On November 13

On this day in ....

... 1920 (90 years ago today), the American Society of International Law (seal at left) admitted women to its membership. This decision by the then-14-year-old organization was chronicled at 15 American Journal of International Law 76 (1921). Given the importance of the event -- and the fact that on this anniversary day, ASIL's 2010 midyear meeting is under way in Miami, Florida -- we set forth the full AJIL account:

ADMISSION OF WOMEN TO MEMBERSHIP IN THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

At the meeting of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, held in Washington on November 13, 1920, the Council took up and considered the resolution of the Executive Committee of the Society, adopted on January 24, 1920, that "the Executive Council be requested to reconsider the regulation of January 29, 1906, which it has established under Article 3 of the Constitution in regard to membership." This resolution of the Executive Committee was adopted after discussion of the advisability of admitting women to membership in the Society. The Executive Council at its meeting on November 13, after consideration, adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That the regulation of January 29, 1906, concerning the admission of members be, and it is hereby, amended by changing the word 'man' to 'person'.

The regulation governing admission to membership, therefore, now reads as follows:

Any person of good moral character interested in the objects of the Society may be admitted to membership in the Society.

In the interim 90 years, 4 women have served s ASIL Presidents:

► Dr. Alona Evans (top right; prior post), 1980;

► Dr. Edith Brown Weiss (middle right; prior posts), 1992-1994;

► Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter (bottom middle; prior posts), 2002-2004; and

► IntLawGrrl Lucy Reed (above center; prior posts), 2008-2010.

(Prior November 13 posts are here, here, and here.)

ASIL honorees, awardees sought

Following our earlier posts respecting requests for nominations to leadership positions in the American Society of International Law (here) and to the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law (here):
ASIL committees seek nominations for the following:

Medals, Honor Certificate

ASIL's Honors Committee -- chaired by John Crook and also including IntLawGrrl Hope Lewis, as well as our colleagues Vaughan Lowe, Ved Nanda, and Kathleen Paisley -- asks ASIL members to nominate persons for the Society's highest honors, to be awarded at the annual meeting next March:

► Goler T. Butcher Medal (right), given to a distinguished person of American or other nationality for outstanding contributions to the development or effective realization of international human rights law. The medal commemorates the lifework of Goler Teal Butcher (1925-1993), an IntLawGrrls foremother, whose many achievements included Howard University Law Professor, State Department official, and head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Previous honorees include another IntLawGrrls foremother, Virginia Leary (prior post), as well as IntLawGrrls guest/alumna Hilary Charlesworth; here is the full list of honorees.

► Manley O. Hudson Medal (right), given from time to time, without regard to recipient's nationality, for scholarship and achievement in international law. The medal commemorates the lifework of Manley Ottmer Hudson (1886-1960), whose many achievements included Harvard Law Professor, Judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice and ASIL President. As posted, the 2010 Medal winner was another past President, Edith Brown Weiss, a Georgetown Law Professor; here is a list of all previous honorees.

► Designation as Honorary Member, for a non-U.S. citizen who has rendered distinguished contributions or service in the field of international law. Previous honorees here.

The Honors Committee welcomes nominations for each of these three honors, to be submitted no later than August 31, 2010, via the online nomination form available here. The Committee will include in its consideration nominations made in previous years; it invites persons who made nominations in previous years to supplement their earlier letters as appropriate.

Questions may be directed to the Committee by contacting Veronica Onorevole at 2011awards@asil.org.

Scholarship Awards
Authors, publishers, and readers are encouraged to submit works appropriate for the book awards known as ASIL Certificates of Merit, given for preeminent contribution to:
► Creative scholarship;
► Specialized area of international law; and/or
► High technical craftsmanship.
(Previous honorees here.) Eligible are books by authors of any nationality, published in any language and at any place in the 24 months preceding February 1, 2011. To nominate, send 6 copies of the work no later than October 1, 2010, to Veronica Onorevole, Executive Office & Programs Manager, American Society of International Law, 2223 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008.

Edith Brown Weiss honored with Hudson Medal for pre-eminent scholarship & achievement

This week at its annual meeting, the American Society of International Law (ASIL) is honoring the incomparable Edith Brown Weiss (pictured at left) with the prestigious Manley O. Hudson Medal, an award bestowed for "pre-eminent scholarship and achievement in international law." Through her prolific scholarship on trade, sustainable development, human rights and the environment, and compliance with multilateral environmental agreements, Professor Brown Weiss has shaped the development of international environmental law and profoundly influenced the next generation of scholars and policy-makers. As noted by the ASIL Honors Committee:

Her ideas, scholarship and practical contributions to the policy world have forever shifted the way people think about environmental law.

Her path-breaking work, In Fairness to Future Generations: International Law, Common Patrimony and Intergenerational Equity (1984) has been published in English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. The recipient of the Certificate of Merit Award from the ASIL, the book set out a conceptual framework for intergenerational equity that launched new thinking in environmental law.
Professor Brown Weiss has been a leader not only in her scholarship but also in public service. She established the International Environmental Law Office at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and headed it for two years; has served on several committees of the US National Academy of Sciences; was Special Legal Advisor to the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation; and served a five-year term on the three-member Inspection Panel of the World Bank (2002-2007) including four years as the Chair of the Panel, an appointment at the Vice-Presidential level. She is a past President of the American Society of International Law and serves on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law.
Professor Brown Weiss, the Francis Cabell Brown Professor of International Law at Georgetown University Law Center, will deliver her Hudson Medal Lecture, "On Being Accountable in a Kaleidescopic World," at the ASIL Annual Meeting tomorrow, 26 March, at 4:15 PM.
Anyone who knows her also knows of her deep dedication to students and colleagues. Her generous and caring spirit is legendary. Her open and inclusive approach years ago when I was a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown made a lasting impression on me.
Thank you, Edie, for your commitment to the planet and those inhabiting it -- and congratulations on an honor richly deserved!

Women @ ASILquater

As we have each year since our founding (here, here, and here), IntLawGrrls is proud today to highlight women who will speak March 24-27 at the forthcoming annual meeting of the American Society of International Law.
This 104th gathering of the Society, entitled International Law in a Time of Change, kicks off with the Grotius Lecture by Antony Anghie at 4:30 p.m. on March 24, features a keynote address by State Department Legal Adviser Harold Hongju Koh at 5 p.m. March 25, the Manley O. Hudson Medal Lecture by Edith Brown Weiss (right)at 4:15 p.m. March 26, a keynote by Canada's Chief Justice, Beverley McLachlin (below left), at 5:30 March 26, and runs through March 27. All events will take place at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, 1150 22d Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. (Details and registration here.)

Delighted to see from the program that, once again, there's much diversity in topics and presenters. Virtually all panels again 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). Kudos to the Program Committee Co-Chairs, IntLawGrrls' own Hari M. Osofsky and our colleagues K. Russell LaMotte and Allen S. Weiner! Particularly proud that so many persons featured are IntLawGrrls or IntLawGrrls guest alumnae -- not only Planning Committee members Rebecca Bratspies, Chimène Keitner, Hope Lewis, and Beth Van Schaack, but also, of course, Lucy Reed (right), who will conclude her 2-year tenure as ASIL President at the meeting, to be succeeded by our colleague David D. Caron.
Without further ado, here's this year's honor roll:

Thursday, March 25, 9-10:30 a.m.
► "Empirical Approaches to International Law": Elizabeth Andersen (ASIL Executive Director), IntLawGrrl Elena Baylis (Pittsburgh), Susan Franck (Washington & Lee), Janet Levit (Tulsa), and panelists; Tonya Putnam (Columbia), moderator.
►"New Thinking on Social and Economic Rights: Honoring Virginia Leary," an IntLawGrrls foremother: IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Gay McDougall (United Nations) (below, far right), Mona Rishmawi (United Nations), and Alicia Ely Yamin (Harvard), panelists; IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Barbara Stark (Hofstra), moderator.
►"International Human Rights Law, Foreign Sovereign Immunity, and National Courts": Rosanne van Alebeek (Amsterdam), Sarah H. Cleveland (Counselor to State Department) (near right), panelists.
►"Getting to Closure: Winding Up the International and Hybrid Criminal Tribunals": Tracey Gurd (Open Society Justice Initiative) and Anne Joyce (State Department), panelists; IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Valerie Oosterveld (Western Ontario), moderator.
►"Risk, Science and Law in the WTO": Tracey Epps (New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade), panelist.
►"New Voices I": Dionysia Avgerinopoulou (Columbia), IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Máiréad Enright (Cork), and Alexandra R. Harrington (McGill), panelists; Edith Brown Weiss (Georgetown), moderator.

Thursday, March 25, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
►"Providing Global Public Goods Under International Law": Anne van Aaken (St. Gallen, Max Planck Institute), Victoria Henson-Apollonio (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), Inge Kaul (United Nations), and Sabrina Safrin (Rutgers-Newark), panelists; IntLawGrrl Rebecca Bratspies (CUNY), moderator.
►"Extraterritoriality: Bagram and Beyond": Sabine Nölke (Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs), panelist; IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Chimène Keitner (California-Hastings), moderator.
►"Hot Topics in GATS and Human Rights": Jane Kelsey (Auckland) and Marion Panizzon (World Trade Institute), panelists.
►"Teaching International Law: Lessons from Clinical Education": Lusine Hovhannisian (Public Interest Law Initiative) and Deena Hurwitz (Virginia), panelists.

Thursday, March 25, 12:30-2:30 p.m.
► Women in International Law Interest Group Luncheon: Dinah Shelton (George Washington; Inter-American Commission on Human Rights) (left), speaker.

Thursday, March 25, 1-2:30 p.m.
► "Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Modern Challenges to Use of Force Law": Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker (Pacific McGeorge) and Hina Shamsi (NYU), panelists; IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Mary Ellen O'Connell (Notre Dame), moderator.
► "Evolving Intersections Between Treaty Law and Domestic Law": IntLawGrrl Johanna E. Bond (Washington & Lee) and Mallory Stewart (State Department), panelists.

Friday, March 26, 9-10:30 a.m.
► "International Environmental Justice: Possibilities, Limits and Tensions": Deepa Badrinarayana (Chapman) and Jennifer M. Green (Minnesota), panelists.
► "Corruption and Human Rights": Leslye Obiora (Arizona), panelist.
► "International Law 2.0": Beth Simone Noveck (Office of Science and Technology) and Renee C. Redman (Iran Human Rights Documentation Center), panelists; IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Molly Beutz Land (New York), moderator.
► "New Voices II": Neha Jain (Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law), Kimberley N. Trapp (Cambridge), and IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Julie Veroff (Oxford), panelists.

Friday, March 26, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
► "Non-State Actors and the Emerging Climate Change Law Regime:" Elizabeth Burleson (South Dakota) and IntLawGrrl Naomi Roht-Arriaza (California-Hastings), panelists; Jaye Dana Ellis (McGill), moderator.
► "Updating the Restatement": Oona Hathaway (Yale) and 9th Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown (left), panelists.
► "Same or Different? Fighting Terrorists in the Bush and Obama Administrations": IntLawGrrl Diane Marie Amann (California-Davis) and Susan Baker Manning (Bingham McCutchen), panelists.

► "The Rising Use of International Law by African Judiciaries": Erika George (Utah), panelist; Angela M. Banks (William & Mary), moderator.
► "Preventing the Next Financial Crisis: Coordination and Competition in Global Finance": Barbara C. Matthews (BCM International Regulatory Analytics), panelist.

Friday, March 26, 12:45-2:15 p.m.
► "Reform and Restructuring at International Financial Institutions": Anne-Marie Leroy (General Counsel, World Bank), panelist.
► "Theoretical Insights at the Margins of International Law: CLS Meets TWAIL": Celina Romany (Puerto Rico Bar Association), panelist; Jeanne M. Woods (Loyola-New Orleans), moderator.
► "Family, Sex, and Reproduction: Emerging Issues in International Law": Joanna N. Erdman (Toronto), Katherine Franke (Columbia), Laura Katzive (Wellspring Advisors), and Kathleen Lahey (Queen's-Ontario); Nancy Northup (Center for Reproductive Rights), moderator.
► "War and Law in Cyberspace": Eliana Davidson (Defense Department) and Robin Geiss (International Committee of the Red Cross), panelists.
► "Implications of the Global Financial Crisis on International Trade and Investment Regimes": Elizabeth Trujillo (Suffolk), panelist.

Friday, March 26, 2:30-4 p.m.
► "Bottom-Up Strategies for Survival and Resistance: Examples from Latin America and Elsewhere": Chantal Thomas (Cornell), panelist; Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol (Florida), moderator.
► "Transnational Legal Dialogue, a Human Rights-Based Hierarchy, and the Creation of Norms": Jutta Brunnée (Toronto), IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Patricia M. Wald (former Judge, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) (right, and Melissa A. Waters (Washington University), panelists; Erika de Wet (Amsterdam and Pretoria), moderator.

► "Remembering Tom Franck: What He Taught Us about the Recourse to Force": Rosalyn Higgins (former President, International Court of Justice) (far left), moderator.

► "ICSID in the Twenty-First Century: An Interview with Meg Kinnear" (Secretary-General, World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes) (near left).

Friday, March 26, 4:15-5:15 p.m.

► "Hudson Medal Lecture": Medal Winner Edith Brown Weiss (Georgetown).

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

► ""Keynote": Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, Supreme Court of Canada

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

► "The Road Forward from Copenhagen: Climate Change Policy in the 21st Century": Ann Petsonk (Environmental Defense Fund), panelist.

► "The ICC Review Conference and Changing U.S. Policy Towards the Court": Olivia Swaak-Goldman (International Criminal Court), panelist; Leila Nadya Sadat (Washington University), moderator.

► "China and East Asia on the World Stage": Deborah Brautigam (American) and Saadia Pekkanen (University of Washington), panelists; Julia Ya Qin (Wayne State), moderator.

Saturday, March 27, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

► "Advancing Women's Rights Internationally": Cathy Albisa (National Economic and Social Rights Initiative), Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin (Minnesota) and Rebecca Cook (Toronto),panelists; Kamari Maxine Clarke (Yale), moderator.

► "Treaty Bodies and Beyond: The Practice and Process of Translating International Norms into Domestic Law": Susan Deller Ross (Georgetown) and Ruth Wedgwood (John Hopkins; Human Rights Council) (right), panelists; Celia Goldman, moderator.

Taking note

Bits 'n' pieces from the AALS/ASIL conference, "What Is Wrong with the Way We Teach and Write International Law," just opened in Vancouver:
In the morning, calls to imagine international law -- to "reconceive," as Jeremy Waldron put it, "an international ordering as a single embracing legal order," and to "engage again with the natural law tradition" that enables a "clear-headed sense of the important ot positive law as means for human ordering." Why do so? To resist realist and pragmatist counterapproaches. Sanjay Reddy spoke of the imagining of "possible worlds," and Colin Dayan challenged human rights jurists to recognize the complexity -- and treacherous malleability -- of terms like "humanity," as they exercise "legal imagination" and "moral imagination."
In the afternoon, calls to change what's taught in international law. Reminding that more than 1 billion people in the world live on under $1 a day, Edith Brown Weiss urged attention to how poverty affects the world and the world's law. She and Balakrishnan Rajagopal called for greater use of information technology to bridge rich-poor/North-South divides. But Rajagopal told a cautionary tale, making clear that many points in his critique had been made by Onuma Yasuaki 26 years ago.
Capping the day, works in progress. The 3 excellent presentations I heard -- Peggy McGuinness on norm portals, Karen E. Bravo (our own Nanny of the Windward Maroons) on the old trans-Atlantic slave trade and contemporary human trafficking, and Patrick Keenan on globalization in a world where some investors, like China, threaten to break the human rights paradigm -- reflected what's right in our discipline.