Rebuilding Sierra Leone

The University of South Carolina School of Law recently hosted a very interesting conference entitled “Rebuilding Sierra Leone: Changing Institutions and Culture” (logo at right). Organized by Professor Joel Samuels, this April 1 conference was one of the first interdisciplinary academic conferences in the United States to focus solely on the unique challenges of redeveloping Sierra Leone after its decade-long armed conflict in the 1990s.
The goal of the conference was to highlight salient issues that have hindered Sierra Leone’s post-war rebuilding, and to begin discussion among academics working in different disciplines on future collaborations on Sierra Leone-specific projects.
The conference was divided into four panels:
► “Sierra Leone in Context”
► “Paths to Rebuilding Sierra Leone”
► “The Special Court for Sierra Leone”
► “The Problem of Child Soldiers”
Some highlights included a talk by Professor Erika George (University of Utah) (left) that began with the observation that erosion or failure of the education system is one of the first indicators of a failing or failed state. She linked this idea to the state of education in Sierra Leone prior to and after the conflict, noting some post-conflict improvements but also some very worrying gaps that still remain.
Another thought-provoking speaker was Professor Jennifer Moore (University of New Mexico) (right), who argued that post-conflict Sierra Leone needs not only courtroom (retributive) justice, it also needs to focus on social justice (material well-being), and historical justice (addressing peace in community life. She highlighted the work of two nongovernmental organizations within Sierra Leone – the Centre for Development and Peace Education and Fambul Tok – in contributing to the two latter forms of justice.
Yours truly, Valerie Oosterveld, had the honour of presenting a paper on the jurisprudence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone with respect to gender-based crimes against humanity and war crimes. I traced positive and less-than-positive legal reasoning with respect to gender-based acts in the trial judgments in what are usually referred to as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and the Civil Defence Forces cases. I contrasted these cases with the Revolutionary United Front case, arguing that the RUF case represents a step forward in efforts to contextualize rape, sexual mutilation and other forms of sexual violence directed against women, girls, men and boys, as well as gender-based crimes such as forced marriage. My presentation represented a continuation of arguments outlined in a recently-published article - “The Gender Jurisprudence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone: Progress in the Revolutionary United Front Judgments” (2011) 44(1) Cornell International Law Journal 49-74.
The conference participants also heard interesting presentations by: Prof. Christopher DeCorse (Syracuse University), Herb Frazier (author), Kevin Lowther (author), Joseph Opala (Bunce Island Conservation Project), Ambassador June Carter Perry (former US Ambassador to Sierra Leone), Lt. Col. Mark Daubney (British Embassy), Ambassador David Scheffer (Northwestern University), James Hodes (Cochran Law Firm), Anthony Triolo (International Center for Transitional Justice), Professor Daniel Hoffman (University of Washington), Professor Mark Drumbl (Washington & Lee University) and Professor Noah Novogrodsky (University of Wyoming).
There was discussion among the conference participants about publishing an edited volume focused on possibilities and challenges facing Sierra Leone in its rebuilding efforts: I will keep IntLawGrrl readers informed about this potentially exciting development!

Write On! ASIL Research Forum

(Thanks to IntLawGrrls for the opportunity to contribute this guest post, another in IntLawGrrls' Write On! series)

The American Society of International Law has launched a new initiative that may be of interest. On November 4 and 5 of this year we will be launching the first ASIL Research Forum at UCLA Law School. We hope that the Forum will become be a yearly scholarly conference on new research in international law.
Spearheading the initiative is the 2011 ASIL Research Forum Committee:
► Co-Chairs: yours truly, Laura Dickinson, Foundation Professor and Faculty Director at the Center for Law and Global Affairs, Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, along with Kal Raustiala, Professor at the UCLA School of Law and Director of UCLA's Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations.
► Committee members: Mark A. Drumbl, Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law & Director, Transnational Law Institute, Washington & Lee University School of Law, along with IntLawGrrl guests/alumnae Nienke Grossman, University of Baltimore School of Law, and Mary Ellen O’Connell, an ASIL Vice President and the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at Notre Dame Law School.
The idea is to hold an event that is focused around in-depth discussion of works in progress. Particularly welcome are interdisciplinary projects, empirical studies, and research that deploys new methodologies to study international or transnational law.
Proposals are due April 30, and will be reviewed anonymously.
The official call for papers is below:

Call for Scholarly Papers
The Inaugural ASIL Research Forum
November 4-5, 2011
The American Society of International Law calls for submissions of scholarly paper proposals for the inaugural ASIL Research Forum to be held at UCLA Law School on November 4-5, 2011.
The Research Forum is a new initiative of the Society aimed at providing a setting for the presentation and focused discussion of works in progress. The Spring Annual Meeting does this in part through its "works-in-progress" sessions, but the Research Forum aims to do this exclusively.
The Research Forum will be held in the fall and, as possible, coordinated as an integral part of the Fall ASIL Mid-Year Meeting. All ASIL members are invited to attend the Forum, whether presenting a paper or not.
Interested participants should submit a proposal (preferably 500, and no more than 1,000, words in length) summarizing the scholarly paper to be presented at the forum. Papers can be on any topic related to international and transnational law. Works-in-progress are particularly encouraged. Interdisciplinary projects, empirical studies, and jointly authored proposals are welcome.
Submissions should be sent to 2011forum@asil.org by April 30. Proposals will be vetted anonymously by the Research Forum Committee with selections to be announced by June 15.
At present, it is the intent of the Research Forum Committee to organize the selected paper proposals around common issues, themes, and approaches. Discussants, who will comment on the papers, will be assigned to each cluster of papers.

Write On! Untold war crime trial stories

(Write On! is an occasional item about notable calls for papers.) From our Opinio Juris colleague Kevin Jon Heller, news that papers are being sought for what promises to be a fascinating event:
The conference, entitled Untold Stories: Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials, will be held October 15-16, 2010, at the University of Melbourne Law School in Australia. Sponsoring the conference is the law school's Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law (logo below left). Organizers are Kevin, who's a Senior Lecturer at the law school, along with Dr. Gerry Simpson, Centre Director and a law professor both at Melbourne and the London School of Economics; Dr. Tim McCormack, Melbourne law professor and the Centre's Foundation Director, whom the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has named its Special Adviser on International Humanitarian Law; and Dr. Jennifer Balint (right), an expert on genocide and state crime at Melbourne's School of Social and Political Sciences. Confirmed speakers for this effort to examine less well-known aspects of war crimes trials, with an eye to publication of a conference volume, include our colleagues Mark Drumbl (Washington & Lee) and Larry May (Vanderbilt).
Organizers explain:

As international criminal law matures, there has been a return to history. Intriguing research agendas have focused on the origins of international criminal law in the repression of piracy or slave-trading and on the institutional innovations found at Versailles and The Hague. Meanwhile, familiar landmarks are being revisited in order to clarify ongoing doctrinal debates (aggression at Nuremberg, conspiracy at Tokyo, and so on). Alongside all of this is increased interest in less familiar war crimes trials, both international and domestic.
The idea behind this symposium is to uncover and explore some of the less well-known – perhaps even obscure – war crimes trials. As an example, Kevin Heller, one of the organizers, will be presenting a paper on the twelve Nuremberg Military Tribunals held under Control Council Law No. 10. There will also likely be papers on the war crimes trials held in Bangladesh after the secession, on the recent genocide trial in Ethiopia, and on the post-war trials under Australian jurisdiction in the Far East.

An abstract of 300 to 500 words, plus a short CV, should be submitted no later than the deadline of May 30, 2010, to Professor Simpson c/o Centre Administrator Cathy Hutton at c.hutton@unimelb.edu.au. Questions should be directed to Kevin at kheller@unimelb.edu.au.

Update: transnational law & curricular reform

As a follow-up to earlier IntLawGrrls posts (here and here), as well as posts on Opinio Juris (here), I wanted to share this exciting news:
The Washington and Lee University School of Law faculty voted unanimously yesterday to add transnational law to the first year curriculum. This decision reinforces the school's continued development of its transnational law program, and should pair in exciting ways with its (also unanimous) vote earlier this spring to move towards a third year focused on practicum courses. By giving all students a grounding in transnational law in the first year, the school will enhance the value of its innovative transnational law electives in the years that follow.
Roger Alford, whose Opinio Juris posts had criticized the reforms, generously commented this morning:

Sounds like a great curriculum move. Combine that with W&L's stellar international law faculty (beginning next year the IL faculty will include Johanna Bond, Mark Drumbl, Susan Franck, Fred Kirgis, Russell Miller, Hari Osofsky, etc.) and I think that any concerns about the marginalization of international law at Washington & Lee are misplaced.

We are excited to be part of this pedagogical experiment.

You go, 'Grrl

IntLawGrrl Johanna E. Bond (left) slipped good news far too subtly into her last post: she'll be moving east this summer to join the faculty at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. As an an Associate Professor of Law, Johanna will be teaching an international human rights practicum, gender & the law, and torts. She'll join the topnotch international law teaching team -- including IntLawGrrl Hari M. Osofsky -- that W&L's Mark A. Drumbl worked to assemble this year.(Mark's also spearheaded major curricular reform at the school. The plan drew criticism from Roger Alford at Opinio Juris, a response from Johanna, and, most recently, a reply from Mark. More commentary no doubt yet to come.)
Johanna, who was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center before moving to her current home athe University of Wyoming, has been busy even in advance of the move. She just returned from traveling with students on a 2 weeks' human rights trip in Namibia, on which she promises to post soon.
Heartfelt congratulations!