International Law Weekend 2013 -- the world-famous autumn festival of the migratory flock of international lawyers, brought to you by the American Branch of the International Law Association and the International Law Students Association -- begins on Thursday night, October 24, 2013, at the Great Hall of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 42 West 44th Street, NYC, and continues at 9 a.m. Friday and Saturday, October 25-26, at the Lincoln Center facilities of Fordham Law School, at 140 West 62nd Street, NYC. Advance Registration is available at http://ila-americanbranch.org/ or http://www.ilsa.org/conferences/16-conferences/16-ilw-new-york.
As always, admission is free for
all students, faculty, lawyers, and staff from co-sponsoring institutions, as
well as all members of the American Branch of the International Law Association,
the International Law Students Association, and the Association of the Bar of
the City of New York. Staff members of the United Nations and
Permanent Missions to the United Nations can also attend for free. The
registration fee remains a modest $175 for the two days combined for all other
practicing lawyers and members of the public. And for the first time, there
will be 14 hours of Continuing Legal Education credit available to all lawyers
in attendance, accepted by New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The
CLE credits are also provided free.
This year's theme is the "Internationalization of Law & Legal
Practice." Academics and practitioners -- and those who follow foreign policy
-- will enjoy the Weekend's cornucopia of controversies in public and private
international law and politics.
A blue ribbon opening panel begins the tempest at
6:30 p.m. Thursday night at the City Bar, debating and dissecting the
proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (recently signed by U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry, but still controversial with some in the U.S. Senate as well
as the Prime Minister of Canada). The panel will feature the U.N.'s
undersecretary for disarmament affairs, the executive director of PEN, high
ranking officials from the State Department and supporting countries, and a
critic or two. All fences will be mended afterwards, in a wine and cheese
reception sponsored by the Mission of Mexico.
On Friday, a panoply of panels will percolate all
day long at the Lincoln Center Fordham atrium -- with public international law
discussions including, inter alia, the Well-Being of Children affected by Armed
Conflict, the Global Future of Same Sex Marriage, Combatting Human Trafficking,
Reform of the Inter-American Human Rights System, Teaching Law Outside Law
Schools, and practical panels on private international law, including Updates in
European Union Law, a General Counsel's Roundtable on the challenges faced by
in-house counsel, international discovery and privacy conflicts in litigation,
investment arbitration's standards of review in regard to government regulatory
conflict, the race to the North Pole and delineation of Arctic maritime
boundaries, and a user's guide to Marine Boundary Claims and Admiralty
Practice. A keynote address will be given by international arbitrator Donald
Donovan, current president of the American Society of International Law.
Panels on Saturday include "Web War 3.0" on
the fight over the independence of the internet currently waged between
the United Nations and the original architects of the Web, how corporations can
cope with the market in conflict minerals, the revision of the U.S.
"Restatement" of Foreign Relations Law, the new "Regime of Rocks and Islands" in
maritime boundary disputes (see the contest over the South China Sea), bringing
terrorists to justice, and forging a convention on Crimes Against Humanity.
And then, all students will adjourn to focused career panels -- with three
tracks on careers in international human rights and development, careers
in advising small to medium sized companies, and careers in international art
law, followed by informal networking with other attendees.
We have a record number of co-sponsors this year,
whose generous contributions make the event possible. Though some law firms have
pleaded hard times, we have new firms and new law schools on board, and a host
of faithful friends. Further information and registration is available at www.ila-americanbranch.org or www.ilsa.org, or at the door.
Come join us -- it's a contentious
lawyer's marathon.
Best wishes, Ruth Wedgwood,
for the American Branch of the International Law
Association, partnering with the International Law Students Association, the
Leitner Center of Fordham Law School, and the Association of the Bar of the City
of New York
Ruth Wedgwood is Edward B. Burling Chair in International Law and Diplomacy at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. You can reach her by e-mail at rwedgwood at jhu.edu