Rusk Center’s Sarah Quinn selected for Council on Foreign Relations Higher Education Ambassador Program

Sarah Quinn, director of the University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center, was selected for the Council on Foreign Relations Higher Education Ambassador Program.

The CFR Education Ambassador program is an eight-month engagement that connects educators across the country with free educational resources, professional development activities, and a vibrant network of like-minded professionals who are committed to equipping students with the knowledge, skills, and perspective to navigate today’s connected world. The program is led by CFR Education, the educational arm of the Council on Foreign Relations, which helps high school and higher education students understand and engage with today’s most pressing global issues.

Quinn is the fourth member of the Georgia Law community in recent years to be affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations. Regents’ Professor Emerita & Emily and Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law Emerita Diane Marie Amann was elected to the Council in 2021; Talmadge Chair of Law and former Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge was elected to the Council in 2024; and Georgia Law alumna and Rusk Council Advisory Member Chanel Chauvet-Maldonado (J.D. ’18) joined the Council as a Term Member earlier this year.

Quinn has served as the Center’s director position since March 2024. She was previously the Center’s associate director for global practice preparation, a position she began in 2019. Quinn was instrumental in developing the school’s partnership with India’s Jindal Global University, establishing the Graduate Certificate in International Law and transitioning the Global Governance Summer School into a credit-bearing program. Prior to joining the law school, Quinn worked with the UGA Office of Global Engagement and the U.S. Peace Corps in addition to serving as a director for the American School Language Institute in Morocco. She earned her B.A., B.F.A. and M.I.P. from UGA and her ED.M. from Harvard University.

Georgia Law Professor Nathan S. Chapman presents at international symposium in Italy

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Nathan S. Chapman presented “Christianity and Early American Constitutionalism” as part of the America at 250 Conference at the University of Padua in Padua, Italy.

Chapman currently serves as the law school’s associate dean for faculty development and holds the Cleveland Distinguished Chair of Law. He writes and teaches about constitutional law, especially constitutional rights, and law and religion. Most recently, he is the author, with Michael W. McConnell, of Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Promotes Religious Pluralism and Protects Freedom of Conscience (OUP, 2023).

Georgia Law hosts delegation from North Africa and the Middle East through State Department-sponsored International Visitor Leadership Program

Last month, the University of Georgia School of Law hosted a delegation of lawyers and judges from North African and Middle Eastern countries through the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). The half-day visit to Athens was part of a three-week regional project entitled “The U.S. Judicial System.” Thirteen individuals representing eight countries participated and learned about principles of the U.S. judicial and legal systems while deepening their understanding of federal and state judicial systems during their time in the U.S.

While at Georgia Law, the delegation met first with Lynne Moore Nelson, Executive Director of the Institute of Continuing Judicial Education (“ICJE”). Nelson described the role of the ICJE, its partnership model, and how it serves the state’s judicial branch. She provided examples of their training components for judges and court personnel, the goals of their work, and different opportunities for growth.

Professor Thomas “TJ” Striepe, Director of the Law Library, and Professor Brandy Ellis, Research Services Librarian, presented afterwards on practical applications of generative Artificial Intelligence (“genAI”) in U.S. legal education and in the legal system. They gave an overview of the law school’s approach to genAI instruction and use, as well as examples of how genAI has been used in courts and law firms in the U.S. recently. They concluded with a discussion of professional responsibility as it pertains to genAI usage in both law school and in the larger legal system.

Director of Georgia Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center, Sarah Quinn, and Center Associate Director, Taher Benany, co-facilitated a synthesis discussion for the delegation, providing participants to reflect on transferrable judicial practices they observed, how they could build trust in their courts and legal communities, and other ways to implement lessons learned during their experience in the U.S. in their home countries.

Launched in 1940, the IVLP deepens ties between the United States and other nations through carefully designed professional visits to the United States based on U.S. foreign policy goals for current and emerging foreign leaders. Each year, approximately 4,000 IVLP participants from around the world are selected by U.S. embassies to engage professional counterparts across the United States. Through these encounters, they develop a deeper understanding of the political, economic, and cultural influences within U.S. society. IVLP participants also gain a firsthand experience of the United States, its people, and its culture. Current and emerging leaders represent government, politics, the media, education, nongovernmental organizations, the arts, public health, international security, business and trade, and other fields. Over 500 current and former heads of government and state, 1,600 cabinet officials, 1,000 Members of Parliament, 12 Nobel Laureates, and many other distinguished world leaders in the public and private sectors have participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program.

Special thanks to Hannah Kim, Program Coordinator – Georgia Council for International Visitors (GCIV), and Lindsay Weinmann, Administrative Specialist to the Dean Rusk International Law Center, for their logistical support of this visit.

Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq publishes article in Columbia Journal of Transnational Law  

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq published “Workers’ Empowerment as U.S. Trade Policy” in 64 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 326 (2026). 

LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches Contracts, International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, U.S. Labor Law, and Public International Law. She also serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, the Labor and Employment Student Association, and the International Law Students Association.  

Georgia Law Professor Assaf Harpaz presents at Netanya Academic College

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Assaf Harpaz presented his article “The New Tax Sovereignty” at the Tenth International Roundtable on Taxation and Tax Policy hosted by the Netanya Academic College School of Law in Netanya, Israel, during July. 

Below is the article abstract:

Tax sovereignty has emerged as a central defense of the retreat from multilateral cooperation. The concept traditionally refers to a government’s authority to design and enforce its tax laws without external interference. Most legal scholars have studied the concept in the context of coordinated efforts to address harmful tax evasion, focusing on the sovereignty concessions those efforts require. Recent invocations of tax sovereignty have reversed that orientation, with policymakers increasingly using the principle to justify national revenue preservation, forum-shifting, and unilateralism. Nevertheless, tax sovereignty remains notoriously amorphous, and scholars have viewed it with skepticism as a concept prone to manipulation and misuse. 

This Article develops a relational theory of tax sovereignty. It argues that tax sovereignty is best construed as a principle of bounded autonomy, which does not confer unrestricted entitlements. This framework operates along multiple axes. It applies to relations among states and between states and intergovernmental organizations, to intra-state relations between national and subnational governments (e.g., U.S. states), and to relations between governments and powerful institutional actors, such as large corporations capable of shaping tax policy. Ultimately, absolute assertions of tax sovereignty are untenable even for the world’s most powerful states. Effectively taxing offshore income demands cross-border cooperation and a willingness to accept reciprocal limits to tax sovereignty.

Harpaz joined the University of Georgia School of Law as an assistant professor in summer 2024 and teaches classes in federal income tax and business taxation. Harpaz’s scholarly focus lies in international taxation, with an emphasis on the intersection of taxation and digitalization. He explores the tax challenges of the digital economy and the ways to adapt 20th-century tax laws to modern business practices.

Georgia Law Professor Sonja R. West presents at University College London

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Sonja R. West presented “The History and Tradition of Press Freedom” as part of the Comparative Media Law Workshop hosted by University College London during July. 

West holds the Otis Brumby Distinguished Professorship in First Amendment Law, a post shared by the law school and Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She specializes in constitutional law, media law and the U.S. Supreme Court. In recognition of her scholarship, West was awarded the School of Law’s 2022 Faculty Research Award in Public Law, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s 2022 and 2017 Harry W. Stonecipher Award for Distinguished Research on Media Law and Policy, and the National Communication Association’s 2016 Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression. Her work has been published in numerous law reviews and journals including the Harvard Law Review, the California Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, the Michigan Law Review and the Northwestern Law Review. She also was selected to serve as a 2023-2024 Senior Visiting Research Scholar at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

Georgia Law Professor Emma M. Hetherington presents at International Congress on Law and Mental Health held in Montreal

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Emma M. Hetherington presented “University-Based Law Clinics: A Mechanism to Promote Therapeutic Jurisprudence from the Classroom to the Courtroom” at the XXXIX International Congress on Law and Mental Health hosted by the Université du Québec à Montréal in Montréal during July.

Hetherington is a clinical associate professor and the director of the Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) Clinic at the University of Georgia School of Law. She is certified as a child welfare law specialist by the National Association of Counsel for Children, and she has represented hundreds of children in juvenile court dependency proceedings who have experienced child abuse and neglect, with a specialized focus on youth ages 14 and up, most of whom have been sexually abused or exploited. Hetherington has served as faculty in several national and statewide conferences on child welfare, such as the National Child Welfare, Juvenile and Family Law Conference. She has served as an expert for the Georgia General Assembly, providing testimony on proposed legislation directly affecting survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation and has appeared in local, state and national media, including USA Today.

Georgia Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center raising funds to support students pursuing international opportunities

Each year, the University of Georgia School of Law is seeing more and more students seeking out global opportunities. But international study comes with a cost. Your gift helps us raise $12,000 by August 1 to cover travel, housing, and program fees for five law students.

This summer’s photo contest will do just that. Six photos from two of the law school’s standout international programs — Global Governance Summer School and Global Externships Overseas — have been carefully selected, and now it’s your turn to choose the winner!

HOW TO VOTE: 

  • Click on your favorite travel photo
  • Click “Donate Now”
  • Every $1 = 1 Vote ($5 minimum required)
  • No limit – vote as often as you’d like!

The photo from each program with the most dollars raised will be featured permanently on a gallery wall in the Dean Rusk International Law Center. Every gift connects students to transformational learning opportunities that shape how future lawyers engage with the world and an increasingly globalized profession.

Vote today, share with your network, and help create more opportunities for UGA Law students to make a global impact.

Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq featured by Foreign Policy


University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq was featured by Foreign Policy regarding international trade and labor law. The article titled “Trump’s New ‘Forced Labor’ Tariffs Are a Fig Leaf” was written by Keith Johnson and published 6/4/26.

LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024. She teaches Contracts, International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, U.S. Labor Law, and Public International Law. She also serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, the Labor and Employment Student Association, and the International Law Students Association. 

Georgia Law Professor Jason Cade featured by The New York Times

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Jason A. Cade was featured by The New York Times regarding immigration law. The article titled “ICE Deports Immigrant Who Was Pardoned for Sex Abuse Conviction” was written by Amy Qin and published 7/10/26.

Cade is J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law and served as associate dean for clinical programs and experiential learning from 2020 to 2025. Cade teaches immigration law courses and directs the school’s Community Health Law Partnership (Community HeLP), an intensive clinic in which law students undertake an interdisciplinary approach to immigrants’ rights through individual client representation, litigation, and project-based advocacy before administrative agencies and federal courts. His research examines how nonfederal actors and institutions shape the modern immigration system, the intersections of immigration enforcement and criminal law, questions of legitimacy and proportionality within immigration adjudication, and the legal frameworks governing immigration policy protest.