legal professionals with access to practical tools and resources for using international law such as International Law: A Handbook for Judges, the International Judicial Monitor, and i.lex, an online database of US federal and state courts that interpret and apply international law.
Other ASIL publications such as the American Journal of International Law, Insights, International Legal Materials, International Law In Brief, and Studies in Transnational Legal Policy also serve as up-to-date sources of international law commentary and are made available to members of the judiciary.
