The ASIL Annual Meeting

A Message from the President and the Executive Director

March 12, 2020

To the ASIL Community:

The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has been the subject of daily discussion at ASIL, as it surely has been for you, your families, and your colleagues. The disease is changing the way we live and work. It has already claimed too many lives.

After taking into account the best available guidance, the Society’s Executive Committee has concluded that to proceed with the Annual Meeting in Washington as planned would pose an unacceptable risk to the health and well-being of our attendees, staff, volunteers, sponsors, and vendors. We have therefore decided to postpone the meeting. This decision will have serious financial consequences for the Society, and we did not make it lightly. But we are confident that it is the only proper course of action.

We would like to emphasize that this is only a postponement. We remain committed to holding an Annual Meeting in 2020 in some form, whether in person or virtually online, and we want you to be a part of it. Our goal will be to offer a robust and exciting program that preserves as much as possible of the spirit and substance of the Annual Meeting as designed. Indeed, we will be looking for ways to enhance the experience. Please stand by for further information.

We would like to express our appreciation to all of the people who worked so hard to organize the Annual Meeting, including our sponsors, exhibitors, and staff, and most of all, the Annual Meeting Committee, which devoted countless hours to the task. We are pleased that the Annual Meeting Co-Chairs have agreed to continue their work so that the Annual Meeting can take place at a later date.

If you registered for the 2020 Annual Meeting, we will continue to honor your registration, and you will not need to register again when the meeting is rescheduled. If, however, you wish to request a refund of your registration fee, we will provide a full refund, rather than the 50% refund that would be available under our regular refund policy. We also will waive the customary $25 administrative fee. We feel this is appropriate in view of the unprecedented nature of this situation, which none of our attendees could have anticipated and for which they are not responsible.

At the same time, the postponement of the Annual Meeting will result in a serious budget shortfall for the Society, and we hope that registrants will consider keeping their registration in place rather than requesting a refund. In the alternative, we hope you will consider converting your registration fee into either a tax- deductible contribution to the Society to help mitigate the financial damage we will sustain or an early renewal of your Society membership for next year.

Thank you, as always, for your devotion to the American Society of International Law and your support for our mission.

Sean D. Murphy
President

Mark D. Agrast
Executive Director

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