On September 23

On this day in ...
... 1980 (30 years ago today), Dr. Alona Evans (far left) died suddenly, 63 years after her birth in Providence, Rhode Island. At the time of her death she was several months into her term as the 1st woman President of the American Society of International Law. (photo credit) Earlier, she had become the 1st woman elected to the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law. Evans, who'd earned her bachelor's and doctoral degrees from Duke University, served at the U.S. State Department during World War II, and then became Professor, and eventually Chair, of the Political Science Department at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She "was an expert on international criminal law, extradition, aircraft hijacking, and refugee issues," having co-chaired a State Department-funded study on terrorism. In the 1970s, she'd led "an ad hoc ASIL committee on the professional interest and status of women in international law." In the 1950s Evans was a visiting law professor at Harvard, "prior to that institution's granting a law degree to women." Outstanding teams in the Jessup international moot court competition receive an award bearing her name.

(Prior September 23 posts are here, here, and here.)

AJIL board nominations sought

Following on our earlier post regarding a request for nominations to American Society of International Law leadership positions:
The Nominating Committee of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law invites nominations for members of the Board of Editors to be elected in spring 2011.
As detailed here:

[N]ominations 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.

Suggestions, along with supporting statements and information, such as a CV, list of publications, and, if possible, copies of significant publications, should be sent no later than September 15, 2010, to the AJIL Nominating Committee Chair, c/o either of the Co-Editors-in-Chief:
► Professor Lori Damrosch, Columbia University School of Law, 435 West 116th Street, New York, New York 10027, e-mail ajil@law.columbia.edu.
► Professor Bernard H. Oxman, University of Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, Florida 33124, e-mail ajil@law.miami.edu.

Take the leadbis

It's that time of year.
Once again, the American Society of International Law is looking for a few good leaders.
ASIL's Nominating Committee is seeking nominations for: 2 Vice Presidents, 1 from academia and 1 from the practice; 8 Executive Council members; and 8 nonvoting, honorary Counsellors.
The deadline is August 15, 2009. Details on how to nominate yourself or your colleagues for any of these ASIL leadership positions are available here.
Meanwhile, ASIL's premier publication, the American Journal of International Law, invites nominations for members of its Board of Editors, to be chosen "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," as well as on "areas of expertise or professional perspective or discipline." Deadline is September 15, 2009.
Details on how to nominate yourself or your colleagues for this AJIL leadership position are available here.
All terms will commence at the Society's annual meeting, to be held March 2010 in Washington, D.C.

In passing: Thomas Franck

Renowned international jurist Thomas Franck (left) passed away Wednesday after a struggle against cancer.
Others surely will recount Tom's lifework, already noted at the websites of New York University School of Law, where he was Murry and Ida Becker Professor of Law Emeritus, and the American Society of International Law, for which he served both as President and as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of International Law. (photo credit) Permit me to sound a more personal note.
I first was introduced to Tom in February 2004, when I had the privilege of commenting, along with several others, on a paper regarding the use of force that he gave at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in San Francisco. Tom was visiting at Hastings that semester, and so a week or two later we met for lunch. Topics of our most enjoyable conversation ranged from the war in Iraq then just a year old, to the round-the-clock marriage ceremonies then under way across the street at City Hall, to the fondness we two North Americans shared for the land and people of Ireland.
In the 5 years since, I welcomed the all-too-few opportunities I had to visit with Tom. A warm person, supportive mentor, and inspiring colleague, he will be missed.

On the Legal Adviser of the State Department

With the full Senate vote on the nomination of Harold Hongju Koh (below right) to come at some as-yet-unspecified date -- last week, by a 12-5 vote, Koh won Foreign Relations Committee approval -- it seems a good time to reflect on the position for which he's been nominated.
Reflection is much aided by The Role of the Legal Adviser of the Department of State, prepared by the 29 men and 5 women who composed a joint committee of the American Society of International Law and the American Branch of the International Law Association. Aiding the committee was an advisory group comprising 8 men and 1 woman. ASIL's made the timely decision to place the report online at its website; originally it appeared in a 1991 edition of the American Journal of International Law.
The report provokes much thought, and not just for its recommendations on how to strengthen the Office of the Legal Adviser:
► Worth pondering is the examination of the Legal Adviser's role -- as one who "operates within the framework of two separate legal systems," domestic and international, as one whose advice to client "may significantly affect the content and integrity of international rules and institutions," and as one who, because decisions typically are not subjected to judicial review, encounters "only relatively weak external checks."
► Of particular importance is its acknowledgment of the difficulties of assuring that international law is supported, not just in the State Department, but throughout all agencies of the U.S. government. (It's an observation that would seem prescient post-9/11 were it not for the report's reminder that formation of the joint committee had been motivated by concern -- in 1988 -- "that in recent years the United States has taken a number of actions that have been widely questioned on legal grounds both within the United States and by foreign governments in international bodies.")
► Also timeless is the report's conclusion:

... [T]he United States and other nations making up the global commmunity are together facing urgent and complex challenges -- problems of nuclear proliferation, poverty and hunger, environmental degradation, resource depletion, ethnic and religious conflict, and rapidly shifting patterns of global political and economic power. Yet at the same time we stand on the threshold of extraordinary opportunities -- an end to the Cold War, new possibilities for cooperation among the great powers, the resurgence of democratic values, growing international recognition of human rights, and the vast promise of rapidly-developing technology. ...
The Legal Advisor of the Department of State, as well as other U.S. government attorneys involved in international legal issues, will continue to carry heavy responsibilities for safeguarding and furthering our national interest in international law. ...

Take the lead

The American Society of International Law is looking for a few good leaders.
ASIL's Nominating Committee's seeking nominations for 1 academic member to be President-Elect, 2 academic- and 1 practitioner-member Vice Presidents, 9 Executive Council members, and 8 nonvoting, honorary Counsellors. Deadlines are coming up fast: for President-Elect nominations, it's this Friday, August 1; for all others, it's August 15. All terms will commence at the Society's annual meeting, to be held March 2009 at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, ASIL's premier publication, the American Journal of International Law, invites nominations for members of its Board of Editors, to be chosen "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," as well as on "areas of expertise or professional perspective or discipline." Deadline is September 15, 2008.
Details on how to nominate yourself or your colleagues for any of these positions are available here.

An Agora that'd make the men of ancient Athens proud (but not in a good way)

The latest edition of the American Journal of International Law just found its way here. Among its excellent contents is part 2 of an Agora -- AJIL's term for an on-paper-only symposium about a topical topic -- on military commissions in our post-9/11 world.
"Agora," of course, is the Greek word for the marketplaces, like the one at right, where Socrates, Plato, and other men of intellect conducted public discourse. It's perhaps too apt a term here:
Couldn't help noticing that out of all the articles AJIL published -- 7 total in part 1 and part 2 -- not 1 was written by a woman.
That couldn't have been for lack of 1 able to take on the task. The notion that women do not think and work and write on issues critical to national security is, as posted before, simply wrong. At least 8 IntLawGrrls've published in the area, on military and postconflict justice, the Geneva Conventions, counterterrorism, humanitarian law: Elena Baylis (Amelia Earhart), Mary Coombs (Charming Betsy), Elizabeth Lutes Hillman (Vera Brittain), Naomi Norberg (Anna Koransky) Diane Orentlicher (Beatrice), Naomi Roht-Arriaza (Gabriela Mistral), Beth Van Schaack (Eleanor Roosevelt), and I. So too have many of our colleagues; just a few of the names that jump to mind are Rosa Brooks, Laura A. Dickinson, Jenny Martinez, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Leila Nadya Sadat, Jane Stromseth, and Ruth Wedgwood.
The absence of any such voices in this Agora makes for an unfortunate reinforcement of an outdated misapprehension about who is expert on matters of international law and national security.

On July 9, ...

... 1900, the Commonwealth of Australia was established and Australia's Constitution entered into force when Britain's Queen Victoria signed a Royal Commission of Assent (right) to those events.
... 1986, a U.S. commission issued a 1,960-page report that found "a 'causal relationship' between certain kinds of pornography and acts of sexual violence." A commission recommendation that local prosecutors seize materials "to 'literally put many pornographers out of business'' and to ''substantially eliminate obscenity businesses'" was "constitutionally foreclosed" by the Supreme Court's 1989 decision in Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana, Linda Greenhouse wrote.
... 2004, in its advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the International Court of Justice ruled that in building a wall around territory in Palestine, Israel acted "contrary to international law." A 2005 symposium on the decision begins volume 99 of the American Journal of International Law.

ASIL wants you

The American Society of Law's put out a call for ideas and nominations relating to a host of its programs.
"The Politics of International Law" is the theme of the next annual meeting, to be held April 9-12, 2008, in Washington, D.C. Planners ask that ASIL members send program and panel ideas. A separate call seeks abstracts from new voices. Deadline's soon, July 9; details here and here.
Members also are asked for nominations for ASIL officers, for the American Journal of International Law editorial board, and for awards in honor of scholarly work. Deadlines are as early as August 15; details on the 1st 2 here, on the 3d, here.