'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'When I first started blogging ... it was frowned on by some. Now, some blogs have strong reputations, frankly I think ours does. Some blogs are essential reading.'

– IntLawGrrl Hope Lewis, Professor of Law at Boston's Northeastern University School of Law, quoted in a Boston Business Journal article (subscription required) by reporter Lisa van der Pool, entitled "Law school faculty bloggers rising in the ranks." (2008 photo of Hope (c) David Leifer) The article notes that Hope's blogged here for 5 years now, most recently with a co-authored post just last week. Hope tells van der Pool that 'Grrls "have seen their profiles raised in the legal community"; as evidence, she points to mentions of the blog "at conferences for the American Society of International Law" (mentions for which we 'Grrls are most grateful).

On the Job! ASIL intlaw fellows

(On the Job! pays occasional notice to interesting intlaw job notices)

Academic Partners and Law Firm Partners of the American Society of International Law are invited  to refer applicants for 3 International Law Fellow positions – full-time, unpaid, and of a 6- to 12- month duration – to be served at Tillar House, ASIL's headquarters in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
These fellowships are intended for recent graduates who hold J.D. or LL.M degrees and are in the early stages of an international legal career; in particular, for persons whose permanent start date has been deferred.
The Fellows will be responsible for implementing a number of the Society's research, education, and outreach programs; a full account of duties is here.
The full list of ASIL Academic Partners and Law Firm Partners is here.
For details on the position and how to  refer applicatns, see here. The deadline is October 1, 2012.

Go On! Join us at ASIL's October Midyear Meeting

It is my immense honor to welcome all of you to the 2012 American Society of International Law Midyear Meeting, to be held October 19 to 21 here in the great southeastern state of Georgia.
The meeting will take place in Atlanta – where one of the city's commercial anchors, the Coca-Cola Co., will host attendees at its downtown corporate headquarters – and in Athens, the wonderful community northeast of Atlanta that's home to the University of Georgia School of Law.
Having served as the law school's Emily and Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law since last year, yours truly is honored to be co-chairing the meeting along with my friend and colleague, Charles A. Hunnicutt, Senior Counsel at the law firm of Thompson Hine, as well as a former ASIL Vice President, Georgia Law alum, and Chair of the Advisory Board of Georgia Law's Dean Rusk Center for International Law & Policy.
Headlining the 3-day meeting will be the top lawyers for the United Nations and the U.S. Department of State, respectively:
► Patricia O'Brien (left), Under-Secretary for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, will deliver the luncheon keynote; and
► Harold Hongju Koh (right), Legal Adviser, State Department, will be the conference dinner speaker.
Working with Charlie and me to plan this meeting have been the many tireless staffers at Tillar House, ASIL's D.C. headquarters, as well as dozens of other members of various committees, detailed here.
Special thanks are due to 3 Host Committee members: Georgia Law Dean Rebecca H. White and William Lummus, Associate General Counsel International at the Coca-Cola Co., who will provide space for the Meeting, and Georgia Law's Peter "Bo" Rutledge, who organized the all-star arbitration panel.
Special thanks too to: Laura Dickinson of George Washington University School of Law, and Georgia Law's Timothy L. Meyer, Co-Chairs of the Research Forum; and Ingrid Wuerth of Vanderbilt University Law School and Midyear Meeting Host Committee member Harlan Cohen of Georgia Law, who will serve as inaugural Co-Chairs of the Society's new regional project, ASIL-Southeast.
We owe special thanks as well to the ASIL Academic Partners in our immediate region, among them, in addition to Georgia Law, our Atlanta neighbor, Emory University School of Law, and our North Carolina neighbor, Duke University School of Law. 
Look for future posts offering details on some of these events, as well as profiles of our host cities. Today, without further ado, here's the program for the Midyear Meeting  program (for which we welcome you to register here):

Friday, October 19
Coca-Cola headquarters, 1 Coca-Cola Plaza, N.W., Atlanta

3-5 p.m.
Career & Mentoring Fair
This Midyear Meeting kickoff event is geared for students and new professionals interested in learning more about various international law career paths and interacting with experienced public and private international legal professionals in a "speed-mentoring" format.

5-6:30 p.m.
When Transnational Business Deals Go Sour: The Challenges and Opportunities of International Arbitration
Speaking on recent developments, and on real-world case studies of arbitration’s success and failure, will be: Midyear Meeting Host Committee member Valerie Strong Sanders (left), Counsel, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan Litigation Practice Group, Atlanta; Jack Goldsmith, Henry J. Shattuck Professor at Harvard Law School and former U.S. Assistant Attorney General; Gary Born, Partner and Chair, International Arbitration Practice Group, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, Washington, D.C.; ASIL Immediate Past President David D. Caron, C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley; ASIL President Donald Francis Donovan, Partner at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York; and Midyear Meeting Host Committee member Brian A. White, Partner at King & Spalding in Atlanta. Moderator will be Midyear Meeting Host Committee member Glenn P. Hendrix, Partner at Arnall Golden & Gregory in Atlanta.
Attendees will be eligible for 1.5 to 2 MCLE credits in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, as detailed here.

6:30-8 p.m.
Reception

Friday, October 19

Hotel Indigo (left)
500 College Avenue, Athens

6-7:30 p.m.
Welcome reception



Saturday, October 20

All events except the evening dinner at the University of Georgia School of Law and its Dean Rusk Center for International Law & Policy (right), Athens

8-10:30 a.m.
ASIL Executive Council meeting

9-10:30 a.m.
Students from Academic Partner schools meet with Patricia O'Brien, Under-Secretary for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel (an IntLawGrrls contributor).

11-12:30 p.m.
Research Forum sessions

Spanning Saturday and Sunday, each of these roundtable sessions will be moderated by a discussant. Among the confirmed discussants are many of our colleagues: Research Forum Committee membera Hari M. Osofsky (right), University of Minnesota, and Ingrid Wuerth, Vanderbilt University, both IntLawGrrls contributors; Midyear Meeting Host Committee members Robert Ahdieh of Emory University, Curtis A. Bradley of Duke University, and Michael Newton of Vanderbilt University; Research Forum Committee members Máximo Langer, UCLA, and David Zaring, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business; and Paul Stephan, University of Virginia, and Robert Sloane, Boston University.

Status of Sources of International Law
This Panel, No. 1, will feature the following presentations: Midyear Meeting Host Committee member Harlan Cohen, University of Georgia, "Careening Towards International Law’s Erie Moment"; IntLawGrrl Neha Jain (left), University of Minnesota, "Revisiting the Sources Thesis in International Criminal Law"; and Ben Love, Freshfields Bruckhause Deringer, Paris, "The Importance of Soft Law in International Disputes."

Developments in International Criminal Justice
This Panel, No. 2, will feature the following presentations: Christian de Vos, Leiden University-Netherlands, "From a Ripple to a Tide: Taking Stock of the ICC’s Complementarity Principle," and IntLawGrrl Jenia Iontcheva Turner (right), Southern Methodist University, "Policing International Prosecutors."

Foreign Relations & International Law
This Panel, No. 3, will feature the following presentations:
Christopher Whytock, University of California-Irvine, "Court Access and Foreign Sovereign Immunity"; Cynthia Nicoletti (left), Mississippi College, "The Emancipation Proclamation, the Commander-in-Chief Power, and the Intersection of International Law and Domestic Law"; and IntLawGrrls contributor Margaret McGuinness (right), St. John's University, "Presidential Peace Powers."

Emerging Issues in International Trade, Development & Aid
This Panel, No. 4, will feature the following presentations: Meredith Lewis (right), University of Victoria-New Zealand, "Plurilateralism in International Trade Law: New Paradigm or Same Old Story?"; Mark Toufayan, University of Ottawa-Canada, "The Politics of Representing International Lawyers’ Contribution to the Trade-Development Nexus in Africa"; and Adrian Di Giovanni, International Development Research Centre-Ottawa, Canada, "Understanding the Uses of 'Do No Harm' in International Assistance."


Luncheon
12:45-2:15 p.m.
► Welcome by University of Georgia School of Law Dean Rebecca H. White
(right)
► Keynote address by Patricia O'Brien (left), Under-Secretary for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel (an IntLawGrrls contributor).

2:30-4:00 p.m.
Research Forum sessions

Law of Armed Conflict: Training on the Ground, Virtual Battlegrounds & the Value of Foreign Lives

This Panel, No. 5, will feature the following presentations: Elizabeth Stubbins, London School of Economics, "Testing the Effectiveness of the British Army’s Military Training in the Principles of Distinction and Proportionality"; IntLawGrrl Emily Crawford (left), University of Sydney-Australia, & Michael Lewis, Ohio Northern University, "Virtual Battlegrounds: Distinction, Targeting, and Computer-Based Warfare in the 21st Century"; and IntLawGrrl Lesley Wexler (right), University of Illinois, "Foreign Life Valuation."

Corruption & Financial Rights

This Panel, No. 6, will feature the following presentations: Andrew Spalding, University of Richmond, "Freedom from Corruption: The New Human Right? Implications for Commercial Anti-Bribery Laws"; Philip Nichols, University of Pennsylvania, "An International Norm for Corporate Criminal Liability for Bribery"; and Karen Halverson Cross (right), John Marshall-Chicago, "Arbitration of Mass Sovereign Debt Claims: Abaclat v. Argentine Republic."

Comparative Law & International Institutions
This Panel, No. 7, will feature the following presentations: Francesca Bignami (left), George Washington University, "Comparative Law and the Making of the European Legal Order," and David Kosař, New York University, & Michael Bobek, European University Institute in Florence, Italy, "Global Governance, Global Solutions, Local Damages: A Critical Study in Effects of Judicial Councils."

4:15-5:45 p.m.
Research Forum sessions

Coercion, Compliance & Legitimacy
This Panel, No. 8, will feature the following presentations: IntLawGrrl Monica Hakimi (right), University of Michigan, "Unfriendly Unilateralism"; Abraham Bell, University of San Diego, "The Case Against Tit-for-Tat Proportionality"; and IntLawGrrl Cecily Rose (left), Jesus College, University of Cambridge, "Global Governance Challenges Posed by the Financial Action Task Force."

International Law, International Relations & International Institutions
This Panel, No. 9, will feature the following presentations: Michael Voss, University of Virginia, "Back to the Future or Onward and Upward: An International Relations and International Law Analysis of the United Nations Human Rights Council"; Mikulas Fabry, Georgia Tech, "The Norm of Territorial Integrity in International Relations and Law"; and Julian Arato, New York University, "Treaty Interpretation and Constitutional Transformation: Informal Change in International Organizations."

Investment Law

This panel, No. 10, will feature the following presentations: Jason Cross, University of Michigan, "Expertise and Legitimacy in International Investment Law: Governing Access to Investor-State Arbitration"; Natasha Marusja Saputo, Boies Schiller & Flexner, "Decisions, Decisions: Practical Considerations in Choosing between Commercial and Investor State Arbitration"; and Barnali Choudhury (right), Queen Mary University of London, "The System of International Investment Law as a Global Public Good."

Saturday, October 20
Lyndon House Arts Center, 293 Hoyt Street, Athens
7-10 p.m.
Reception and Dinner
► Special memorial tributes:
David Bederman by Midyear Meeting Host Committee member Robert Ahdieh, Emory University; Louis Sohn by Dorinda Dallmeyer (left), University of Georgia; and Dean Rusk by C. Donald Johnson, Midyear Meeting Host Committee member and Director of the Dean Rusk Center for International Law & Policy, University of Georgia School of Law.
► Keynote address by Harold Hongju Koh (above right), Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State. (photo credit)

Sunday, October 21
University of Georgia School of Law and its Dean Rusk Center for International Law & Policy, 225 Herty Drive, Athens

9-10:30 a.m.
Research Forum sessions 

Theories of Ratification, Compliance & Reservation
This panel, No. 11, will feature the following presentations: IntLawGrrl Yvonne Dutton (right), Indiana University-Bloomington,"Why Ratify? The Evolution of Human Rights Treaties"; Rachel Brewster (left), Duke University, & Adam Chilton, Harvard University, "The Supply Side of Compliance"; and Kasey L. McCall-Smith, University of Edinburgh, "Severing Invalid Reservations: A Paradigm Shift in International Law."

Theory
This panel, No. 12, will feature the following presentations: IntLawGrrl Nienke Grossman (left), University of Baltimore, "A New Normative Theory of Legitimacy for International Courts"; Jan Kleinheisterkamp, London School of Economics, "The Myth of Transnational Public Policy"; and Donald "Trey" Childress, Pepperdine/visiting at Washington & Lee University, "Rethinking Legal Globalization: The Case of Transnational Personal Jurisdiction."

Issues at the Intersection of Public & Private Law
This panel, No. 13, will feature the following presentations:Cally Jordan (right), University of Melbourne-Australia, "International Financial Standards and the Explanatory Force of Lex Mercatoria"; Daphne Richmond-Barak (upper left), Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya-Israel, "Regulating Non-State Actors: Self-Regulation in the Private Security and Military Industry"; and Sabrina Safrin (lower left), Rutgers-Newark, "The Cellphone and the Flavr Savr Tomato Technology and International Law."

Panel 14
This panel, No. 14, will feature the following presentations: Andrei Mamolea, Duke University, "Thinking Like a State: Subjective Intent in International Law," and Christian Djeffal, Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, "Evolutive Interpretation of Treaties by International Courts and Tribunals."

10:30 a.m.-12 noon Research Forum sessions

International Criminal Law
This panel, No. 15, will feature the following presentations: IntLawGrrl Saira Mohamed (left), University of California, Berkeley, "Adjudicating Deviance in International Criminal Law"; Alexander Greenawalt, Pace University, "International Criminal Law for Retributivists"; and Scott Gilmore, George Washington University and consultant at Center for Justice & Accountability, "All Tomorrow’s Massacres: Toward a Cybersecurity Framework for Mass Atrocity Crimes."

Customary International Law

This panel, No. 16, will feature the following presentations: Noura Erakat (right), Georgetown University/Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Refugee & Residency Rights, "U.S. v. ICRC – Customary International Humanitarian Law and Universal Jurisdiction"; William Worster, Hague University-Netherlands, "The Transformation of Quantity in to Quality: Critical Mass in the Formation of Customary International Law"; and Pierre-Hugues Verdier, University of Virginia, "How Does Customary International Law Change the Case of State Immunity?"

Environmental & Other Disasters: Framing & Institutions
This panel, No. 17, will feature the following presentations: Michael Cooper, Georgetown University, "Disaster-Induced Displacement: Resolving Ambiguities in our Legal Lexicon"; Stuart Ford, John Marshall-Chicago, "Climate Change, Conflict, and International Law"; and J. Benton Heath, New York University, "Accountability in the United Nations Cluster System: The Consequences of Institutional Choice in Disaster Response."

New Rights & Remedies – Pushing the Boundaries of International Law
This panel, No. 18, will feature the following presentations: Moria Paz (left), Stanford University, "The Failed Promise of Language Rights"; IntLawGrrl Barbara Stark (right), Hofstra University, "Making Babies, Making Law"; and Antonio Carlos Cardesa-Salzmann, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, "Seeking Justice in a Multipolar World: Reflections on a Global Standard of Access to Justice for Transnational Litigation."

12 noon-1:30 p.m.
Inaugural Meeting of ASIL-Southeast
Co-chaired by Midyear Meeting Host Committee member Harlan Cohen, University of Georgia, and IntLawGrrl Ingrid Wuerth (right), Vanderbilt University.

Again, details and registration are here.
Please join us!

In passing: Chuck Siegal

Chuck Siegal

It's with great sadness that we mark the passing of Charles D. Siegal, a mainstay of the international law community – particularly on the West Coast, where he lived and worked, and where he was a founder of International Law Weekend-West, a biennial event about which we've frequented posted.
Chuck's leadership in ABILA, American Branch of the International Law Association that sponsors ILW-W, included service as Executive Committee member, Human Rights Committee member, and Honorary Vice President. He'd also served as a member of the American Society of International Law Executive Council.
For ABILA, he took part in preparation of amicus briefs in a number of U.S. Supreme Court cases, including Paraguay v. Gilmore, concerning the application of the Vienna Convention on the Consular Relations, and United States v. Alvarez-Machain, brought under the U.S.-Mexico Extradition Treaty.
As noted at the obituary posted by Munger, Tolles & Olson, the Los Angeles-based law firm where he was a litigation partner, Chuck was particularly known for his advocacy of the rights of disabled persons. He was a past President of the Disabilities Rights Legal Center, and an author of the West casebook Disability Civil Rights Law and Policy. Just a few months ago he spoke in Vienna, Austria, at the International Conference on Good Policies for Persons with Disabilities, a meeting aimed at promoting full accessibility.
Chuck, who died this past Sunday, was 66. We will miss him.

Welcoming Stephanie Ortoleva

It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome Stephanie Ortoleva (right) as an IntLawGrrls contributor.
Stephanie, about whom we've previously posted, is the Founder and President of WomenEnabled, a D.C.-based organization that advocates for women's rights, with focus on women disabilities. She's an international human rights lawyer and consultant on issues such as disability rights, women's rights, rule of law, and human rights education. Among her many activities, Stephanie is Co-Leader of the World Bank’s Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development’s Community of Practice for Persons with Disabilities, and she has written scholarly publications on these issues.
After earning her law degree with outstanding honors from Hofstra University School of Law in New York,she served as an Attorney and Disability Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State, where she participated in the negotiations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other aspects of multilateral diplomacy.
With IntLawGrrl Hope Lewis, Professor at Northeastern University School of Law, Stephanie co-founded the American Society of International Law International Disability Rights Interest Group.
Today Hope and Stephanie contribute the co-authored post below, which describes their just-published report on violence against women with disabilities.
Heartfelt welcome!

ASIL seeks scholarly book nominations

In addition to other nominations -- for leadership positions, honors, and journal editors, here, here, and here -- the American Society of International Law welcomes nominations for book awards to be presented at the Society’s next Annual Meeting, set for April 3-6 in Washington, D.C.
Known as ASIL Certificates of Merit, these awards are presented each year as follows:
► To a book for its preeminent contribution to creative scholarship;
► To a book which exhibits high technical craftsmanship and is of high utility to practicing lawyers and scholars; and
► To a book in a specialized area of international law, such as business transactions, economic law, environmental law, human rights, humanitarian law or private international law.
Books published in the 24 months before February 1, 2013, are eligible, regardless of languge or place of publication or the author's nationality.
Winners have included books by a few IntLawGrrls contributors and a foremother:
► The International Law of Human Trafficking (2010) by Anne T. Gallagher (prior Read On! post about this book);
► Democratic Accountability and the Use of Force in International Law (2003), coauthored by Charlotte Ku;
► Law in Times of Crisis: Emergency Powers in Theory and Practice (2006), coauthored by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin;
► Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (2010) by Beth A. Simmons ; and
► Digest of International Law (vols 1-3, 1963-64), edited by Marjorie Whiteman.
The full list of winners is here and here.
ASIL asks that nominations include 6 copies of the book, sent to Veronica Onorevole, Executive Office & Programs Manager, American Society of International Law, 2223 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008 USA.
Details here, at "Scholarship Awards" tab. Deadline is October 1, 2012.

'Nuff said

(credit)

'Garzón’s exoneration was viewed by most media outlets as a personal victory for the judge and a victory for the rule of law. In fact, the outcome was much more ambiguous; it defused the domestic and international outcry, but it effectively closed a venue for Civil War era claims. And in a separate and unrelated case, Judge Garzón was removed from the bench for eleven years. The prevaricación decision, as summarized below, contradicts recent trends in national and international jurisprudence on amnesty and international crimes. Moreover, less than a month later, the European Court of Human Rights rejected a challenge to Spain’s failure to investigate the fate of the Civil War missing. Together, these decisions probably end legal efforts to achieve some accounting for the crimes of the 1936-1939 Civil War and its repressive aftermath.'

(credit)

--IntLawGrrl Naomi Roht-Arriaza (left), in "The Spanish Civil War, Amnesty, and the Trials of Judge Garzón," a superb ASIL Insight that explains the content and consequences of decisions (some available only in Spanish) relating not only to the legal travails of Judge Baltasar Garzón, but also to the quest for redress by survivors of victims of Franco-era atrocities. Prior posts on these issues, by Naomi and other IntLawGrrls, are available here and here.

AJIL Board of Editors nominees sought

The Nominating Committee of the American Journal of International Law welcomes nominations for AJIL Board of Editors members, who will be elected in conjunction with the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law to be held April 3-6 in Washington, D.C. (Our prior posts for other nominations, for ASIL leadership and honors, are here and here, respectively.)
According to AJIL's notice:

'Nominations are based primarily on scholarship and creativity, as demonstrated in books, articles, and other written work appearing over a period of years, including, but not limited to, publications in the Journal. Other factors taken into account include areas of expertise or professional perspective or discipline.'

Nominations, including "supporting statements and information, such as a curriculum vitae, a list of publications, and, if possible, copies of significant publications," should be sent to the AJIL Nominating Committee Chair, in care of either one of the Co-Editors-in-Chief, Columbia Law Professor Lori Damrosch or Miami Law Professor Bernard Oxman, via the contact details here.
Deadline for nominations is September 15, 2012.

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'[B]oth decisions focus on the applicable standard for challenges to arbitrators, and specifically on whether an "appearance of bias" standard is required. In both cases, the Tribunals, after a fairly detailed analysis of the parties' submissions and prior ICSID and other international decisions, clearly rejected the requirement of an "appearance of bias" standard, instead opting for a less stringent standard. Once the "appearance of bias" standard was disregarded, however, the contours of the applicable standard adopted remain unclear.'

 -- IntLawGrrls contributor Chiara Giorgetti (left), who's just joined the law faculty at Virginia's University of Richmond, in an ASIL Insight that reviews 2 decisions in which a party's challenge to a member of an arbitral panel was rejected (by the panel's remaining members, a fact that, Chiara notes, "may create uneasy situations for arbitrators and may need to be re-examined"). The 1st decision, issued last November in a dispute between Mauritius and Britain, concerned Sir Christopher Greenwood, a judge on the International Court of Justice; the 2d decision, issued in February this dispute between Venezuela and ConocoPhillips Co., before ICSID, the International Centre for Settlment of Investment Disputes, appears to have been taken offline. It concerned Canadian lawyer-arbitrator-diplomat L. Yves Fortier.

ASIL honorees sought

In addition to seeking new leaders, as described in a post last week, the American Society of International Law welcomes nominees for various ASIL honors:
► Manley O. Hudson Medal, given in recognition of scholarship and achievement in international law.
► Goler T. Butcher Medal, given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the development or effective realization of international human rights law. (As blogreaders well know, IntLawGrrls honors Butcher as a transnational foremother, and one recent medalist, Gay McDougall, is an IntLawGrrls contributor.)
► ASIL Honorary Member, an award given in recognition of a non-U.S. citizen who has rendered distinguished contributions or service in the field of international law.
These honors will be awarded at the Society’s 2013 Annual Meeting, to be held April 3-6 in Washington, D.C. In making its decision, the Honors Committee will include in its consideration nominations made in previous years, and it invites persons who made nominations in previous years to supplement their earlier letters as they believe appropriate.
Questions may be directed to ASIL's Honors Committee via the Office of the Executive Director of the Society, by contacting Veronica Onorevole at awardsandhonors@asil.org.
Nominations should be submitted via the online form available here. Deadline is August 31, 2012.

Work On! Court & rights webinar Wednesday

(Work On! is an occasional item about workshops, roundtables, and other fora)

"Human Rights Implications of SCOTUS Decisions in the 2012 Term" is the title of a webinar to be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Eastern time this Wednesday, July 18.
Sponsors are the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law and the American Society of International Law, both based in Washington, D.C.
The online briefing, on human rights implications of U.S. Supreme Court decisions announced last month, will be moderated by Lauren E. Bartlett, who directs the Local Human Rights Lawyering Project at the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
Providing the briefings will be:
► IntLawGrrl Connie de la Vega (right), Professor and Academic Director of International Programs at the University of San Francisco School of Law, who will discuss Miller v. Alabama. As posted, in that judgment the Court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution's 8th Amendment prohibits sentencing a child to life in prison without possibility of parole. Connie wrote an amicus brief in this case, as she has in many cases (see here) during the course of efforts to ease child sentencing laws.
► Martha F. Davis, Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, who will discuss National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. In that decision, as posted, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. led a 5-4 Court in sustaining the landmark health care legislation enacted in 2010, about which we've posted here, here, here, and here. Davis -- a faculty director for the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy, which which IntLawGrrls Hope Lewis and Angela Duger also are affiliated -- wrote an amicus brief in this health care litigation.
► Chandra Bhatnagar, Senior Staff Attorney with the Human Rights Program of the American Civil Liberties Union, will discuss Arizona v. United States. As posted, in that case Justice Anthony M. Kennedy led a 5-3 Court in striking much of the state's restrictive immigration law. The judgment left in place, however, a "check your papers" requirement of which immigrants' rights advocates are especially critical. Central to Bhatnagar's practice are the intersection of racial justice and immigration, the use of international and foreign law in U.S. courts, and the domestic implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Details on the webinar here. To register, e-mail whayes@wcl.american.edu.