100 from around world to take part in IntLawGrrls! 10th Birthday Conference on March 2 and 3 at Georgia Law

Delighted to announce that about a hundred scholars and practitioners in international law and related fields will participate in IntLawGrrls! 10th Birthday Conference, to be hosted by the Dean Rusk International Law Center, University of Georgia School of Law, on March 2 and 3, 2017.

The call for papers issued last autumn produced a trove of proposals from around the world – from women, and a few men, at all stages of their careers. That’s allowed us to build a research forum comprising 16 breakout panels, each with 5 presenters and a moderator. As detailed below, participants will be coming here to Athens from all over North America and Europe, and from as far away as Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Kosovo. (Although panels are full, attendance registration is available here.)

Additional highlights will include the March 2 screening of 500 Years, a Sundance-selected Guatemala documentary by IntLawGrrls contributor Pamela Yates, as well as a plenary on Strategies to Promote Women’s Participation in Shaping International Law and Policy amid the Global Emergence of Antiglobalism. Joining in the plenary conversation will be jurist Patricia A. Wald, American Society of International Law President Lucinda A. Low, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations President Mary L. Dudziak, and former White House official Catherine Powell, as well as two of IntLawGrrls’ original editors,  Jaya Ramji-Nogales and moderator Beth Van Schaack.

Making all this possible are the many cosponsors who’ve helped support various events, or partial travel grants aiding participation by several very-early-career attendees: IntLawGrrls, of course, plus the University of Georgia School of Law (its Dean Rusk International Law Center, Georgia Women in Law Lead initiative, International Law Society, and Women Law Students Association), the University of Georgia (its Willson Center for Humanities & the Arts and Institute of Native American Studies), the Planethood Foundation, the American Society of International Law and its Women in International Law Interest Group, and a few who wish to remain anonymous.

We look forward to celebrating the blog’s birthday – it was launched exactly a decade ago, on March 3, 2007 – with old and new colleagues alike.

IntLawGrrls! 10th Birthday Conference

Film: Thursday, March 2, 2017
  7 p.m. Ciné, 234 West Hancock Avenue, Athens

ypA.1. Screening of “500 Years” and Discussion with Filmmakers
Pamela Yates, Co-founder and Creative Director, Skylight Pictures, Brooklyn, New York
Paco de Onís, Executive Director, Skylight Pictures, Brooklyn, New Yorkop
nraModerator: Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco

 

Research Forum: Friday, March 3, 2017
University of Georgia School of Law, Athens

B. 8:45-10:15 a.m.

B.2. The Practice of International Criminal Law
wcmMadeline Cameron Wardleworth, Solicitor, King & Wood Mallesons, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Digital Allies: Is Female Access to International Justice Being Improved via Technology and Innovation?
fm Megan A. Fairlie, Associate Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law, Miami, Recorded Testimony and Fair Trial Concerns in International Criminal Justicelb
Beth S. Lyons, Defense Counsel, International Criminal Court and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, New Jersey, Treatment of the ICTR Acquitted: The “Achilles Heel” of International Criminal Justice
mcdy Yvonne McDermott, Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, Bangor University, Wales, Borrowed Truths: Expert Evidence and Authority in International Criminal Trialscj
► Moderator: Jason A. Cade, Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Community Health Law Partnership Clinic, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens

B.3. Human Rights
Ali Aghahosseini Dehaghani, Ph.D. Candidate in Public International Law, University of Nantes, France, International Law-Making by International Judicial Bodies: Towards a More Effective Role for Women’s Participation
bkKaren E. Bravo, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies & International Affairs and Professor of Law, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indianapolis, Interrogating Everyperson’s Roles in Today’s Slaveries
btTequila J. Brooks, Attorney and International Employment Policy Specialist, Washington, D.C., Sexism and Gender Stereotypes in International Guest Worker Programs: An Analysis of Two 2016 Petitions under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation
ddDeepa Das Acevedo, Sharswood Fellow, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, God’s Homes, Men’s Courts, Women’s Rights
juUrvashi Jain, LL.M. Candidate, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens, Educational Rights of the Transgender Children in India
Natalie W. Romeri-Lewis, Senior Project Associate, The WomanStats romeriProject, Provo, Utah, and Adjunct Professor, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, International and Comparative Domestic Violence Law: A 176-Country Study of Banning, Ignoring, and Sustaining Domestic Violence
Moderator: Jaya Ramji-Nogales, I. Herman Stern Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Institute for International Law and Public Policy, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Philadelphia

B.4. Women’s Leadership in Legal Institutions
djJosephine J. Dawuni, Assistant Professor of Political Science and founding Executive Director of the Institute for African Women in Law, Howard University, Washington, D.C., Matri-legal Feminism, International Law and the African Woman Judge
gnNienke Grossman, Associate Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Maryland, Taking Stock of Women in International Legal Academia
gemMaryann E. Gallagher, Lecturer, Department of International Affairs, School of Public & International Affairs, University of Georgia, Athens, Engendering Justice: Women Prosecutors in International Courts
mcClaudia Martin, Professional Lecturer in Residence and Co-Director of the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, American University Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C., Article 8 of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women: A Stepping Stone in Ensuring Gender Parity in International Organs and Tribunals
Samantha McLane, Budget and Operations Associate Director, Office of the rlChief Strategy Officer, Planned Psamanthamclane-portraitarenthood Federation of America, New York, New York, Breaking the Federal Judiciary Glass Ceiling: How Affirmative Action Can Accelerate Gender Parity in the Mexican Supreme Court
Moderator: Lori A. Ringhand, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens

B.5. Issues in International Criminal Justice
ddvDieneke de Vos, Ph.D. Candidate in International Criminal Law and Gender, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, Complementarity’s Gender Deficits – Analyzing Interactions Between the ICC and National Accountability Processes for Sexual Violence Crimes
ecChristie J. Edwards, Director, International Humanitarian Law, American Red Cross, Washington, D.C., Forced Contraception as a Means of Torture
mcathCatherine Moore, Coordinator of International Law Programs, University of Baltimore School of Law, Maryland, The Rise of “Effective” Head of State Immunity through Negative Norm Diffusion: The Case of Al-Bashir and South Africa
Jenica Marie Moore, Ph.D. Candidate in International Relations, School of Public & International Affairs, University of Georgia, Athens, The Search for Justice and Clarity in International Crimes: An Argument for a Change in How We Understand and Prosecute Mass Violence
tjJennifer Trahan, Clinical Associate Professor, The Center for Global Affairs, New York University School of Professional Studies, New York, Highlights of the ICC Crime of Aggression and Its Relationship to Humanitarian Intervention
icc2013_autocorrectModerator: Diane Marie Amann, Associate Dean for International Programs & Strategic Initiatives and Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, Dean Rusk International Law Center, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens, and International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Special Adviser on Children in & affected by Armed Conflict

C. 10:30 a.m.-12 noon

C.6. International and Transnational Criminal Justice
Maya Ezgi Avci, J.S.D. Candidate, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois, Female Recruiters: Victims or Perpetrators?dy
Yvonne M. Dutton, Associate Professor of Law, Dean’s Fellow and Grimes Fellow, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indianapolis, Bridging the Legitimacy Divide: The International Criminal Court’s Public Perception Challengefmon
Monica Feltz, Executive Director, International Justice Project, Newark, New Jersey, Victim Participation at the ICC: the Darfur Situation
gengjJing Geng, Visiting Researcher, Michigan Law School, and Ph.D. Candidate in Law, Católica Global School of Law, Lisbon, Portugal, Theorizing the Victim-Agent: A Response to the “Ideal” Victim of Traffickingsm
Milena Sterio, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Enrichment, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University, Ohio, wlThe Karadzic Genocide Conviction: Inferences, Knowledge and Intent
Moderator: Lesley Wexler, Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law, Champaign

C.7. Human Rights and Accountability across Levels and Regions
fsStephanie Farrior, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Applied Human Rights, Vermont Law School, Vermont, Extraterritorial Treaty Obligations: Human Rights and the Environment
karhoffKaren Hoffman, On-the-Ground Legal Advocate, Aldea–The People’s Justice Center, Reading, Pennsylvania, Redress for “Some Folks”: Pursuing Justice for Victims of Torture through Traditional Grounds of Jurisdiction
kaAnna Karapetyan, Legal Intern, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The Hague, the Netherlands, A Recurring Phenomenon: The Prohibition of Torture and the Question of Judicial Corporal Punishment under International Human Rights Law
Hannah Williams, J.D. Candidate, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens, The International Right of Syrian Refugee Children to an Education: Turkey’s Legal Responsibility
ohModerator: Hari M. Osofsky, Robins Kaplan Professor, Faculty Director of the Energy Transition Lab, and Director of the Joint Degree Program in Law, Science & Technology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

C.8. Feminism/Theories
bdDafina Buçaj, Assistant Lecturer in International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Prishtina, Kosovo, Failure of International Law in Times of Crises: Have Women Played a Better Role in Being Problem-Solvers?hm
Mary Hansel, Deputy Director, International Human Rights Clinic, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California, From the Crisis Model to an International Law of the Everydayhg
Gina Heathcote, Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies & International Law and Chair of the Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London, England, Feminist Dialogues on International Lawsb
Bérénice K. Schramm, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London, London, England, A Future Case (of) Study(ies): Francophone Feminist Approaches to International Lawths
Sabrina Tremblay-Huet, Doctoral Candidate in Law, University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, Law and literature as a nnfeminist method to explore scarcities of legalization in international law: The example of the law on tourism
Moderator: Naomi Norberg, Translator and Editor, Northmountain Translations, Pouilly sur Loire, France

C.9. Transnational Crime and Corporate Accountability
acornElizabeth Acorn, Ph.D. Candidate in Government, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, The National Enforcement of International Anti-Foreign Bribery Standards: Multilateralizing the American Model
lsSydney Lang, B.C.L./LL.B. Candidate, McGill University, Faculty of Law, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Colonial Violence and Corporate Illusions in the Canadian Mining Industry: Investigating Access to Justice and Legal Accountability in Canada
Lisa J. Laplante, Associate Professor, New England Law School, Boston, Massachusetts, Privatizing Human Rights Enforcement through Company Level Grievance Mechanisms
potTemitayo O. Peters, Associate, Palomar Law Group, Escondido, California, A Proposal: Using Mediation to Hold Transnational Corporations Accountable for Human Rights Violations
Reem Radhi, Ph.D. Candidate in Law, Durham Law School, England, Restorative Justice for Corporate Criminal Liability and Sentencing in the US and the UKbjosh
► Moderator: Joshua Barkan, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens

D. 12:15-1:45 p.m. Plenary Panel

D.10. Strategies to Promote Women’s Participation in Shaping International Law and Policy amid the Global Emergence of Antiglobalism
dmlMary L. Dudziak, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, at llEmory University School of Law, Atlanta, Georgia, and President of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Lucinda A. Low, Partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP and President of the American Society of International Law, Washington, D.C.
powellCatherine Powell, Associate Professor of Law at Fordham Law School in New York, Adjunct Senior Fellow on Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, and former State Department and White House official
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Jaya Ramji-Nogales, I. Herman Stern Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Institute for International Law and Public Policy, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Philadelphiawaldp
Patricia M. Wald, former Judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and former member of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Boardvsb
Moderator: Beth Van Schaack, Visiting Scholar, Center for International Security & Cooperation, Stanford University, California, and former Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, Office of Global Criminal Justice, U.S. Department of State

E. 2-3:30 p.m.

E.11. Culture and Transitional Justice Mechanisms
kmbKaitlin M. Ball, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science & International Studies, University of Cambridge, England, Negotiable Space: Policing of Youth in Post-Conflict Northern Irelandbv
Victoria Barker, J.D. Candidate, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens, Cultural Rights in Canada’s Residential Schools: 1939-2000
baylis_elenaElena Baylis, Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, joint appointment with the university’s Graduate School of Public & International Affairs, Pennsylvania, Transnational Models and Rule of Law Initiativesfries
Mirka Fries, International Criminal Law Specialist, Berlin, Germany, Prosecuting Former Child Soldiers under International Criminal Law: Towards a System of kanjiJust Punishment
Azeezah Kanji, Director of Programming, Noor Cultural Centre, Toronto, Canada, The Al Mahdi Case at the International Criminal Court: Cultural oneill_peter_01_thumbProperty and Common Humanity in the “War on Terror”
Moderator: Peter D. O’Neill, Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Georgia, Athens

E.12. International Economic Law and Dispute Settlement
Nguyet Thi Anh Le, Fulbright Scholar, American University Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C., The Jurisprudence of International Investment Arbitration Awards on State-Owned Enterprise (SOE): The Quest for the SOE Law Revisions in Developing Countries?mcm
Megan E. McCloskey, Ph.D. Candidate in Law, University of Washington School of Law, Seattle, International Investment Law and Gender Equality: The Case for Gender-Sensitive Policy-Making
pmonaMona Pinchis, Visiting Researcher, Stanford Law School, California, and Ph.D. Candidate in Law at King’s College London, England, Fair and Equitable Treatment in the Charter for the International Trade Organization
rhHayley Roberts, Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol Lecturer in Law, School of Law, Bangor University, Wales, The South China Sea Arbitration: The Role of Negotiations in UNCLOS Dispute Settlement
Chie Sato, Associate Professor, School of Law, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan, The Rule Making for the Protection of Marine Environment Based on the Law of the Sea
► Moderator: Harlan G. Cohen, Gabriel M. Wilner/UGA Foundation Professor in International Law, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens

E.13. Postwar/Cold War Policies and Legacies
aralIşıl Aral, Ph.D. Candidate in Public International Law, University of Manchester, England, The Myth of the Cold War: Is 1991 Really a Turning Point for the Neutrality of International Law Regarding Democratic Governance?
dkKathleen A. Doty, Director of Global Practice Preparation, Dean Rusk International Law Center, University of Georgia School of Law, and M.A. Candidate in Political Science & International Affairs, School of Public & International Affairs, University of nraGeorgia, Athens, Normalization of U.S.-Cuba Relations
Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law, San smithkristinFrancisco, Safeguarding Development: Environment, Gender Empowerment and Human Rights Protections in U.S. Foreign Aid
Kristin J. Smith, Fellow, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute, Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Humanitarian Intervention Policywl
Lesley Wexler, Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law, Champaign, U.N. Amendsdml
► Moderator: Mary L. Dudziak, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, at Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, Georgia, and President of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations

E.14. Laws of War
carmichaelLeah Carmichael, Lecturer, Department of International Affairs, School of Public & International Affairs, University of Georgia, Athens, The Bombing of Bakeries: The Role of Intentional Starvation in Armed Conflicts and the Lack of Accountability under International Lawcc
Chanel Chauvet, J.D. Candidate, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens, Syria’s Responsibility under International Law to Protect Children from Warfare Attacks on Hospitals and Healthcareandra
Andra le Roux-Kemp, Assistant Professor, City University of Hong Kong, School of Law, Hong Kong, The Normative Genesis of Security as an Individual and Public Goodpayne
Cymie Payne, Associate Professor, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey, War, Peace, the Environment and International Lawsa
Ashika Singh, Forrester Fellow, Tulane University Law School, New Orleans, Louisiana, Identifying and Resolving Genuine Conflicts of International Law: A Case Study on Human Rights in Armed Conflict
smModerator: Milena Sterio, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Enrichment, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University, Ohio

F. 3:45-5:15 p.m.

F.15. Transitional Justice
brodMarissa R. Brodney, J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Candidate for Master of Public Affairs degree, Princeton University coopWoodrow Wilson School, New Jersey, Implementing International Criminal Court-Ordered Collective Reparations: Unpacking Present Debates
Belinda Cooper, Senior Fellow, World Policy Institute, and Adjunct Professor at New York University Center for Global Affairs and Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights, New York, Nuremberg’s Misunderstood Influence on Post-WWII Germany
Saskia Nauenberg, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, Colombia in Transition: Negotiating Accountability for Human Rights Violationsod
Diane Orentlicher, Professor of International Law, American University Washington College of Law, tsWashington, D.C., International Justice Delayed: A Case Study
Shana Tabak, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law & Global Studies, Georgia State University School of Law, Atlanta, Revisiting Gender within Colombia’s Peace Process
Moderator: Amy J. Ross, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens

F.16. Laws and War and Counterterrorism
zaZohra Ahmed, Staff Attorney, Legal Aid Society, New York, New York, U.S. Deployment of the Consent Exception as a Justification for Drone Strikes in Pakistan
blLaurie R. Blank, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic, Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, Georgia, The Extent of Self-Defense against Terrorist Groups: For How Long and How Far?tk
Tetyana Krupiy, Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems and Accountability: A “Transformer” Test for a Game-Changing Technology
marchIryna Marchuk, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, How Has the Conflict in Ukraine Challenged the Foundation of International Law?
trueC. Cora True-Frost, Associate Professor, Syracuse University College of Law, New York, Addressing the ecConditions Conducive to Terrorism: The Role of “Civil Society” in International Security
Moderator: Christie J. Edwards, Director, International Humanitarian Law, American Red Cross, Washington, D.C.

F.17. International Environmental and Space Law
ebElizabeth Burleson, Burleson Institute, Cos Cob, Connecticut, Climate-Energy Sinks and Sources: Multilateral Paris Agreement and Dynamic Federalism
ggGwendolyn Gordon, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Environmental Personhood
ohHari M. Osofsky, Robins Kaplan Professor, Faculty Director of the Energy Transition Lab, and Director of the Joint Degree Program in Law, Science & Technology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, The Paris soeteAgreement and Polycentric Climate Change Governance
Anemoon Soete, Ph.D. Candidate and Academic Teaching Assistant in European, Public and International Law, Ghent University, Belgium, Beyond Statehood: The steerHuman Security Paradigm
Cassandra Steer, Junior Wainwright Fellow, McGill University Faculty of Law, and Executive Director, Women in International Security Canada, Montréal, mjQuébec, Canada, What’s Wrong with the Colonization of Outer Space? A Feminist Analysis of Space Law
Moderator: Joseph S. Miller, Professor of Law and Director of the Georgia Law at Oxford Program, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens

F.18. International and Transnational Prosecution of Sexual Violence Crimes
maikeMaike Isaac, Associate Scholar at the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, The Prosecution of Sexual Violence against Men in Armed Conflict under International Criminal Law: dkravPast Omissions and Future Prospects for the Enhancement of the Visibility of Male Victimhood
Daniela Kravetz, International Criminal Lawyer, The Hague, the Netherlands, Challenging Impunity for mblSexual Violence during Chile’s Military Past
Mélissa Beaulieu Lussier, Avocate, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Prosecuting Sexual Violence against Child Soldiers and the Expressive Value of Sex Crime Prosecution: A Feminist Perspectivess
Susana SáCouto, Director, War Crimes Research Office, American University Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C., A Critique of Modes of Liability as Applied to Sexual Violence Crimes
gem Moderator: Maryann E. Gallagher, Lecturer, Department of International Affairs, School of Public & International Affairs, University of Georgia, Athens

“Vietnam/War/Memory/Justice: A Conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen,” a very special February 14 event

nguyenGeorgia Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center is honored to host a roundtable on the legacies of the U.S.-Vietnam War as part of next week’s visit to Athens by Viet Thanh Nguyen, a University of Southern California professor whose first novel, The Sympathizer, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

nothingEntitled “Vietnam/War/Memory/Justice: A Conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen,” the roundtable will take place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. this Tuesday, February 14, in the Larry Walker Room on the 4th floor of the law school’s Dean Rusk Hall.

The topic of Tuesday’s roundtable is drawn from Nguyen’s 2016 work, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, which itself was nominated for the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction. (Nguyen’s newest book, a short-story collection titled The Refugees, was published yesterday.) In Nothing Ever Dies, Nguyen writes:

“Memory, like war, is often asymmetrical.”

The same may be said of justice; in particular, of efforts to right the wrongs done during armed conflict and similar extreme violence. These issues of transitional justice, memory, and war will be explored in the roundtable, at which Nguyen will be joined by:

tiana-mTiana S. Mykkeltvedt, Georgia Law alumna, member of the Dean Rusk International Law Center Council, and partner at the Atlanta law firm Bondurant Mixson & Elmore, who was flown out of Vietnam as an orphan in April 1975 in what came to be known as Operation Babylift; and

amannDiane Marie Amann, Associate Dean for International Programs & Strategic Initiatives and Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law at Georgia Law, who also serves as the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Special Adviser on Children in & affected by Armed Conflict.

Roundtable space is limited, and registration, available here, is recommended. For more information, contact ruskintlaw@uga.edu.

Our Center is especially pleased to sponsor this event, given that our namesake, the late Dean Rusk, a Georgia Law professor, and served as U.S. Secretary of State during the first years of the Vietnam War. The Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Vietnamese American Bar Association of Georgia, and Georgia Law’s Asian Law Students Association are cosponsoring the roundtable. It will be the last in a series of Global Georgia events hosted by other university units, most notably the Department of Comparative Literature and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts:

► 4 p.m. Monday, February 13, in the university Chapel, Nguyen will deliver the 3d Annual Betty Jean Craige Lecture of the Department of Comparative Literature, entitled “Nothing Ever Dies: Ethical Memory and Radical Writing in The Sympathizer.” For information, contact Professor Peter D. O’Neill at pon@uga.edu.

► 6-7 p.m. Sunday, February 12, at Avid Bookshop, 493 Prince Avenue in downtown Athens, a book-signing of The Refugees.

Professor Burch presents on class actions at global conference in Israel

burch-profileA leading Georgia Law expert on complex litigation, Professor Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, recently presented on the subject at an international conference at the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law in Israel.

Entitled “Fifty Years of Class Actions – A Global Perspective,” the 2-day conference brought together scholars not only from the United States and Israel, but also from Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Professor Burch, who holds the Charles H. Kirbo Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law, spoke on the topic of “Publicly Funded Objectors.” Commenting on her paper was Dr. Eran Taussig, an attorney and lecturer at several universities in Israel.

Here’s the abstract:

On paper, class actions run like clockwork. But practice suggests the need for tune-ups: judges still approve settlements rife with red flags, and professional objectors may be more concerned with shaking down class counsel than with improving class members’ outcomes. The lack of data on the number of opt-outs, objectors, and claims rates fuels debates on both sides, for little is known about how well or poorly class members actually fare. This reveals a ubiquitous problem: information barriers confront judges, objectors, and even reformers.

Rule 23’s answer to information barriers is to empower objectors. At best, objectors are a partial fix. They step in as the adversarial process breaks down in an attempt to resurrect the information-generating function that culture creates. And, as the proposed changes to Rule 23’s handling of objectors reflect, turmoil exists over how to encourage noble objectors that benefit class members while staving off those that namely seek rents from class counsel.
Yet, this concern about screening the bad from the good has distracted us from both the bigger question and the true challenge. The bigger question is how we ensure that judges have the necessary information (and incentive) to monitor the attorneys and ensure that the settlement is fair when the adversarial system breaks down. And the real challenge is how we confront the intense regulatory struggle that arises anytime private actors perform public functions.

Addressing the public-private challenge can generate possibilities for overcoming information deficits. Our class-action scheme is not the only one that relies on private actors to perform public functions: citizens privately fund political campaigns, and private lobbyists provide research and information to lawmakers about public bills and policies. Across disciplines, the best responses to those challenges have often been to level up, not down. As such, this Essay proposes a leveling up approach to address judges’ information deficit such that they can better perform their monitoring role. By relying on public funds to subsidize nonprofit objectors’ information-gathering function, we can disrupt private class counsel’s disproportionate influence.

U.S. immigration law subject of timely article by Professor Jason A. Cade

cade_profileAn especially timely account of U.S. immigration law has just been published by Georgia Law’s expert on the subject, Professor Jason A. Cade.

Entitled “Judging Immigration Equity: Deportation and Proportionality in the Supreme Court,” the article  examines the Supreme Court’s deportation and immigration enforcement jurisprudence over the last 15 years, arguing that the Court’s decisions have been increasingly animated by a proportionality norm.

Here’s the abstract:

Though it has not directly said so, the United States Supreme Court cares about proportionality in the deportation system. Or at least it thinks someone in the system should be considering the justifiability of removal decisions. As this Article demonstrates, the Court’s jurisprudence across a range of substantive and procedural challenges over the last fifteen years increases or preserves structural opportunities for equitable balancing at multiple levels in the deportation process. Notably, the Court has endorsed decision makers’ consideration of the normative justifiability of deportation even where noncitizens have a criminal history or lack a formal path to lawful status. This proportionality-based lens helps unify the Court’s seemingly disparate decisions regulating the immigration enforcement system in recent years. It also has implications for deferred action enforcement programs such as the DACA program implemented by President Obama in 2012. The Court’s general gravitation toward proportionality analysis in this field is sound. Nevertheless, there are drawbacks to the Court’s approach, and the cases are probably best seen as signals to the political branches that the deportation system remains in dire need of wide-ranging reform.

The article, which appears at 50 UC Davis Law Review 1029 (2017), is available here.