The 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting
ASIL welcomed these honorees and keynote speakers at the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting
Hina Jilani
Former U.N. Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders
(Honorary Member & Friday Plenary Speaker)
William J. Burns
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(Opening Keynote Conversation)
Claudio Grossman
American University Washington College of Law
(Goler T. Butcher Medal & Friday Plenary Speaker)
Elizabeth Odio Benito
President, Inter-American Court of Human Rights
(Prominent Woman in International Law Award)
James Gathii
Loyola University Chicago School of Law
(Grotius Lecturer)
Fleur Johns
University of New South Wales Faculty of Law
(Grotius Distinguished Discussant)
Rüdiger Wolfrum
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
(Manley O. Hudson Medal and Address)
Sir Daniel Bethlehem
Twenty Essex
(Brower Lecturer)
Sponsors
ASIL thanks its 2020 Annual Meeting sponsors.
The Promise of International Law
June 25-26, 2020We look forward to welcoming you to the Society's first-ever Virtual Annual Meeting, which will offer an exciting array of substantive sessions that explore the many dimensions of our theme, "The Promise of International Law," as well as special events and interactive activities expressly designed for the Virtual Annual Meeting.
Highlights of the Annual Meeting include:
- 40 substantive sessions, the majority of which will be held live
- 50 hours of special sessions and side events, Interest Group gatherings, and "ask me anything" sessions with leaders in the field
- 50 hours of social, networking, mentoring and career development sessions
- Over 150 speakers drawn from every segment of the international law community and from related disciplines
- Eight keynote sessions and named lectures featuring prominent figures in international law, including:
- Elizabeth Odio Benito (Inter-American Court of Human Rights)
- Daniel Bethlehem (Twenty Essex)
- William J. Burns (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
- James Gathii (Loyola University Chicago School of Law)
- Claudio Grossman (American University Washington College of Law)
- Hina Jilani (The Elders)
- Fleur Johns (University of New South Wales Faculty of Law)
- Rüdiger Wolfrum (Max Planck Foundation)
Annual Meeting theme:
In a world of increasing polarization and threats to individual and collective security, many turn to international law for guidance and protection, while others consider this body of law and the institutions that apply it ill-equipped to address evolving needs. Has international law lived up to its full potential and is it equipped to safeguard the peaceful coexistence of its subjects, to protect human rights and the environment, and to contribute to the attainment of shared prosperity?The year 2020 will give us much to reflect upon and to reaffirm. Even as states have withdrawn or sought to withdraw from agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Treaty on European Union, the international community will commemorate other enduring institutions and commitments in 2020. For example, the United Nations will mark its 75th anniversary amidst calls for significant reforms to global governance. The year 2020 also will see the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty of Versailles and of the Covenant of the League of Nations, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States, and the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. At the same time, the year 2020 will serve as a reminder that we have but ten years left to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which envisage "a world of universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and non-discrimination."
At its 114th Annual Meeting in 2020, the American Society of International Law (ASIL) invites policymakers, practitioners, academics, and students of international law to reflect upon the successes and failures of international law. Has international law held states, military forces, multinational corporations, and other actors – both public and private – to account for their international obligations? What role do regulatory bodies, international institutions, and non-governmental organizations play in actualizing the objectives of international law? Can and should international law be expected to produce just outcomes in all circumstances? The Annual Meeting presents an opportunity for the Society to take stock of the past successes and failures of international law while reaffirming the promise it holds for the future.
Session Tracks:
- International Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, and Criminal Justice
- Transnational Litigation, Arbitration, and Dispute Resolution
- Trade, Investment, Finance, and Technology
- Sustainable Development and Global Governance
- Security, Foreign Relations, and Use of Force
- Energy, Environment, Sea, and Space
Featured Speaker: William J. Burns, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Sponsored by Dechert LLP
Sponsored by Intersentia Publishing
Discussant: Edith Brown Weiss, Georgetown University Law Center
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
Sponsored by the World Justice Project
Sponsored by Intersentia Publishing
Is the need for transnational cooperation in areas beyond the territorial jurisdiction of states sufficient to overcome the resentments and anxieties of polarization and nationalism? This session will test the hypothesis that increasing numbers of states engaged in increasing activities in outer space and the ocean is creating a dynamic space for international law. It will also question whether formal legal instruments, such as the marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction agreement being negotiated at this very moment, are the ideal vehicle for promises that states will keep. If not, what are the alternatives? The session will address questions of resource and security conflicts, the actors involved in these two diverse spaces, the impetus for negotiation and decisions that led to the formal agreement that resulted, and compliance mechanisms.
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
Sponsored by Dechert LLP
Sponsored by Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
The United States has historically been at the vanguard of international dispute resolution, from the Jay Treaty through the countless cases of diplomatic protection, the Alabama Claims, the U.S.-Mexico Claims Commission, the Venuezuela bond arbitration, and many others. The panel will look at a sample of those cases from the 19th and 20th centuries to examine how States (including the United States) have changed their approaches to international courts and tribunals in the 21st century. The panel will address how the procedure and structures of earlier systems influenced States’ engagement with international courts and tribunals. The panel will further examine the political conditions bearing on international adjudication, both domestically and internationally, that existed at the time of the earlier cases, how those conditions compare to the current domestic and international atmosphere, and how those conditions affect States’ engagement with international courts and tribunals. In the process, the panel will address the questions: has the promise of international law, laid out in previous centuries as it relates to international adjudication, been fulfilled? What lessons can be drawn from earlier approaches, as we determine how that promise will fare in the future?
Sponsored by Dechert LLP
Sponsored by Dechert LLP
This session tackles one of the most pressing issues in transnational legal practice today: data protection and privacy rights. The EU’s enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in May 2018, has transformed markets around the globe as governments, multinational companies and civil society organizations with transnational activities have focused organizational resources on bringing their international practices and their accompanying data processing into compliance with the GDPR’s extensive regulatory framework. Other countries, including China, Brazil and India have followed suit with their own data protection regimes, all of which incorporate elements of extra-territorial jurisdiction similar to those within the GDPR. In addition, the International Standards Organization has recently issued a data privacy information management standard, ISO/IEC 27701.The global trend towards personal data protection is well underway. In the United States several states (notably California, with its recent CCPA), have moved forward with data protection laws, yet Congress struggles to draft federal privacy legislation, grappling with core questions of proper scope and effective enforcement.These developments suggest a number of corollary questions: is an international data protection regime evolving? If not, should one be developed? What role do comparative and international law norms, including human rights, play in shaping existing and potential data protection and privacy regimes? This session will explore these and other questions to map the state of play with respect to data protection and privacy regulation from a transnational perspective.
This panel will explore the concept of head-of-state immunity under international criminal law, in light of recent case law and other prosecutorial and investigative developments at the International Criminal Court, as well as the International Court of Justice and within other tribunals, on this topic. Head-of-state immunity remains a controversial topic within International Criminal Law: although many scholars and tribunal prosecutors argue that sitting heads of state should not be immune from international prosecutions if accused of atrocity crimes, multiple states as well as a minority of scholars assert the opposite. In practice, the work of the International Criminal Court as well as the work of other tribunals, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, have been hampered because of the assertion of head-of-state immunity. Moreover, immunity has been asserted by former and sitting heads of state within domestic contexts; such immunity claims impede the pursuit of justice and the imposition of individual criminal responsibility. This panel will explore head-of-state immunity, from its origins to its more recent applications at the International Criminal Court as well as at other tribunals. In addition, panelists will discuss whether the assertion of immunity differs in the context of atrocity crimes prosecutions from its assertion within other types of prosecutions for lesser crimes.
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
Sponsored by Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
This session will explore the international legal framework governing cyber power, and its limits. With the 2020 U.S. elections on the horizon and increasing reports of cyber effects operations ongoing worldwide, understanding the legal frameworks within which States must work as they contemplate deploying tools in cyberspace is imperative to maintaining international peace and security. To date, only a handful of nations have publicly shared their views on the application of international law to cyberspace [this may need to be updated come next April]. In this session, intelligence, defense, and foreign affairs officials from three such nations -- the United Kingdom, United States, and [France / Estonia / other?] -- will engage with cyber experts to discuss three core questions related to the applicability of international law in the cyber sphere: What cyber activities constitute unlawful interventions into the domestic affairs of another country? What activities in cyberspace constitute an armed attack against another country? And what activities are permissible for States to respond to either of these types of events?
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
Sponsored by the World Justice Project
Sponsored by Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
As human rights considerations permeate into various areas of international law, the role of international adjudication in protecting human rights has also been growing. This area has both private and public dimensions. The International Court of Justice has been recently presented with a number of inter-State disputes related to human rights abuses, including a historic lawsuit brought by The Gambia on behalf of the States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, seeking to hold Myanmar accountable under international law for State-sponsored genocide against the Rohingya. An investment arbitration tribunal in Urbaser v. Argentina for the first time accepted jurisdiction over the State’s counterclaim based on human rights, confirming that the “right to water” was a human right. This past year has also seen the publication of the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration, which are heralded as an important development for future adjudication of human rights disputes involving private parties. This panel will address the promise of international courts and tribunals in adjudication of human rights issues and suitability of international arbitration for resolving human rights disputes that arise in connection with transnational business.
Sponsored by Intersentia Publishing
Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time and it is already putting existing theories and institutions to a test. The most dramatic impact of climate change is expected to occur in marginalized communities that already have their livelihoods threatened by structural vulnerabilities and disaster. Climate change implicates issues of global justice, intergenerational ethics, distributive justice, moral, political and legal responsibility. Practices and tools from transitional justice have been used in numerous countries to address similar questions. This roundtable will explore what synergies exist between transitional justice theory and practice and climate change mitigation strategies.
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
Sponsored by the American University Washington College of Law
2020 Grotius Lecturer: James Gathii, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Distinguished Discussant: Fleur Johns, University of New South Wales School of LawThis is a moment of repudiation of international law. Some of the leading States that have shaped international law are not only exiting treaties, but also openly declaring and operating outside its rules. One important way to trace the promise of international law at this moment of difficulty is to go outside the beltway of our discipline to places often unfamiliar in our textbooks and the locations where we practice and teach international law. To do that, this lecture will take you to places like Arusha, Tanzania, the seat of three international courts. In doing so, it will bring into the conversation the voices of international lawyers from the Third World and the everyday issues that drive their practice and scholarship often under very difficult political circumstances. To appreciate fully the promise of international law, it is important to go beyond the usual debates, places and canons of the discipline in two ways.
First, this lecture challenges the limited geography of places and ideas that dominate the beltway of international law. This limited geography and set of ideas is characterized by the law of Geneva, the law of Strasbourg, the law of New York and the law of Washington DC. These are the places that the discipline celebrates as producers of the type of international law which in turn becomes the benchmark for the efficacy of international law produced elsewhere. These are also the locations where the bulk of international legal practice is produced and which influences and reinforces understandings not only of international practice but also of international law more generally. Second, a Third Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) perspective, speaking from a subaltern epistemic location, questions international law’s presumed universality. TWAIL contests the idea that international law is applicable everywhere and that it should therefore appear as a view from nowhere. Third World States and TWAIL scholars have contested this non− situated, universal status of international law in a variety of ways. Ultimately, the Third World is an epistemic site of production and not merely a site of reception of international legal knowledge. Recognizing and grounding the Third World as a site of knowledge production and of the practice of international law disrupts the assumptions that international legal knowledge is exclusively produced in the West for consumption and governance of the Third World.
Claudio Grossman, American University Washington College of Law, 2020 ASIL Goler T. Butcher Medalist
Hina Jilani, Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, 2020 ASIL Honorary Member
Sean Murphy, George Washington University School of Law
Sponsored by the World Justice Project
Sponsored by Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
Sponsored by Intersentia Publishing
International environmental law is at a crossroads. Even as the international community struggles to cooperate and act effectively to address critical global environmental challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and oceans management, efforts are afoot to consolidate and deepen the normative and institutional framework for international environmental law. We propose to hold a roundtable discussion critically exploring the degree to which ongoing efforts to develop a Global Pact for the Environment and to expand constitutional and legislative environmental rights worldwide foster efforts to develop a set of shared norms, and to advance ambitious environmental protection efforts.
This session made possible by a generous contribution from the Vagts Family.
Public health literature has long recognized the existence of determinants of health, a set of socio-economic conditions that affect health risks and health outcomes across the world. Frameworks relying on determinants of health have been widely adopted by countries in the global South and North alike. Issues raised by the implementation of intellectual property policies, however, are seldom treated as an integral part of analyses using these frameworks, even though IP bears direct effects on the dynamics of several determinants of health. This roundtable will discuss a paper by presenter Prof. Ana Santos Rutschman, which examines TRIPS intellectual property (IP) as a contributing element to the literature on the social and economic determinants of health (SD).
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
Sponsored by the World Justice Project
Sponsored by Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
The Brower Lecture is named in honor of Judge Charles N. Brower for his many contributions to the field of international law.
Sponsored by the World Justice Project
Research in human rights requires resources and skills that enable access both to texts and to empirical data in all formats. What new issues and emerging technology tools enhance and enlarge international legal and human rights research, and how are law firm and academic information managers using, and training users, in familiarity with these emerging areas and tools? For what new advances should lawyers be prepared? Predictive, analytic, and data mining tools may promote or disrupt research human rights, climate change, and access to justice. Avoiding implicit bias in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning (a concern evidenced by The Toronto Declaration on Protecting the Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination in Machine Learning Systems) is a new issue that adds algorithms, used in search engines, to the contested spaces within which human rights must be asserted. This updated tour of potential platforms and applications for scholarship or practice will include presentation of current topics and technology-driven projects and, it is hoped, stimulate ideas for other use cases and research efficiencies that either facilitate or complicate the investigation of international norms.
One of our Annual Meeting traditions is the “L" Reception honoring current and former members of the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser. This year, in lieu of a reception, we will present a roundtable of current government legal advisers from the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States, hosted by ASIL Law Firm Partner Arnold & Porter, and moderated by former Legal Adviser John Bellinger. The panel will discuss the challenges of managing a government legal office during a pandemic as well as other current international legal issues facing their governments.
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
Sponsored by Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
Sponsored by the World Justice Project
International law informs, and is informed by, concerns for global justice. Yet the two fields that engage most with prescribing the normative structure of the world order – international law and the philosophy of global justice – have tended to work on parallel tracks. Many international lawyers, with their professional, methodological commitment to formal sources, regard considerations of substantive (and not merely procedural) justice as ultra vires for much of their work. Philosophers of global justice, in turn, tend to explore the moral commitments of international actors without grappling with the complexities of international legal doctrine. In recent years, however, both disciplines have begun to engage with one another more, as reflected in works such as Carmody et al, Global Justice and International Economic Law (CUP, 2012); Ratner, The Thin Justice of International Law (OUP, 2015); Haque, Law and Morality at War (OUP, 2017); and Linarelli et al, The Misery of International Law (OUP, 2018). The time is ripe, therefore, for an interdisciplinary conversation to take stock of the relationship between international law and theories of global justice.This panel will seek to inform and enlighten Annual Meeting attendees about these new interdisciplinary developments and, in particular, the role of global justice discourse for practicing and academic international lawyers. The proposed format would ask two international lawyers and two philosophers with diverse perspectives to address international law’s relationship to global justice. How should international lawyers see their roles in terms of advancing different notions of global justice? Are certain types of international lawyering more or less amenable to using law as an instrument of global justice? How does the international lawyer’s role as practical problem-solver allow for her or him to take into account considerations of justice?
Sponsored by Intersentia Publishing
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
Sponsored by Intersentia Publishing
Sponsored by Dechert LLP
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
From Simon Bolivar’s 1826 Congress of Panama to the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, multilateralism has always been front and center in the history of Latin America. But is it thriving or declining today? What can it help achieve, and what obstacles is it posing? This session will explore the past, present and future of multilateralism in the region, including an assessment of multilateral institutions and groups in resolving crises in the region. Have they been successful (e.g., in Venezuela, Haiti or Nicaragua)? How should success be measured? Are the institutions that aim to promote economic integration and trade (e.g. Mercosur, Pacific Alliance) in ascendancy or decline? What is the record and promise of specialized institutions (e.g. the SIEPAC focusing on the electricity grid in Central America, or the Inter-American Development Bank)? Do ad hoc groups, like the Lima Group, hold more power and promise than formal institutions like the OAS? Are the existing institutions suited to address challenges such as migration, climate change, or trans-border criminal activities? Should new institutions, such as a regional criminal court, be created? What should be the role of these institutions with regard to corruption, a particularly “hot” topic in the region?
Sponsored by Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
Organized by the Women in International Law Interest Group
A conversation with Judge Elizabeth Odio Benito of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, recipient of the 2020 ASIL Prominent Woman in International Law Award.
The ASIL Virtual Annual Meeting will offer several “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions, also known as “AMAs,” where attendees will be able to enjoy frank conversations with leading figures of international law who have engaged in our field through academic, international organizations, government and non-governmental roles, and private practice. The AMA participants will share their knowledge and different perspectives on international law, their own paths to practicing in their current fields, their thoughts on specific issues relevant to their expertise, and even career advice and personal anecdotes.
We hope you will join our distinguished list of AMA participants at the times indicated below for a rare opportunity to participate in these unique discussions. You can submit questions in advance using the button below, or you can log-in as a registrant on the days of the Annual Meeting to submit a question live.
Sponsored by the Municipality of the Hague and the Asser Institute for International and European Law
Cities and Other Sub-National Entities: What Promise Do They Hold for International Law?
Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. In 2050, the proportion living in cities will have risen to 75%. How does this rapid urbanisation influence international law and governance? Does the changing role of cities in international law and governance apply to other sub-national entities as well? In 2001, then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, “The central challenge for the international community is clear: to make both urbanization and globalization work for all people, instead of leaving billions behind or on the margins.” Cities and other sub-national entities are crucial to facing this challenge, as is confirmed by the adoption in 2015 of Sustainable Development Goal 11, to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Indeed, the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) was reformed to strengthen its role in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (2016) of the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development.
Cities and other sub-national entities play a role in the making of international law and global policy, with their involvement in the adoption of the 2016 Paris Agreement as a case in point. They also play a role in implementing international law and global policy, sometimes even when the national government has declined to ratify a treaty or implement a policy. International organizations are engaging with city networks, such as United Cities and Local Government (UCLG), to help improve life for people in the urban sphere. How should we understand this intensifying dynamic? What is the promise of international law for cities and other sub-national entities, and what is their promise for international law? Indeed, where does this promise fall short?
Featured Speaker: William J. Burns, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Sponsored by the American University Washington College of Law
2020 Grotius Lecturer: James Gathii, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Distinguished Discussant: Fleur Johns, University of New South Wales School of LawThis is a moment of repudiation of international law. Some of the leading States that have shaped international law are not only exiting treaties, but also openly declaring and operating outside its rules. One important way to trace the promise of international law at this moment of difficulty is to go outside the beltway of our discipline to places often unfamiliar in our textbooks and the locations where we practice and teach international law. To do that, this lecture will take you to places like Arusha, Tanzania, the seat of three international courts. In doing so, it will bring into the conversation the voices of international lawyers from the Third World and the everyday issues that drive their practice and scholarship often under very difficult political circumstances. To appreciate fully the promise of international law, it is important to go beyond the usual debates, places and canons of the discipline in two ways.
First, this lecture challenges the limited geography of places and ideas that dominate the beltway of international law. This limited geography and set of ideas is characterized by the law of Geneva, the law of Strasbourg, the law of New York and the law of Washington DC. These are the places that the discipline celebrates as producers of the type of international law which in turn becomes the benchmark for the efficacy of international law produced elsewhere. These are also the locations where the bulk of international legal practice is produced and which influences and reinforces understandings not only of international practice but also of international law more generally. Second, a Third Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) perspective, speaking from a subaltern epistemic location, questions international law’s presumed universality. TWAIL contests the idea that international law is applicable everywhere and that it should therefore appear as a view from nowhere. Third World States and TWAIL scholars have contested this non− situated, universal status of international law in a variety of ways. Ultimately, the Third World is an epistemic site of production and not merely a site of reception of international legal knowledge. Recognizing and grounding the Third World as a site of knowledge production and of the practice of international law disrupts the assumptions that international legal knowledge is exclusively produced in the West for consumption and governance of the Third World.
Claudio Grossman, American University Washington College of Law, 2020 ASIL Goler T. Butcher Medalist
Hina Jilani, Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, 2020 ASIL Honorary Member
Sean Murphy, George Washington University School of Law
Sponsored by the Municipality of the Hague and the Asser Institute for International and European Law
Cities and Other Sub-National Entities: What Promise Do They Hold for International Law?
Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. In 2050, the proportion living in cities will have risen to 75%. How does this rapid urbanisation influence international law and governance? Does the changing role of cities in international law and governance apply to other sub-national entities as well? In 2001, then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, “The central challenge for the international community is clear: to make both urbanization and globalization work for all people, instead of leaving billions behind or on the margins.” Cities and other sub-national entities are crucial to facing this challenge, as is confirmed by the adoption in 2015 of Sustainable Development Goal 11, to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Indeed, the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) was reformed to strengthen its role in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (2016) of the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development.
Cities and other sub-national entities play a role in the making of international law and global policy, with their involvement in the adoption of the 2016 Paris Agreement as a case in point. They also play a role in implementing international law and global policy, sometimes even when the national government has declined to ratify a treaty or implement a policy. International organizations are engaging with city networks, such as United Cities and Local Government (UCLG), to help improve life for people in the urban sphere. How should we understand this intensifying dynamic? What is the promise of international law for cities and other sub-national entities, and what is their promise for international law? Indeed, where does this promise fall short?
Space Law IG
June 25 - 10:15 AM - 11:15 AMNew Professionals IG
June 25 - 10:15 AM - 11:15 AMTeaching International Law IG
June 25 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PMPrivate International Law IG
June 25 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PMASIL-Midwest IG
June 25 - 13:00 PM - 14:00 PMAfrica IG
June 25 - 13:00 PM - 14:00 PMWILIG
June 25 - 14:15 PM - 15:15 PMDisaster Law IG
June 25 - 14:15 PM - 15:15 PMMinorities in International Law IG
June 25 - 15:30 PM - 16:30 PMInternational Economic Law IG
June 25 - 15:30 PM - 16:30 PMInternational Organizations IG
June 26 - 10:15 AM - 11:15 AMRights of Indigenous Peoples IG
June 26 - 10:15 AM - 11:15 AMAnti-Corruption Law IG
June 26 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PMNonproliferation, Arms Control, and Disarmament IG
June 26 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PMHuman Rights IG
June 26 - 13:00 PM - 14:00 PMInternational Refugee Law IG
June 26 - 14:15 PM - 15:15 PMLieber Society IG
June 26 - 14:15 PM - 15:15 PMthe World Justice Project
Research in human rights requires resources and skills that enable access both to texts and to empirical data in all formats. What new issues and emerging technology tools enhance and enlarge international legal and human rights research, and how are law firm and academic information managers using, and training users, in familiarity with these emerging areas and tools? For what new advances should lawyers be prepared? Predictive, analytic, and data mining tools may promote or disrupt research human rights, climate change, and access to justice. Avoiding implicit bias in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning (a concern evidenced by The Toronto Declaration on Protecting the Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination in Machine Learning Systems) is a new issue that adds algorithms, used in search engines, to the contested spaces within which human rights must be asserted. This updated tour of potential platforms and applications for scholarship or practice will include presentation of current topics and technology-driven projects and, it is hoped, stimulate ideas for other use cases and research efficiencies that either facilitate or complicate the investigation of international norms.
International law informs, and is informed by, concerns for global justice. Yet the two fields that engage most with prescribing the normative structure of the world order – international law and the philosophy of global justice – have tended to work on parallel tracks. Many international lawyers, with their professional, methodological commitment to formal sources, regard considerations of substantive (and not merely procedural) justice as ultra vires for much of their work. Philosophers of global justice, in turn, tend to explore the moral commitments of international actors without grappling with the complexities of international legal doctrine. In recent years, however, both disciplines have begun to engage with one another more, as reflected in works such as Carmody et al, Global Justice and International Economic Law (CUP, 2012); Ratner, The Thin Justice of International Law (OUP, 2015); Haque, Law and Morality at War (OUP, 2017); and Linarelli et al, The Misery of International Law (OUP, 2018). The time is ripe, therefore, for an interdisciplinary conversation to take stock of the relationship between international law and theories of global justice.This panel will seek to inform and enlighten Annual Meeting attendees about these new interdisciplinary developments and, in particular, the role of global justice discourse for practicing and academic international lawyers. The proposed format would ask two international lawyers and two philosophers with diverse perspectives to address international law’s relationship to global justice. How should international lawyers see their roles in terms of advancing different notions of global justice? Are certain types of international lawyering more or less amenable to using law as an instrument of global justice? How does the international lawyer’s role as practical problem-solver allow for her or him to take into account considerations of justice?
Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
The United States has historically been at the vanguard of international dispute resolution, from the Jay Treaty through the countless cases of diplomatic protection, the Alabama Claims, the U.S.-Mexico Claims Commission, the Venuezuela bond arbitration, and many others. The panel will look at a sample of those cases from the 19th and 20th centuries to examine how States (including the United States) have changed their approaches to international courts and tribunals in the 21st century. The panel will address how the procedure and structures of earlier systems influenced States’ engagement with international courts and tribunals. The panel will further examine the political conditions bearing on international adjudication, both domestically and internationally, that existed at the time of the earlier cases, how those conditions compare to the current domestic and international atmosphere, and how those conditions affect States’ engagement with international courts and tribunals. In the process, the panel will address the questions: has the promise of international law, laid out in previous centuries as it relates to international adjudication, been fulfilled? What lessons can be drawn from earlier approaches, as we determine how that promise will fare in the future?
As human rights considerations permeate into various areas of international law, the role of international adjudication in protecting human rights has also been growing. This area has both private and public dimensions. The International Court of Justice has been recently presented with a number of inter-State disputes related to human rights abuses, including a historic lawsuit brought by The Gambia on behalf of the States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, seeking to hold Myanmar accountable under international law for State-sponsored genocide against the Rohingya. An investment arbitration tribunal in Urbaser v. Argentina for the first time accepted jurisdiction over the State’s counterclaim based on human rights, confirming that the “right to water” was a human right. This past year has also seen the publication of the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration, which are heralded as an important development for future adjudication of human rights disputes involving private parties. This panel will address the promise of international courts and tribunals in adjudication of human rights issues and suitability of international arbitration for resolving human rights disputes that arise in connection with transnational business.
The Brower Lecture is named in honor of Judge Charles N. Brower for his many contributions to the field of international law.
Dechert LLP
This session tackles one of the most pressing issues in transnational legal practice today: data protection and privacy rights. The EU’s enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in May 2018, has transformed markets around the globe as governments, multinational companies and civil society organizations with transnational activities have focused organizational resources on bringing their international practices and their accompanying data processing into compliance with the GDPR’s extensive regulatory framework. Other countries, including China, Brazil and India have followed suit with their own data protection regimes, all of which incorporate elements of extra-territorial jurisdiction similar to those within the GDPR. In addition, the International Standards Organization has recently issued a data privacy information management standard, ISO/IEC 27701.The global trend towards personal data protection is well underway. In the United States several states (notably California, with its recent CCPA), have moved forward with data protection laws, yet Congress struggles to draft federal privacy legislation, grappling with core questions of proper scope and effective enforcement.These developments suggest a number of corollary questions: is an international data protection regime evolving? If not, should one be developed? What role do comparative and international law norms, including human rights, play in shaping existing and potential data protection and privacy regimes? This session will explore these and other questions to map the state of play with respect to data protection and privacy regulation from a transnational perspective.
Is the need for transnational cooperation in areas beyond the territorial jurisdiction of states sufficient to overcome the resentments and anxieties of polarization and nationalism? This session will test the hypothesis that increasing numbers of states engaged in increasing activities in outer space and the ocean is creating a dynamic space for international law. It will also question whether formal legal instruments, such as the marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction agreement being negotiated at this very moment, are the ideal vehicle for promises that states will keep. If not, what are the alternatives? The session will address questions of resource and security conflicts, the actors involved in these two diverse spaces, the impetus for negotiation and decisions that led to the formal agreement that resulted, and compliance mechanisms.
This session made possible by a generous contribution from the Vagts Family.
Public health literature has long recognized the existence of determinants of health, a set of socio-economic conditions that affect health risks and health outcomes across the world. Frameworks relying on determinants of health have been widely adopted by countries in the global South and North alike. Issues raised by the implementation of intellectual property policies, however, are seldom treated as an integral part of analyses using these frameworks, even though IP bears direct effects on the dynamics of several determinants of health. This roundtable will discuss a paper by presenter Prof. Ana Santos Rutschman, which examines TRIPS intellectual property (IP) as a contributing element to the literature on the social and economic determinants of health (SD).
From Simon Bolivar’s 1826 Congress of Panama to the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, multilateralism has always been front and center in the history of Latin America. But is it thriving or declining today? What can it help achieve, and what obstacles is it posing? This session will explore the past, present and future of multilateralism in the region, including an assessment of multilateral institutions and groups in resolving crises in the region. Have they been successful (e.g., in Venezuela, Haiti or Nicaragua)? How should success be measured? Are the institutions that aim to promote economic integration and trade (e.g. Mercosur, Pacific Alliance) in ascendancy or decline? What is the record and promise of specialized institutions (e.g. the SIEPAC focusing on the electricity grid in Central America, or the Inter-American Development Bank)? Do ad hoc groups, like the Lima Group, hold more power and promise than formal institutions like the OAS? Are the existing institutions suited to address challenges such as migration, climate change, or trans-border criminal activities? Should new institutions, such as a regional criminal court, be created? What should be the role of these institutions with regard to corruption, a particularly “hot” topic in the region?
This panel will explore the concept of head-of-state immunity under international criminal law, in light of recent case law and other prosecutorial and investigative developments at the International Criminal Court, as well as the International Court of Justice and within other tribunals, on this topic. Head-of-state immunity remains a controversial topic within International Criminal Law: although many scholars and tribunal prosecutors argue that sitting heads of state should not be immune from international prosecutions if accused of atrocity crimes, multiple states as well as a minority of scholars assert the opposite. In practice, the work of the International Criminal Court as well as the work of other tribunals, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, have been hampered because of the assertion of head-of-state immunity. Moreover, immunity has been asserted by former and sitting heads of state within domestic contexts; such immunity claims impede the pursuit of justice and the imposition of individual criminal responsibility. This panel will explore head-of-state immunity, from its origins to its more recent applications at the International Criminal Court as well as at other tribunals. In addition, panelists will discuss whether the assertion of immunity differs in the context of atrocity crimes prosecutions from its assertion within other types of prosecutions for lesser crimes.
This session will explore the international legal framework governing cyber power, and its limits. With the 2020 U.S. elections on the horizon and increasing reports of cyber effects operations ongoing worldwide, understanding the legal frameworks within which States must work as they contemplate deploying tools in cyberspace is imperative to maintaining international peace and security. To date, only a handful of nations have publicly shared their views on the application of international law to cyberspace [this may need to be updated come next April]. In this session, intelligence, defense, and foreign affairs officials from three such nations -- the United Kingdom, United States, and [France / Estonia / other?] -- will engage with cyber experts to discuss three core questions related to the applicability of international law in the cyber sphere: What cyber activities constitute unlawful interventions into the domestic affairs of another country? What activities in cyberspace constitute an armed attack against another country? And what activities are permissible for States to respond to either of these types of events?
Intersentia Publishing
Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time and it is already putting existing theories and institutions to a test. The most dramatic impact of climate change is expected to occur in marginalized communities that already have their livelihoods threatened by structural vulnerabilities and disaster. Climate change implicates issues of global justice, intergenerational ethics, distributive justice, moral, political and legal responsibility. Practices and tools from transitional justice have been used in numerous countries to address similar questions. This roundtable will explore what synergies exist between transitional justice theory and practice and climate change mitigation strategies.
International environmental law is at a crossroads. Even as the international community struggles to cooperate and act effectively to address critical global environmental challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and oceans management, efforts are afoot to consolidate and deepen the normative and institutional framework for international environmental law. We propose to hold a roundtable discussion critically exploring the degree to which ongoing efforts to develop a Global Pact for the Environment and to expand constitutional and legislative environmental rights worldwide foster efforts to develop a set of shared norms, and to advance ambitious environmental protection efforts.
Full Conference Registration
VIRTUAL ANNUAL MEETING REGISTRATION RATES |
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| Rates | Original | Reduced |
| ASIL Member | $615 | $460 |
| Non-Member | $865 | $650** |
| GOV/IO/NGO Member | $370 | $275 |
| GOV/IO/NGO Non-Member | $570 | $425** |
| Speaker - Member | $285 | $210 |
| Speaker - Non-Member | $385 | $285** |
| AM Committee | $285 | $210 |
| Student - Member | $100 | $0 |
| Student - Non-Member | $125 | $0 |
CLE Credit Processing |
$75 | $75 |
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**Includes one-year ASIL membership. |
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Sponsors
ASIL thanks its 2020 Annual Meeting sponsors.ASIL Annual Meeting Frequently Asked Questions
REGISTRATION
What is included in my registration?
Fees include access to all program sessions, interest group meetings, and events.
What is the cancellation policy?
Cancellations received on or before Friday, June 19, 2020 will be refunded 100% of your registration fee, less a $25 administrative fee to cover the cost of processing. No refunds will be available for cancellations made after June 19, 2020.
Who qualifies for the Government, Non-governmental, and International Organization Rate?
To qualify for the Government/NGO/IO rate, you must be (a) a full-time employee of a U.S. or foreign government agency (federal, state, local, or tribal) (government-supported universities or colleges, government contractors, and government consultants do not qualify); (b) a full-time employee of a U.S. non-profit organization or a non-U.S. non-profit organization recognized by the United Nations; or (c) a full-time employee of an organization designated by the President of the United States through Executive Order as qualified for the privileges, exemptions, and immunities provided in the International Organizations Immunities Act.
Do members of the media need to register?
Yes. Complimentary press registrations are available to those who meet ASIL's media accreditation guidelines. To request a complimentary press pass, please email services@asil.org with your name and media affiliation.
VIRTUAL MEETING FEATURES
What should I expect from the virtual AM?
You can join any session and can move "from room to room" if you wish to change sessions. If you miss a session, or wish to see a session again, you can watch it at any point during the Annual Meeting. All sessions will continue to be available to registrants after the meeting is over.
I'm a speaker. What do I need to do to prepare for the virtual AM?
We recommend business casual dress or the equivalent for all sessions. Prior to your session, check your internet connection, background, lighting, sound, and the position of your camera. As this is a new experience for many participants, familiarize yourself with the features of the platform. Make sure your face is well-lit and that there is no background noise that might interfere when you speak (e.g., children, pets, or unmuted phones). Additionally, be sure to read the "Best Practices for Presenting on Zoom" document sent to you by your committee member and/or moderator.
I'm an attendee. Can I ask the panelists questions?
Yes. Unless you are a speaker or panelist, you will not be able to turn on your microphone or video camera during the sessions, but you may submit questions in writing.
For pre-recorded sessions, you are welcome to send your questions in advance. Please send an email to ASILannualmeeting@asil.org, and format the subject line of your email as "Question for Panel on [panel name]."
For live sessions, type your question into the Q&A box at the bottom of your screen. These questions will be collected and read out by the moderator during the course of the session (to the extent time permits).
As a non-panelist, am I allowed to speak during the online substantive sessions?
Only speakers will be able to turn on their microphone or video camera during substantive sessions. In other sessions, such as business meetings or social events, you can participate using video and/or audio. It is important that you check your video and audio equipment in advance, and make sure that you have good lighting.
Are there particular rules of behavior for a virtual meeting?
Please observe the same etiquette you would practice at the in-person Annual Meeting. Be civil, respectful, and courteous, and avoid interrupting other speakers. Refrain from distributing commercial or inappropriate content. Additionally, ASIL has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment and offensive content. Individuals who behave inappropriately will be removed from the Annual Meeting.
When participating in meetings and interactive sessions, please mute your audio when you are not speaking. (Don't forget to unmute your audio when you wish to speak, and to go on mute when you are finished speaking).
How should I use the chat function?
Some sessions will have an embedded chat, which you can use to engage in discussion of the topic with other participants. Please do not use the chat for off-topic discussions or to ask questions of the speakers (use the procedure described above). If you are using the chat, make sure that your message is addressed only to the person(s) with whom you wish to use chat before you hit "send." Think before sending a message to all participants.
What if I have technical issues during the meeting?
If you have any technical questions or difficulties, use the "Help" button on the virtual AM page to address the question to the technical staff member who is monitoring the session. The "Help" button can be found on every page of the Virtual Annual Meeting site, and there will be technical staff monitoring the Help channel throughout the Annual Meeting.
Are the virtual sessions secure?
Access is restricted to registered attendees, who must use their assigned password to enter the site. Registrants are not permitted to share their password with any other individual.
Interference with the Annual Meeting, or with any user, host, or network, whether by sending a virus, overloading, spamming, or mail-bombing or by any other means, is strictly prohibited. Persons who interfere with the Annual Meeting will be removed from the conference immediately and will not be permitted to return.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
For any additional questions before the virtual Annual Meeting, don't hesitate to reach out to ASIL's Member Services team at services@asil.org.
CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION (CLE)
Is CLE credit available for meeting sessions?
Yes, a number of the substantive panels at the ASIL Annual Meeting will be accredited for CLE. Sessions that are approved for CLE credit will be designated as such in the final program and in the online agenda. ASIL will obtain accreditation for all of the CLE sessions from California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. New York attorneys can gain automatic approval for CLE credits from the Annual Meeting through the Approved Jurisdictions policy. Attorneys from states recognizing out-of-state CLE credits in compliance with MCLE standards can obtain reciprocity for credits earned at the Meeting, but attendees are responsible for obtaining their own certification through their state board. ASIL will not submit on behalf of the attendee. There is a flat $75 fee for CLE registration for the Annual Meeting. You must include the CLE option during your registration to obtain the necessary credentials for CLE tracking.
How do I get CLE documentation?
To get CLE credit, you must register for CLE when you register for the Annual Meeting, as noted above. The Virtual Annual Meeting website will track the sessions you watch independently of any action by you. ASIL will receive a report of your sessions watched at the end of the meeting, which we will use to determine which sessions you watched, and for how long. We will then create your Certificate of Attendance based off of this information.
Can I receive partial credit?
To receive credit for a session, you must attend the entire session. If you leave one session and join another, you cannot receive any CLE credit for either of those sessions. Furthermore, you may not watch multiple sessions simultaneously and receive CLE credit for both of them. If our tracking information shows you watching two sessions at the same time, you will receive CLE credit for only one of them. Please note that states require a minimum of one hour for CLE credit. Since our sessions are all only one hour long, you must observe the entirety of a session to receive CLE credit.
What should I do if I believe my Certificate of Attendance shows an incorrect CLE credit or contains a typo?
Contact the ASIL via e-mail at cle@asil.org with the following:
1. Your contact information (name, phone, e-mail, and address)
2. The session title
3. What you believe to be incorrect (e.g., name misspelled, etc.)
Providing ASIL with this information will allow us to respond to you quickly. Please remember that ASIL is not permitted to change any sign in/sign out data after the meeting has ended.
How do I get my CLE certificate of attendance form?
Following the Meeting, ASIL will process all of the attendee records for CLE sessions. ASIL will email every individual with a complete CLE record and ask for certain information (state(s) licensed, attorney id numbers, etc.) to be provided in an online survey form. Individuals who respond to that survey will receive their CLE certificate of attendance. Individuals who fail to respond to that survey will NOT receive their CLE certificates.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
Please contact ASIL's Service Center, at services@asil.org or (202) 939-6001.