During the tournament, they beat teams from Harvard University and American University and will now advance to the international tier of the competition later this month. Georgia Law students Joseph “Joe” Colley (J.D. ’25) and Brennan Rose (J.D. ’25) served as student coaches, while J. Caleb Grant (J.D. ’23) served as the alumni coach.
The Jessup competition is the world’s largest moot court tournament that typically fields teams from roughly 700 law schools in 100 countries and jurisdictions around the globe. Georgia Law’s past performances in Jessup competitions can be found here.
Her co-panelist was Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, who is Professor of Law at the University of Athens, Greece, and the former President of the European Court of Human Rights. Moderating was Israr Khan, President of the Oxford Union, a 200-year-old debating society which draws much of its membership from the University of Oxford.
Amann is Regents’ Professor of International Law, Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, and a Faculty Co-Director of our Dean Rusk International Law Center here at Georgia Law.
The University of Georgia School of Law’s spring 2025 International Law Colloquium welcomed Temple University, Beasley School of Law Professor J. Benton Heath, who presented his working paper, “Sanctions and Sanctuary: Refuge, Violence, and the Legal Ordering of (Economic) Warfare.” Laura Phillips-Sawyer, Jane W. Wilson Associate Professor in Business Law at Georgia Law, served as Heath’s faculty discussant.
Heath’s primary research interests include international trade, investment law, dispute resolution, global health, administrative law, public international law, and the national security dimensions of trade and investment. He teaches Civil Procedure and International Arbitration.
Heath previously practiced international law and arbitration at the U.S. State Department, and at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle. He has represented governments and state-owned enterprises before the International Court of Justice, the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, other international arbitral tribunals, and the federal courts. His work at the State Department also included bilateral claims negotiations with the Republic of Cuba, matters relating to embargoes and economic sanctions, and U.S. court cases brought against foreign governments by victims of terrorism. He also served as a clerk to Judge Robert D. Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Below is the introduction to the working paper Heath presented:
This project is about the relationship of concepts of sanctuary and violence to economic warfare. I am interested in what I think of as “spaces of sanctuary” (or refuge) that provide a break from conflict and place spatial boundaries on the exercise of violence and coercion. My argument, for now, is that the concept of sanctuary is a critical tool for structuring a legal regime of controlled violence, and that this applies also to economic warfare. A key point of departure here is that sanctuary is not simply the negation of violence. Rather, sanctuary spaces control the flow of violence, displacing it where it “doesn’t belong” and channeling violence to spaces where the use of force or coercion is naturalized or even deemed legitimate. By setting the criteria for who can access sanctuary and under what conditions, the law further establishes a normative and spatial order for the continuation of violence at a level, and in a direction, that the law deems tolerable. Sanctuary is thus intertwined with, rather than apart from, violence. Nevertheless, if we are interested in fundamentally reconsidering who has access to safety and security and under what conditions, we should want to think carefully about how to reconstruct spaces of sanctuary—either real or virtual—to resist the totalizing world of economic warfare in which we currently find ourselves.
This year, Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq is overseeing the international law colloquium, which is designed to introduce students to features of international economic law through engagement with scholars in the international legal field. To view the full list of International Law Colloquium speakers, visit our website.
Haidy Ahmed, Diplomat with the Permanent Mission of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, delivered a talk in February at the University of Georgia School of Law entitled: “Careers in International Law and Diplomacy.”
Ahmed discussed her role as part of Egypt’s legal team before the International Court of Justice in the advisory opinions related to climate change, law of the sea, and other international issues. She answered questions from students about her educational and professional background and provided insight regarding the pursuit of careers in public international law and diplomacy.
In her current position, Ahmed has been in charge of thematic issues such as women, peace, and security at the Peace & Security Council of the African Union. She is an alternate member of the Committee to facilitate implementation and promote compliance under the Paris Agreement (PAICC). She served as Egypt’s representative at the fifth resumed session of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (the BBNJ). Before joining Egypt’s foreign service, Ahmed worked as a Trainee at Simmons & Simmons in Paris and a Junior Associate at Shalakany in Cairo, Egypt. She received her LL.B. from Cairo University in Egypt and her Master of Laws from Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne University, Paris, France.
This event was part of the Dean Rusk International Law Center’s ongoing Consular Series, which presents students, staff, and faculty with global perspectives on international trade, cooperation, development, and policy.
exchange of notes 