Scholars at the University of Georgia School of Law are taking part on panels during this week’s 116th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, the theme of which is “Privatizing International Governance.”

The annual meeting opened yesterday and runs through Saturday – in person, in Washington, D.C., for the first time in a couple years. Indeed, the meeting is hybrid, with registration available for online viewers – including, at ASIL Academic Partners like Georgia Law, free registration for students.

Georgia Law representation includes these panels:

10:30-11:30 a.m., Friday, April 8: Privatizing International Governance

Melissa J. “MJ” Durkee, who is Associate Dean for International Programs, Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, and Allen Post Professor (pictured above left), will serve as moderator for a panel entitled “Privatizing International Governance,” part of the meeting’s International Law Beyond the State track.

Here’s the panel description:

“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights both encourage engaging business groups as partners in developing global governance agendas. Such multi-stakeholder and public-private partnerships are increasingly common and seen as essential to the future of international business regulation. The participation of affected groups brings expertise, promotes engagement and buy-in, and secures funding. At the same time, critics have raised alarms about industry capture of the UN climate change bodies, global financial governance institutions, and international public health standard-setting efforts. In response, institutions like the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization are implementing reforms to prevent mission-distortion by business groups. At a time when multilateral cooperation is at an ebb, public-private partnerships are indispensable, and yet the danger of undue influence is real. The time is therefore ripe to consider how to productively engage business groups in global governance. This roundtable of experts will discuss cutting-edge efforts by international organizations to capture the benefits of business participation while reducing the harms. The roundtable will consider access rules, existing and proposed reforms, and how past experience may offer lessons for future challenges.”

Panelists will be: Patricia Kameri-Mbote, United Nations Environment Programme; Nora Mardirossian, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment; Suzy Nikièma, Lead, Sustainable Investment, International Institute for Sustainable Development; and Nancy Thevenin, United States Council for International Business.

3-4:30 p.m., Friday, April 8: Fourth Annual International Law Review Editors-in-Chief Roundtable

Harlan G. Cohen, who is Gabriel M. Wilner/UGA Foundation Professor in International Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center at Georgia Law (above right), will serve as a panelist in the “Fourth Annual International Law Review Editors-in-Chief Roundtable,” an online session that is part of the meeting’s Professional and Academic Development track.

Here’s the panel description:

“In recognition of the important role that student-edited international law journals play in the dissemination of international legal scholarship, the Society hosts an annual International Law Review Editor Roundtable. This Roundtable will discuss key issues around legal scholarship, including: selecting great topics that might be more relevant to the various audiences of law journals, including scholars and practitioners; how international law journals can be more effective at soliciting and/or selecting relevant pieces of international legal scholarship; and how to work with authors (who may have different cultural perspectives) to successfully publish their pieces. The Roundtable will be facilitated by international law experts as well as sitting editors-in-chief of law student-run international law journals. The Society invites current students and recent graduates interested in the process of scholarship and publication in international law to connect with their peers and distinguished scholars and practitioners.”

Joining Professor Cohen on the panel will be Colorado Law Professor James Anaya and Vanderbilt Law Professor Ingrid Wuerth.

Additionally:

11 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, April 8: Eighth Annual Justice Stephen Breyer Lecture on International Law, Brookings Institution

Diane Marie Amann, who is Regents’ Professor of International Law, Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, and Faculty Co-Director of our Center (above second from left), will serve on a panel to be held after Philippe Sands, a barrister and University College London law professor now visiting at Harvard Law, delivers a lecture entitled “Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide, and Ecocide: of Rights, Responsibilities, and International Order.” Other panelists will be Georgetown Law Professor Jane Stromseth and George Washington University Law Professor Sean D. Murphy. Online registration is still available here for this event.

Georgia Law professors also are taking part in ASIL leadership meetings during the annual conference, which is supported by four volunteer Georgia Law students: 1Ls John Carter and Jack Schlafly and LLMs Veronika Grubenko and Agustina Figueroa Imfeld.