Miami midyear musings

Some intriguing scenes at last weekend's midyear meeting of the American Society of International Law, held for the 1st time in recent memory outside of Washington, D.C.
The setting was southern Florida, awash in warm sun at the very same time that a foot of snow blanketed northern climes. The 2-day conference took place at host University of Miami School of Law and at the Biltmore Hotel - Coral Gables, a mammoth relic of America's Jazz Age.
Of particular interest to this 'Grrl were panels on criminal and human rights adjudication.
► In "Revisiting the Place of International Law in Domestic Law," panelists discussed the challenges posed when cases of transnational nature land in courts within the United States. Judge Adalberto Jordan, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, described the process by which he reached his ruling denying a motion to dismiss in Mamani, et al. v. Sánchez de Lozada and Mamani, et al. v. Sánchez Berzain, an Alien Tort Statute matter arising out of killings in Bolivia in 2003. (As we've posted, in another Alien Tort case, Judge Jordan awarded a $22.5 million default judgment against "Chuckie" Taylor, son of the former Liberian President.) It's now on appeal before the 11th Circuit. Meanwhile a judge of that circuit, the Honorable Rosemary Barkett, wondered how Oklahoma could enforce State Question 755, a law just passed by voters, subsection C of which declares that the state's judges "shall not consider international law or Shariah Law." (On Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange will hear arguments on whether to grant a preliminary injunction against the law in her Oklahoma City courtroom.)
► In "National, Regional, and International Perspectives on International Criminal Accountability," I was honored to moderate a discussion between Olivia Swaak-Goldman, International Cooperation Adviser at the Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court, and George Washington University Law Professor Dinah Shelton, since 2009 a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Explored were the role that the ICC and regional institutions play in achieving accountability for perpetrators and redress for victims.
► The dinner keynote was "Justice and Leadership Dilemmas in Shakespeare," by the Honorable Theodor Meron, Shakespearean scholar and Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Of particular interest was the discussion of the predicament that Hubert de Burgh -- whom Meron described as a "legal adviser" -- faced when the eponymous King John ordered an unjust killing.

Sharing Biltmore breakfast space with us on the last day, the former President at left (that's Jeb behind him).

A small world, indeed.

Go On! ASIL midyear in Miami

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

Next month the American Society of International Law will break from a long D.C. tradition and hold its 2010 Midyear Meeting in Miami, Florida. Of the plan to meet November 12 and 13 in that southernmost city, ASIL President David D. Caron explained:

Convening the international law community throughout the United States and the rest of the world is an important priority for the Society — to serve our far-flung members, and also to reach growing new constituencies of international law within the bar and the judiciary, among representatives of the media, and in the general public.

As they do every autumn, ASIL's Executive Council and the editors of the American Journal of International Law will gather. Additionally, those of us who are working on ASIL's Benchbook on International Law project look forward to the opportunity to vet drafts with a panel of federal judges.

Newly supplementing in camera sessions like these will be a day of events open to the public (many offering Continuing Legal Education credit). Examples of public events for Friday, November 12, at the University of Miami Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center:

► "Stop the Hand-Wringing and Do Something: Solutions on the Table to What is Perceived to be Wrong with International Arbitration," featuring: Catherine Amirfar (Debevoise & Plimpton LLP); Edward Mullins (Astigarraga Davis LLP); and Michael Reisman (Yale Law). Chaired by IntLawGrrl Lucy Reed (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP), ASIL's Immediate Past President.

► "The Top Six Recent Arbitrations Everyone Should Know," featuring: Mahnoush Arsanjani (International Law Associates), an ASIL Vice President; David Bederman (Emory Law); Ryan Reetz (Squire Sanders LLP). Chaired by Donald Francis Donovan (Debevoise & Plimpton LLP).
► Luncheon keynote, "Florida and the Globalization of the Legal Profession: Insights from the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20," by Carolyn Lamm (White & Case LLP) (above left), Immediate Past President of the American Bar Association.

► "Career Fair/Mentoring Session for Students"

► "Revisiting the Place of International Law in Domestic Law," featuring: Judge Rosemary Barkett (U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit) (right); Judge Adalberto Jordan (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida); Curtis Bradley (Duke Law); and Eyal Benvenisti (Tel Aviv Law); chaired by Laurence Helfer (Duke Law).
► "National, Regional, and International Perspectives on International Criminal Accountability," featuring: Olivia Swaak-Goldman (Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court); and Dinah Shelton (George Washington Law) (below left), a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Chaired by yours truly, IntLawGrrl Diane Marie Amann (University of California, Davis, Law), an ASIL Vice President.

All participants also are welcome to register for the conference dinner that evening at the Biltmore Hotel; featured will be "Justice and Leadership Dilemmas in Shakespeare," the keynote by Judge Theodor Meron, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and ASIL Honorary President.

Events are free for students, ASIL members, and affiliates of the meeting's cosponsoring law firms and law schools; for others, there is a fee. Details and registration here.

Report from the XVIIIth International Congress of Comparative Law in Washington

(Delighted to welcome back alumna Afra Afsharipour, who contributes this guest post)

I am here in Washington, D.C., at the XVIIIth International Congress of Comparative Law (logo at left).

The congress is taking place all of this week, presented by the International Academy of Comparative Law and the American Society of Comparative Law, and hosted by three local law schools, American University Washington College of Law, George Washington University Law School, and Georgetown University Law Center. It is a pleasure to be among such a diverse group of jurists, lawyers, and scholars from around the world. The Academy, which is composed of academics and jurists from around the world, organizes every 4 years in different parts of the world an international congress of comparative law. From my understanding, this is the first time that an international congress has been held in the United States.
The conference got off to a great start today with an opening plenary addressing the "Role of Comparative Law in Courts and International Tribunals." The panel was chaired by the Secretary-General of the International Academy of Comparative Law and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, Dr. Jürgen Basedow. Representing views from both domestic and international courts, as well as a viewpoint from practice, the distinguished panelists discussed the role of both international and comparative law in their own courts:

► Judge Rosemary Barkett (right), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (for whom I had the privilege of clerking), began by remarking that to some extent comparing laws has some role in all jurisdictions. She presented a historical perspective from the United States to demonstrate that the practice of considering foreign sources is rooted in the legal history and tradition of the United States, citing to the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Federalist papers, as well as to numerous opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court. One of Judge Barkett’s most important points was that, as international and comparative scholars, we need to address the definitional problems in comparative law. For example, many jurisdictions espouse allegiance to the rule of law, but what exactly does rule of law entail?

► Justice Sabino Cassese (left), of the Constitutional Court of Italy, next provided three distinct examples of courts looking beyond their own nation’s borders for insights. He emphasized that recourse to comparison by high courts is widespread, and that increasingly supreme courts are acting as comparatists. Justice Cassese emphasized two tasks for comparative lawyers and scholars: one, to examine and evaluate how judges and courts use foreign law; and two, to develop methods and procedures for comparison.
► The presentations of Judge Barkett and Justice Cassese were followed by the practitioner’s perspective, Carolyn Lamm (right), a partner at White & Case in Washington and President of the American Bar Association. She emphasized the importance of looking to other systems for persuasive, not precedential, value. Lamm reminded us of the speech from former U.S. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, in a 1989 talk titled "Constitutional Courts -- Comparative Remarks," in which he remarked:

For nearly a century and a half, courts in the United States exercising the power of judicial review had no precedents to look to save their own, because our courts alone exercised this sort of authority. . . . But now that constitutional law is solidly grounded in so many countries, it is time that the United States courts begin looking to the decisions of other constitutional courts to aid in their own deliberative process.

(Reprinted in Germany and Its Basic Law: Past, Present and Future, A German-American Symposium 411, 412 (Paul Kirchhof & Donald P. Kommers eds., 1993). Lamm also cited to the “Obama-Clinton Doctrine” speech that State Department Legal Adviser Harold Hongju Koh delivered to the American Society of International Law annual meeting. (prior IntLawGrrls post) The speech is definitely worth a read.

► Judge Diego García Sayán (right), President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, spoke of the role of his regional court with respect to national courts in the Americas. He explained that most Latin American national courts openly and explicitly use judgments of the Inter-American court in their decisions, and that the Inter-American court also has used local and national criteria used by national courts. Judge García Sayán also remarked on the use of international law by the Inter-American court, particularly noting the influence of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. While this influence used to be primarily a one-way street, recently the European Court of Human Rights has also looked to the jurisprudence of the Inter-American court for persuasive value.
► Judge Bruno Simma (left) followed by describing his experience on the International Court of Justice and his use of comparative law in an early opinion on the Oil Platforms dispute between Iran and the United States. Judge Simma warned both of the dangers that could befall a comparatist and of comparative law accidents.
The presentations were followed by a dynamic discussion among the panelists on a variety of issues, including the weight to be given to comparative law in judicial opinions and the relationship between international and comparative law.
The opening plenary was followed the rest of the day with various breakout sessions, including the delivery and discussion of general and national reports prepared for the conference. For those of you interested in comparative surveys of various legal issues, the reports should not be missed.
The conference got off to a great start yesterday. Today’s program, which will be held at the George Washington University Law School, promises to be as dynamic as this first day.

Guest Blogger: Afra Afsharipour

It's a great pleasure to welcome my colleague, Afra Afsharipour (left), as today's guest blogger.

An Acting Professor of Law here at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, Afra's scholarship and teaching focus on the areas of comparative corporate law, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, mergers and acquisitions, and securities regulation. She posted on these issues here, during a recent guest stint at The Conglomerate Blog: Business, Law, Economics & Society. In her IntLawGrrls guest post below, Afra discusses her forthcoming article on the role of law in encouraging the expansion of Indian multinationals and their acquisition of companies in developed countries.
Before entering academia, she was an associate in the corporate department of Davis Polk & Wardwell, advising clients on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities offerings, and corporate governance and compliance. She also served as a law clerk to Judge Rosemary Barkett, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Afra earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was an articles editor of the Columbia Law Review and a submissions editor of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, and her her B.A. degree magna cum laude from Cornell University, where she studied government, international relations and women's studies. She was a Board Member for the Iranian Women's Studies Foundation from 2000 to 2008.

At California-Davis, Afra serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Comparative Law, as a member of the Faculty Council of our California International Law Center at King Hall, and as advisor the March 2010 Business Law Journal symposium on "Technology Transactions in a Post-Economic Crisis Economy."

Dedicating her post to Myra Bradwell (below right), Afra writes:

I became interested in her when I was a student at Columbia Law. The Columbia Law Women's Association held an annual dinner (which continues to this day) in honor of Myra Bradwell. There are many books and articles about Bradwell's courageous activism and fight to be admitted to the Illinois bar. Her struggle to win the right to be a lawyer, as well as her activism on behalf of women's rights generally, helped lay the foundation for 20th century women's rights activists. Personally, the Myra Bradwell dinner that I attended really inspired me during my first year of law school, so much so that I became heavily involved with both the Columbia Law Women's Association (serving as President in my second year) as well as the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law.

Bradwell joins other foremothers in IntLawGrrls' list just below our "visiting from..." map at right.

Heartfelt welcome!