Author: Dean Rusk International Law Center

Georgia Law Professor Diane Marie Amann participates in Columbia University conference launching effort to embed child justice in new Crimes Against Humanity Treaty

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Diane Marie Amann recently took part in a New York conference that launched the Children and Crimes Against Humanity Coalition, formed to ensure that child justice is embedded in a treaty to be negotiated at the United Nations.

Held at Columbia University, the May 5 conference centered on “Justice for Children in the Future Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity” (pictured above right), a Coalition white paper setting forth provisions aimed at ensuring due recognition of children.

Professor Amann, who chaired a conference panel entitled “Increasing Visibility of Crimes Affecting Children and New Crimes Against Children,” commented on drafts and is an individual endorser of the Coalition white paper. Here at Georgia Law, she 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. She was Special Adviser to International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Children in & affected by Armed Conflict from 2012 to 2021, and has served since 2023 on the Bring Back Kids UA Task Force. Her recent publications in this field include  “Child-Taking,” 45 Michigan Journal of International Law 305 (2024), and “International Child Law and the Settlement of Ukraine‑Russia and Other Conflicts,” 99 International Law Studies 559 (2022).

By U.N. General Assembly resolution, states will conclude the Crimes Against Humanity Treaty – known formally as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity – following diplomatic plenipotentiary conferences in 2028 and 2029. Preparatory meetings will take place in the interim, beginning next January.

The treaty’s text will derive from draft articles adopted in 2019 by the International Law Commission, and from amendments to those articles which U.N. member states may propose during the negotiation process.

Through efforts like the Columbia conference and the just-released white paper, the Children and Crimes Against Humanity Coalition will endeavor to promote states’ proposals to include in child-related provisions in the final treaty text. Its white paper proposes, inter alia: that every person under 18 be defined as a child; that the crime of persecution expressly include age as a prohibited ground; and the enumeration of acts that may constitute crimes against humanity explicitly include recruitment and use of children by armed groups and armed forces, as well as forced marriage. Further provisions relate to national justice and reparations proceedings; among these is the proposal that any child suspected of having committed a crime against humanity will be treated in a country’s child justice system, and not via an adult criminal prosecution.

The white paper’s authors are Véronique Aubert (Save the Children), Zoé Bertrand (Global Survivors Fund), Janine Morna (Amnesty International), and Zama Neff (Human Rights Watch). Those nongovernmental organizations co-sponsored the May 5 conference, along with various units of Columbia University and the U.N. permanent missions of Andorra, Brazil, Malta, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

Georgia Law Professor Adam Orford presents at Climate Symposium in Germany

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Adam D. Orford presented in March at the Symposium on Just Transitions in the United States, UK, and the EU hosted by Indiana University School of Law at the European Gateway in Berlin, Germany. The symposium connected academics and social scientists for a conversation on “climate adaptation and the just transition in the United States, the United Kingdom, and European Union member nations.”

Below is a description of the symposium:

The purpose of this meeting is to connect invited scholars and practitioners writing on the topics of climate change and the just transition, broadly defined, with the goal of discussing recent developments in their respective jurisdictions and best practices for their research, as well as developing potential networks for collaboration. The day is built around brainstorming sessions and group activities to help foster conversation and possible collaborations.

Orford is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law. His interdisciplinary research investigates legal and policy approaches to environmental protection, human health and wellbeing, and deep decarbonization of the United States economy. He also participates in collaborative research initiatives across UGA, including as the lead of the Georgia element of the National Zoning Atlas and as a participant in ongoing investigations into the legal, political, environmental and social dimensions of new energy manufacturing and emerging carbon removal technologies.

Georgia Law Professor Christopher Bruner presents on corporate governance in event co-hosted by Université Rennes 2 and Roskilde Universitet

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Christopher M. Bruner presented “Potential for Stakeholder Corporate Governance in the United States” at the online seminar titled “Stakeholder Approach and Corporate Governance Evolution.” The virtual seminar was co-hosted by Université Rennes 2 in France and Roskilde Universitet in Denmark.

Christopher M. Bruner is the Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law at the University of Georgia School of Law and serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center.

Georgia Law finishes near the top at Jessup international competition

Earlier this month, the University of Georgia School of Law finished in the top 32 teams out of 805 total teams representing 104 jurisdictions in the 2025 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. This year’s team included students Dustin Batchelor (J.D. ’26), Grace Johnson (J.D. ’26), Marion Kronauge (J.D. ’26), Morgan Pfohl (J.D. ’26), and Ellis Schmitt (J.D. ’26). Jessup is the world’s largest moot court competition, bringing together students from across the globe to engage with pressing international legal challenges.

Georgia Law’s team advanced to the international rounds after winning the East Coast regional earlier this semester. Johnson and Schmitt also tied for ninth place in the individual oralist rankings.

Third-year students Joseph Colley, Katherine Lewis, and Brennan Rose served as student coaches, and Caleb Grant (J.D. ’23) served as alumni coach.

Bon voyage to students taking part in Georgia Law summer 2025 global initiatives

In summer 2025, the highest number of students in the past 10 years will travel abroad to participate in two global practice preparation offerings administered by the University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center:

Global Governance Summer School

This year’s Global Governance Summer School will focus on comparative constitutional law. It is set to begin later this month, when students will travel to two cities in Belgium for a week of site visits and lectures led by Georgia Law’s Matthew I. Hall, Associate Professor of Law, as well as professors from partner university KU Leuven. The first week of this for-credit course also will include professional development briefings at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, private law firms, and NGOs.

Then, programming shifts to The Hague, Netherlands, where Hall will lead briefings at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. Center director Sarah Quinn and Global Practice Preparation Assistant Catrina Martin will provide logistical assistance throughout the program on the ground and in Athens, respectively.

A total of twenty students will participate in this year’s summer school, including:

Global Externships Overseas

Our Center’s Global Externship Overseas initiative, overseen by Center Associate Director Taher Benany, offers Georgia Law students the opportunity to gain practical work experience in a variety of legal settings around the world. This summer, nine students have opted to combine the GEO opportunity with their participation in GGSS: Nicholas Ames, Olivia Buckner, Isaac Clement, Megan Greeley, Stephanie Holterman, Laiba Noor, Jalyn Ross, Lionel Rubio, and Camille Weindorf.

A total of twenty-four Georgia Law students will pursue GEOs in practice areas such as privacy and technology law, environmental law, international arbitration, EU competition, cultural heritage and historic preservation, intellectual property, corporate law, and human rights law.

This year’s GEO class includes eighteen private-sector placements:

  • Annie Bordeaux (J.D. ’27) – MVKini; Mumbai, India
  • Meghan Brockman (J.D. ’27) – GreenCo SA; Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Olivia Buckner (J.D. ’27) – Van Bael & Bellis; Brussels, Belgium
  • Nida Choudary (J.D. ’27) – Roudane & Partners Law Firm; Casablanca, Morocco
  • Carsen Christy (J.D. ’26) – Gleiss Lutz; Stuttgart, Germany
  • Isaac Clement (J.D. ’27) – PSA Legal; New Delhi, India
  • Margaret Farinella (J.D. ’27) – Bruchou & Funes; Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Megan Greeley (J.D. ’26) – Bodenheimer; Cologne, Germany
  • Stephanie Holterman (J.D. ’27) – Honlet Legum Arbitration; Paris, France
  • Laiba Noor (J.D. ’27) – Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici; Milan, Italy
  • Franklin Phan (J.D. ’27) – KPMG; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  • Kara Reed (J.D. ’26) – Kuribayashi Sogo Law Office; Tokyo, Japan
  • Bailey Renfroe (J.D. ’26) – Alston & Bird; Brussels, Belgium
  • Jalyn Ross (J.D. ’27) – Bodenheimer; Cologne, Germany
  • Lionel Rubio (J.D. ’27) – Araoz y Rueda; Madrid, Spain
  • Casey Smith (J.D. ’26) – Berggren; Helsinki, Finland
  • Hope Thomas (J.D. ’27) – LNT & Partners; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  • Camille Weindorf (J.D. ’27) – Deloitte; Baku, Azerbaijan

These six students will work for public sector placements:

  • Nicholas Ames (J.D. ’27) – The International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law; Valetta, Malta
  • Kellianne Elliott (J.D. ’26) – The Department of Conservation; Wellington, New Zealand
  • Amelia England (J.D. ’26) – eLiberare; Brasov, Romania
  • Olivia Haas (J.D. ’27) – The Department of Conservation; Wellington, New Zealand
  • Abigail Hagood (J.D. ’27) – The Antiquities Coalition; Washington, D.C.
  • Emma Hopkins (J.D. ’27) – No Peace Without Justice; Brussels, Belgium

More information on both of these Georgia Law initiatives here.

Georgia Law students attend 2025 ASIL Annual Meeting through professional development scholarships

This year, six University of Georgia School of Law students attended the 119th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington, D.C. This year’s ASIL Annual Meeting convened with the theme “Traditions and Transitions in International Law.”

Attendees included: Annie Bordeaux (J.D. ’27), Jack Buckelew (J.D. ’25), Eleanor Cox (J.D. ’26), Carolina Mares (J.D. ’25), Jalyn Ross (J.D. ’27), and Emma Whitmore (J.D. ’26). They received a Louis B. Sohn Professional Development Fellowship to support their attendance of this conference. Awarded by the law school’s Dean Rusk International Law Center, Sohn Fellowships enable students to attend professional development opportunities related to international law.

Each student attended numerous panel discussions addressing a range of topics in international law. Some students were able to meet with D.C.-based Georiga Law alumni/ae as well, including Caroline Bailey (J.D. ’24) and Sandon Fernandes (J.D. ’24).

Reflecting on her biggest takeaways from attending the conference, Bordeaux stated:

The speakers…offered a powerful reminder that, even amid global instability and the uneven application of the rule of law, international law still holds the potential to serve as a means of accountability. The insights shared by brilliant professors, leaders, and researchers substantiated the idea that the role of international law remains instrumental in addressing injustice and shaping governance.

Mares reflected on her favorite session from the conference:

During the session on Grotius’ Legacy: The 400th Anniversary of The Law of War and Peace, former Georgia Law Professor Harlan Cohen and fellow panelists offered a compelling and nuanced exploration of Hugo Grotius’ seminal 1625 treatise. The Law of War and Peace laid the groundwork for modern international law, illuminating the interrelationship between human rights and legal norms, the moral dimensions of law, and the idea of law as distinct from both power and religion. Gaining historical context for today’s legal frameworks was a powerful reminder of the foundational values and enduring principles that continue to guide and inspire practitioners in the field.

Buckelew illustrated the connection between attending this conference and his academic and professional goals:

Attending the ASIL Annual Meeting gave me clarity and encouragement at a pivotal moment in my legal education. Personally, it reminded me that I came to law school with the hope of engaging with serious global issues and to be part of a community that values legal principles as tools for progress. Professionally, it helped me envision a path where I can grow into expertise, not just through formal education, but through ongoing engagement with legal communities like ASIL and others.

To read prior posts about Georgia Law students using Sohn Fellowships to attend professional development opportunities, please click here and here.

Georgia Law Professor Christopher Bruner presents at University of Maryland symposium

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Christopher M. Bruner presented on a panel discussing international corporate law forums at the Journal of Business and Technology Law 2025 symposium titled “Corporate Law Forums Outside Delaware.” The symposium was hosted by the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.

Bruner is the Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law at the University of Georgia School of Law and serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center.

Rutgers Law professor Sarah Dadush presents working paper at final session of Georgia Law’s 2025 International Law Colloquium

The University of Georgia School of Law’s spring 2025 International Law Colloquium welcomed Sarah Dadush, Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, who presented her working paper, “Shared Responsibility in Contract Law.” Professor Christopher Bruner, Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center at Georgia Law, served as her faculty discussant. Dadush’s presentation marks the conclusion of the 2025 International Law Colloquium.

Dadush’s scholarly focus lies in business and human rights, consumer law, and social enterprise law. She also serves as the Director of the Responsible Contracting Project (RCP), a project designed to advocate for human rights and environmental due diligence in contract drafting. The RCP is located within the Rutgers Law School’s Center for Corporate Law and Governance.

Below is an abstract of Dadush’s working paper:

At first, the notion that there is such a thing as shared responsibility in American contract law may sound fanciful, if not absurd. A key reason why parties contract in the first place is to allocate risks and responsibilities between them and to clarify who must do what to move the collaboration forward. As such, contractual obligations are understood to be binary, belonging either to one party or the other, not both. In practice, this means that, if there is a breach, only the obligated party will be held responsible, not both. And, if remedies are awarded, they will flow only from the breaching to the non-breaching party, not between them. Thus, the notion that the parties might be contractually responsible not just for their own obligations, but also for those of their counterparty, seems incoherent.

And yet, as this Article shows, it is not uncommon for courts to go beyond the express terms of the contract to make the parties share responsibility for the performance of one another’s obligations. Thus shared responsibility: Each party is held responsible for the other’s contractual (non)performance, even in the absence of an express commitment to share responsibility for performance.

This Article “goes fishing” for shared responsibility in three key areas of contract law: The contents of the contract, breach, and remedies. It demonstrates that shared responsibility is brought to bear to resolve contract disputes more often and with greater legal effect than the simple, binary understanding of contract might predict. When it enters the judicial analysis, shared responsibility can drastically change the answers to the questions: Who had the obligation to perform? Who breached? And, finally, whose harm should be remedied and how?

Having shown that shared responsibility is already a prominent, if overlooked, feature of American contract law, this Article argues that, in certain situations, courts should employ shared responsibility as a default rule. Specifically, courts should employ a shared responsibility default (SRD) when the contract was breached, or otherwise failed, and (1) both parties contributed to the failure, and (2) the failure could, or has already, generated high social costs (e.g., public endangerment, human rights violations in supply chains, consumer deception). In such situations, the SRD would activate the tort law principles of comparative negligence and proximate cause in contract, holding both parties accountable for their respective contributions to the contract’s failure and related social costs. In doing so, the SRD would equip courts to resolve contract disputes in a manner that attends to both contract policy and public policy objectives.

This year, Professor Desirée LeClercq led the colloquium, which was 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.

This program w made possible through the Kirbo Trust Endowed Faculty Enhancement Fund and the Talmadge Law Faculty Fund.

Georgia Law Professor Lori Ringhand presents at York University in Toronto

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Lori A. Ringhand presented at the Glendon Global Dialogue series titled “Foreign Interference in Our Elections: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” last month. The event was hosted by York University’s Glendon School of Public and International Affairs in Toronto, Canada.

In addition to Ringhand, panelists included Francis Garon, Associate Professor of Political Science, Program Director of The Glendon School of Public and International Affairs; Antoine Kernen, Professor, Lausanne University; and Susan Pond, Director Glendon School of Public and International Affairs, York University.

This year’s Global Dialogue series aims to bring together renowned scholars and practitioners in political science, law, and international affairs to explore:

  • How foreign actors manipulate public opinion through disinformation and digital influence
  • The legal and policy frameworks protecting electoral integrity
  • The role of media, governments, and civil society in countering these threats

Ringhand teaches courses on constitutional law and election law. She has been a member of the University of Georgia School of Law faculty since 2008 and was named a Hosch Professor in 2012 and awarded a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professorship, UGA’s highest teaching honor, in 2021. She is a nationally known Supreme Court scholar and the author of two books about the Supreme Court confirmation process: Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings and Constitutional Change (with Paul M. Collins) published by Cambridge University Press; and Supreme Bias: Gender and Race in U.S. Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings (with Christina L. Boyd and Paul M. Collins), published by Stanford University Press. She also is the co-author of Constitutional Law: A Context and Practices Casebook, which is part of a series of casebooks dedicated to incorporating active teaching and learning methods into traditional law school casebooks. Ringhand also publishes extensively on election law related issues, and was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Chair Award at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland to explore the different approaches to campaign finance regulation taken by the United States and the United Kingdom.

Georgia Law students Franklin Phan (J.D. ’27) and Kara Reed (J.D. ’26) receive UGA Asia-Georgia Internship Connection Scholarship

University of Georgia School of Law students Franklin Phan (J.D. ’27) and Kara Reed (J.D. ’26) were selected to receive funding for legal externships in Vietnam and Japan this summer through the UGA Office of Global Engagement’s Asia-Georgia Internship Connection Scholarship.

Both students’ scholarships will support their Global Externship Overseas (GEO), administered by Georgia Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center. Phan will extern with KPMG Law in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where will be supervised by Georgia Law alumnus Binh Tran (J.D. ’11), Director at KPMG Law. Reed’s GEO will take place in Tokyo, Japan, where she will extern with Kuribayashi Sogo Law Office under the guidance of Georgia Law alumnus Tsutomu Kuribayashi (LL.M. ’97), Managing Director. This will be Reed’s second GEO; the summer of her first year at Georgia Law, she externed with Baker Tilly in Hamburg, Germany, under the supervision of Georgia Law alumnus Dr. Christian Engelhardt (LL.M., ’01)

In addition to their externships, both students will engage in supervised research projects. Reed will work with Christopher M. Bruner, Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law & Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center. Her project will explore the relationships at contract formation in American and Japanese law. Pamela Foohey, Allen Post Professor of Law, will oversee Phan’s research regarding mechanisms for enforcing cross-border contracts.

This scholarship funds student pursuing credit-bearing internships in southeast Asia for a duration of at least four weeks. Preference is given to students traveling to Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Posts about past recipients of this scholarship at Georgia Law can be found here.