... & other IntLawGrrls also on the move

Many in our IntLawGrrls community are on the move. In addition to mentions here, here, here, and here, we're happy to report other 'Grrls' good news:
► Hélène Ruiz Fabri (left) is the inaugural Dean of the Sorbonne Law School, which gathers the 5 law departments of Université Paris 1. She remains as well a Professor of Public Law in that university's Panthéon Sorbonne law faculty.
►Monika Kalra Varma (right) will begin her new position as Executive Director of the Pro Bono Program of the District of Columbia Bar on September 30. She will be in charge of coordinating efforts of the private bar to make legal representation and advice available to low-income persons, small businesses, and community-based nonprofit organizations in the District.
► Elizabeth Lutes Hillman (left) is the new President of the National Institute of Military Justice (on whose board Beth Van Schaack and yours truly, among others, are honored to serve). She succeeds our colleague and longtime NIMJ President Eugene R. Fidell.. A Professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law and retired Air Force officer, she's aptly suited to lead NIMJ into its 3 decade.
► Kristine A. Huskey (right) is now the Director of the Anti-Torture Program of Physicians for Human Rights. Since mid-July, she's led that NGO's policy and advocacy work related to abuse of persons in U.S. custody, at Guantánamo, Afghanistan, or elsewhere. Long active in GTMO-related litigation, Kristine also is slated to teach a national security course as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown this fall.
► Luz Estella Nagle (right), Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law, this year is Co-Chair of the International Committee of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section.
► Finally, a belated congratulations to Annecoos Wiersema (right), now completing her 1st year at her (relatively) new home institution, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where's she's an Associate Professor.
Heartfelt congratulations to all!

Go On! IntLawGrrls at AALS

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia and other events of interest)

The Association of American Law Schools will be holding its 2011 annual meeting in San Francisco from January 5-8th. This year's theme is: Core Educational Values: Guideposts for the Pursuit of Excellence in Challenging Times.

If you are attending, be sure to check out IntLawGrrls and IntLawGrrl guests/alumnae in action. As detailed in the annual meeting program, they are:

Wednesday, Jan 5th

► At 2:00 pm, Afra Afsharipour will be speaking at the Law and South Asian Studies Section's panel: Lawyers as Social Change Agents in South Asia.

► Also at 2:00, Michele Bratcher Goodwin will speak on the Biolaw Section's panel: Synthetic Biology Meets the Law, and Penelope Andrews will moderate the Africa Section's panel: U.S. Africa Policy at the Midpoint of President Obama's First Term.

Thursday, Jan. 6th

► At 9:00 am, Stephanie Farrior, Hari M. Osofsky, Christiana Ochoa, Annecoos Wiersema, Leila Nadya Sadat, and Cindy Galway Buys will be participating in the International Law Section's panel: International Law Year in Review.

► At 2:00, Penelope Andrews will be speaking on the Constitutional Law Section's panel: American Constitutionalism in Comparative Perspective.

► At 2:30 pm, Lisa R. Pruitt will take part in a panel on Class, Socio-Economics, and Critical Analysis.

Friday, Jan. 7th

► At 8:30 am, Caroline Bettinger-López and Alexandra Huneeus will present at the
New Voices in Human Rights panel of the Section on International Human Rights.

► At 10:30 am, yours truly, Rebecca M. Bratspies, and Hari M. Osofsky will be participating in the Hot Topics panel: The BP Blowout Oil Spill and Its Implications.

► Also at 10:30, Laurel S. Terry will be speaking on the Education Law Section's panel: Immigration and Higher Education.

► At 4:00, Michelle Oberman will be speaking on the Law, Medicine and Health Care Section's panel: Women's Choices, Women's Voices: Legal Regimes and Women's Health.

Saturday, Jan. 8th is an action-packed IntLawGrrls day:

► At 7:00 in the morning, Laurel S. Terry will be speaking at the AALS Workshop and Continental Breakfast for 2010 and 2011 Section Officers.

► At 8:30 am, yours truly, Rebecca M. Bratspies, will be speaking on the Animal Law Section's panel: Treatment and Impact of Farmed Animals.

► At 1:30 pm, Elizabeth L. Hillman will be speaking on the National Security Section's panel: The Relationship Between Military Justice, Civil/Military Relations and National Security Law.

► Also at 1:30 pm, Jenia Iontcheva Turner will be speaking on the Comparative Law Section's panel: Beyond the State: Comparative Approaches to Group Political Identity in the Age of the Transnational.

► At 3:30 pm, Christiana Ochoa, will be moderating the International Law Section's panel: Was Medellin Wrongly Decided?

► Also at 3:30 pm, Jennifer Kreder will speaker on the Section on Law and Anthropology panel entitled The Role of Cultural Property Across Cultures and Legal Regimes.

As always, I am struck by the wide range of interests that our fearless leader Diane Marie Amann has brought together under the IntLawGrrls umbrella.

FYI: Because the Hilton is embroiled in a labor dispute with UNITE HERE, Local 2 (the hotel's workers have been working without a contract for over a year), registration and most of the AALS events have been moved to other nearby hotels. There may be other last-minute changes, so be sure to go by the locations in the schedule you receive at check-in rather than the brochure that circulated last month. See you in San Francisco.

(credit for 2010 poster of San Francisco by Kevin Dart)

On May 10

On this day in ...
... 1869 (140 years ago today), at the 2d hour of the afternoon at Promontory Summit, Utah, a golden spike was driven into a rail, marking the completion of the 1st transcontinental railroad in the United States. Built in large part, as we've posted, by immigrants from China and Ireland (left) and other European countries, as well as freed former slaves and veterans of the Civil War, the railroad connected the East and West Coasts of the ever-growing country. (photo credit)
... 1946, Dr. Biruté Galdikas (below right) was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. She would grow up in Canada, and then earn a Ph.D. in anthropology frm the University of California at Los Angeles. She, along with Dian Fossey (transnational foremother of IntLawGrrls' guest/alumna Annecoos Wiersema) and Jane Goodall -- known together as the "angels" of their mentor, paleontologist Louis Leakey -- were among the most renowned researchers of the great apes. (photo credit) Galdikas is an expert in primatology, and has spent much of her life studying the endangered orangutan that inhabit the tropical rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra, both islands of Indonesia. She has written a memoir, Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo (1996).

(Prior May 10 posts are here and here.)

Women @ ASILter

As we have each year since our founding (here and here), IntLawGrrls is proud today to highlight women who will speak at the forthcoming annual meeting of the American Society of International Law.

This 103d gathering of the Society, entitled International Law as Law, will be held next week, March 25-28, at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Delighted to see from the program that there's much diversity in topics and presenters. As has been the case in recent years, virtually all panels have at least 1 woman participating, and that many have more (those few that do not include women do not, alas, receive mention in this list). Especially proud that so many persons featured are IntLawGrrls or IntLawGrrls guest alumnae -- foremost among them, of course, ASIL President Lucy Reed (right). Kudos to the Program Committee Co-Charis, our colleagues Anthea Elizabeth Roberts, Stephen Mathias, and Carlos Manuel Vázquez!

Without further ado, here's this year's honor roll:

Wednesday, March 25, 8:30 a.m.-12 noon

► "Intellectual Property Rights in China: Reflections and Directions": Victoria Espinel (George Mason) and Tracy-Gene Durkin (Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox), panelists; Elizabeth Chien-Hale (Institute for Intellectual Property in Asia), moderator.

Wednesday, March 25, 3-4:30 p.m.

► "Whither the Law of War for the U.S.?": Ashley Deeks (U.S. Department of State), panelist.
Wednesday, March 25, 4:30-6 p.m.

► Dinah Shelton (George Washington) will serve as discussant for the Grotius Lecture, "Focusing on the Good or the Bad: What Can International Environmental Law Do to Accelerate The Transition Towards A Green Economy?"

Thursday, March 26, 9-10:30 a.m.

► "A Comparative Look at Domestic Enforcement of International Tribunal Judgments": Lori Fisler Damrosch (Columbia) and Ingrid Wuerth (Vanderbilt), panelists.

► "Responsibility to Protect in Environmental Emergencies": Linda Malone (William & Mary), panelist; Gwen K. Young (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), moderator.

► "Feminist Interventions: Human Rights, Armed Conflict and International Law": Doris Buss (Carleton, Canada), Janet Halley (Harvard), Ratna Kapur (Centre for Feminist Legal Research), panelists; Vasuki Nesiah (International Center for Transitional Justice), moderator.

► "New Voices: Rethinking the Sources of International Law": IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Annecoos Wiersema (Ohio State), panelist.

Thursday, March 26, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

► "Medellin v. Texas and the Self-Execution of Treaties": Avril Haines (U.S. Department of State) and H. Kathleen Patchel (Indiana-Indianapolis), panelists.

► "Piracy Off of Somalia: the Challenges for International Law": Katharine Shepherd (British Foreign & Commonwealth Office) and Malvina Halberstam (Cardozo), panelists.

► "The United States and the Post-Kyoto Climate Change Treaty": Jennifer Haverkamp (Environmental Defense Fund), panelist; Cymie Payne (California-Berkeley), moderator.

► "The Principle of Legality in International Criminal Law": Elisa Massimino (Human Rights First), and IntLawGrrl Beth Van Schaack (Santa Clara), panelists.

► "In What Sense is International Law Law?": Antonia Chayes (Tufts), panelist.

Thursday, March 26, 12:30-2:30 p.m.

► Women in International Law Interest Group Luncheon: Judge Unity Dow (right), High Court of Botswana, speaker and recipient of the annual Prominent Women in International Law Award.
Thursday, March 26, 1-2:30 p.m.

► Book Discussion Featuring 2009 Winner of the ASIL Certificate of Merit for Creative Scholarship: IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Mary Ellen O'Connell (Notre Dame), panelist.

► "Multilateralizing Regionalism and the Future Architecture of International Trade Law as a System of Law": Alberta Fabbricotti (University of Rome), Gabrielle Marceau (University of Geneva and Cabinet of the WTO Director-General), and Kati Suominen (Inter-American Development Bank), panelists; Amelia Porges (Sidley Austin), moderator.

► "Closing Guantánamo: The Legal and Policy Issues": Deborah Pearlstein (Princeton) and Joanne Mariner (Human Rights Watch), panelists.
Thursday, March 26, 2:15-3:45 p.m.

► "Is Legal Empowerment Good for the Poor?": Christina Biebesheimer (World Bank) and Kerry Rittich (University of Toronto), panelists; Anne Trebilcock (International Labor Organization), moderator.

Thursday, March 26, 2:45-3:45 p.m.
► Annual General Meeting of the Society, featuring election of officers and presentation of Society awards and honors, among them the medal named after Goler Teal Butcher (an IntLawGrrls transnational foremother), to Mónica Pinto (left) of the University of Buenos Aires.

Thursday, March 26, 3-4:30 p.m.

► "Teaching International Law Interest Group Meeting: Using Simulations to Enhance International Law Teaching": Cindy Buys (Southern Illinois), panelist.

Thursday, March 26, 5-6:30 p.m.

► Plenary: "The United States and International Law During the Obama Administration: Executive and Legislative Perspectives": Joan Donoghue and Anne-Marie Slaughter (both U.S. Department of State), panelists.

Friday, March 27, 9-10:30 a.m.

► "Is the UN Security Council Bound by Human Rights Law?": Vera Gowlland-Debbas (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies) and Gráinne de Búrca (Fordham), panelists.

► "The Impact of International Criminal Proceedings on National Prosecutions in Mass Atrocity Cases": Marieke Wierda (International Center of Transitional Justice) and Olivia Swaak-Goldman (International Criminal Court, Office of Prosecutor), panelists.

► "Judging International Law as Law": Judge Rosemary Barkett (left) (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit), Judge Unity Dow (above right) (High Court of Botswana), and Chief Justice Margaret Marshall (right) (Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts), panelists.

► "New Voices: Issues in the Human Side of International Law": Janina Dill (Oxford), Angela Banks (William & Mary), and IntLawGrrl Hari M. Osofsky (Washington & Lee), panelists.

► "Governing Through Indicators": Leslie Benton (Transparency International) and Sally Engle Merry (New York University), panelists.
Friday, March 27, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

► Jane Stromseth (Georgetown) will serve as discussant for a lecture entitled "Transatlantic Views of International Law: Cooperation and Conflict in Hard Times."

► "The Security Council and the Rule of Law": Christine Gray (Cambridge) and Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton University), panelists.

► "The Future of Corporate Accountability for Violations of Human Rights": Lisa Misol (Human Rights Watch) and IntLawGrrl Christiana Ochoa (Indiana-Bloomington), panelists; Penelope Simons (University of Ottawa), moderator.

► "Challenges of Transnational Legal Practice: Advocacy and Ethics": Laurel Baig (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Office of the Prosecutor) and Laurel Terry (Penn State), panelists; Catherine Rogers (Penn State), moderator.

► "The Cutting Edge": Karen Knop (University of Toronto), Katerina Linos (Harvard Society of Fellows), and Gabriella Blum (Harvard); Anthea Elizabeth Roberts (London School of Economics), moderator.

Friday, March 27, 12:15-2:45 p.m.

► "Research Showcase: Poster Session": IntLawGrrls guest/alumna Alessandra Arcuri (University of Rotterdam), IntLawGrrl Karen E. Bravo (Indiana-Indianapolis), Melissa Casagrande (McGill), Susan Franck (Washington & Lee), Diane Frey (London School of Economics), M. Florencia Guerzovich (Northwestern University), Claire Kelly (Brooklyn Law School), and Elizabeth Stubbins Bates (London School of Economics).

Friday, March 27, 1-2:30 p.m.

► "Mapping the Future of Investment Treaty Arbitration as a System of Law": Gabriela Alvarez-Avila (Curtis, Mallet-Prevost) and Yas Banifatemi (Shearman & Sterling), panelists; IntLawGrrl Lucy Reed (top right) (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and ASIL President), moderator.

► "Irresponsible Arms Trade and the Arms Trade Treaty": Rachel Stohl (Centre for Defense Information), panelist.
► "Anthropological Perspectives on Human Rights Law and Lawyers": Kamari Clarke (Yale), Laura Dickinson (Arizona State), and Ann Janette Rosga (Women's International League for Peace & Freedom), panelists.

► "International Environmental Law Interest Group Meeting: Scientific Whaling and International Law": Laurence Boisson de Chazournes (University of Geneva), speaker.
Friday, March 27, 2:45-4:15 p.m.

► "International Law and the "War on Terror:" A Look Back": IntLawGrrl Jenny S. Martinez (Stanford) and Julia Tarver Mason (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison), panelists.

► "Border Tax Adjustments: Climate Change, the WTO, and New Tools for International Environmental Law-Making": Ellen Hey (Erasmus University) and Laura Nielsen (University of Copenhagen), panelists.

► "Visions of International Law: Insights from Normative Theory": IntLawGrrls' guest/alumna Mary Ellen O'Connell (Notre Dame); Dianne Otto (Melbourne), panelists.

► "U.S. Implementation of the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice-of-Court Agreements (Resource Session)": Louise Ellen Teitz (Roger Williams), panelist.

Friday, March 27, 4:30-5:45 p.m.

► Plenary: "International Law as Law at the International Court of Justice": IntLawGrrl Lucy Reed (top right) (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and ASIL President), moderator.

Friday, March 27, 6:30-11 p.m.

► ASIL-ILSA Dinner Celebrating the Jessup Competition 50th Anniversary: Judge Rosalyn Higgins (left) (former President of the International Court of Justice), speaker.

Saturday, March 28, 9-10:30 a.m.

► "Changing Concepts of State Sovereignty": Rosa Brooks (Georgetown) and Ruti Teitel (New York Law School), panelists; Judge Rosalyn Higgins (left) (former President of the International Court of Justice), commentator; Oona Hathaway (California-Berkeley), moderator.

► "Learning from Doha: Can 'Development' be Operationalized in International Economic Law?": Uche Ewelukwa (Arkansas), panelist.

"Evolutions of the Jus ad Bellum: The Crime of Aggression": Jutta Bertram-Nothnagel (Permanent Representative of the Union Internationale des Avocats to the United Nations) and Elizabeth Wilmhurst (Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House), panelists.

Details and registration for this year's annual meeting are here.

IntLawGrrls @ AALS

Kudos to all IntLawGrrls members and guests/alumnae who shone at last week's annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools.
As mentioned above, yours truly was honored as new Chair of the Section on International Law. Here's the rest of the honor roll:
► Jeannine Bell took part in the Section of Law & Anthropology's panel on "Origins and Solutions to the Indian Freedmen Disputes"
► Johanna E. Bond presented at the "New Voices in Human Rights" panel of the Section on International Human Rights
► Vivian Grosswald Curran presented at the panel, jointly sponsored by the Sections on Comparative Law and Law and Economics, on "The Doing Business Reports by the World Bank and the Legal Origins Thesis: Is Economics Replacing Comparative Law?"
► Fiona de Londras delivered a great analysis of English, Irish, and American jurisprudence in the Section of International Law's panel on "Taking International Law Seriously: Will the United States Abide by International Law that is a Law of Rules?"
► Stephanie Farrior was elected to the Executive Committee of the Section on International Law
► Chimène Keitner presented at the "New Voices in Human Rights" panel of the Section on International Human Rights
► Linda M. Keller was elected to the Executive Committee of the Section on International Law, and further was elected, along with Annecoos Wiersema, as that Section's Newsletter Co-Editor
► Lisa Laplante was elected to the Executive Committee of the Section on International Law
► Hope Lewis was elected to the Executive Committee of the Section on International Law
► Christiana Ochoa was elected Chair of the Section on International Human Rights and Treasurer of the Section on International Law, and further served as Commentator for the latter section's "New Voices in Human Rights" panel
► Hari M. Osofsky was elected to the Executive Committee of the Section on International Law
► Annecoos Wiersema was elected to the Executive Committee of the Section on International Law, and further was elected, along with Linda M. Keller, as that Section's Newsletter Co-Editor
Heartfelt congratulations!

Guest Blogger: Annecoos Wiersema

It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome as today's guest blogger Annecoos Wiersema (left).
An Assistant Professor of Law at the Michael E. Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University in Columbus, where she teaches Environmental Law, International Law, Property Law, and Comparative Environmental Law. Annecoos earned an L.L.B. from the London School of Economics in England and an S.J.D. degree in International and Environmental Law from Harvard Law School, where she was the George W. Foley, Jr. Fellow in Environmental Law. She's taught at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, was a litigation associate in the Denver office of Arnold and Porter, and was a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund.
Annecoos' research focuses on how legal institutions might fulfill their goal of protecting species and ecosystems notwithstanding ecological science’s recognition of complexity and uncertainty. The question is at the heart of her guest post today.

Annecoos dedicates her post to Dian Fossey (below right), the scientist who, as described in this prior post, was killed in 1985 in Rwanda, where she'd devoted her life to the study and preservation of mountain gorillas. Annecoos writes:

Although sometimes controversial, Dian Fossey’s work with gorillas led to international attention and continues to inspire efforts to protect the species. Together with Jane Goodall and Biruté Galdikas, she makes up the triumvirate of women who worked with great apes beginning in the 1960s, trying to ensure their survival and generating worldwide international support for their protection. Her work bridged international boundaries as an early example of transnational activism.

Today Fossey joins other IntLawGrrls transnational foremothers in the list just below the "visiting from..." map at right. (photo credit)

Heartfelt welcome!

Precautionary principle & wildlife treaties

My thanks to IntLawGrrls for this opportunity to guest-post on my article that is forthcoming in the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy:
"Adversaries or Partners? Science and the Precautionary Principle in International Wildlife Treaties."
As described in this prior IntLawGrrls post, the precautionary principle emerged from the sidelines to make a splash at the 1992 Rio Conference. Since making its debut on the international environmental law stage, the principle has been adopted in numerous international agreements, and has become an important principle of international environmental law. It has also experienced something of a backlash, however, with commentators arguing that it is incoherent and paralyzing or anti-scientific. My article identifies four themes that shed light on why the principle has become so contentious -- themes derived from examination of the work of four international treaties for the protection of wildlife:
► the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands;
► the Convention on Biological Diversity, or CBD (prior post);
► the Convention on Migratory Species, or CMS; and
► the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES (prior posts) (credit for logo above right).
In brief, the four themes show that the precautionary principle is primarily viewed as applicable where the parties agree that there are gaps in information or knowledge. Where the parties don’t agree on the level of uncertainty in an issue, however, contentious debates can occur, with some parties accusing those who favor applying the precautionary principle even where there is some information as anti-scientific. Finally, where parties to the treaties can agree that the precautionary principle should play a role, the trend is to link the precautionary principle to adaptive ecosystem management approaches that will be applied primarily by scientists and on-the-ground decision-makers.
Two concerns seem to be driving these themes:
► First, while parties might agree that the precautionary principle applies in cases of uncertainty, they do not always agree on how much uncertainty there is in a given situation.
► Further, the very notion that the precautionary principle asks us to question science can leave parties and commentators to fear that decision-making will now occur without any objective guiding principles.
It should not be surprising, then, that even when the principle’s role is acknowledged, the safest option seems to be to put it back in the hands of the scientists, bringing us back to the security blanket of quantitative scientific data on which we can base our decisions.
I argue in my article that this approach fails to appreciate the nature and level of uncertainty in conservation -- both temporary and stochastic. I propose that decision-makers recognize the pervasiveness of this uncertainty by developing a distinct role for the precautionary principle that allows it to act as a complement to science. The precautionary principle would both encourage scientific research and reliance on scientific data, while still allowing decision-making to evaluate that data with a background principle of caution and ensuring conservation. While this will result in some value judgments being brought to bear on decision-making, it should encourage these value judgments to be discussed openly and should provide incentives for decision-makers to seek out many sources of information and to rely on the very best scientific information available, rather than being satisfied with one or two sources of scientific data where more are available. To the extent this role takes the principle beyond its beginnings in Rio, I argue that this role is necessary as part of the process by which the precautionary principle will mature.