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.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor Victoria J. Haneman recently spoke at the RSM Global Legal Conference in Rome, Italy. Her presentation was titled “The Relationship Between Universities and Lawyers” and it explored how law firms can maximize their relationships with local universities in today’s shifting landscape of AI disruption and hyper-politicization.
Haneman joined the University of Georgia School of Law in the fall of 2025 as the holder of the Verner F. Chaffin Chair in Fiduciary Law. Haneman comes to UGA from Creighton University, where she was a member of the law school’s faculty for seven years. In 2023, she was appointed the associate dean for research and innovation. She also held the Frank J. Kellegher Professorship of Trusts & Estates and served as the interim director of the health law program for the 2023-24 academic year. Haneman has a particular interest in tax policy, death care services, industry disruption, emerging markets, and women and the law.
Her talk opened “80 Years On: The Legacy of the Nuremberg Trials for Accountability,” a panel of experts convened to analyze the midtwentieth-century trials project. The panel also looked to contemporary developments in international relations and international criminal justice – not least, to the Nuremberg precedent which permitted international criminal prosecutions of heads of state and other governmental leaders. A full video of the panel can be found here.
Besides Professor Amann (pictured above left), panelists included (l to r): Dan Plesch, Professor of Diplomacy & Strategy at SOAS University of London; Christoph Safferling, Director of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy and Professor of Law at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg; as moderator, International Criminal Court Judge Joanna Korner CMG KC; Kirsty Sutherland, international barrister at 9BR Chambers, London; and Sir Howard Morrison KCMG CBE KC, former Judge on the International Criminal Court. (LinkedIn photo credit)
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. During her current research-intensive semester, she is an Affiliate Academic at University College London Faculty of Laws. She has published several essays on the Nuremberg era and is writing a book on lawyers and other women professionals at that first trial.
UGA’s Office of Research, in partnership with the Office of the Provost, provides “pre-seed” funding to facilitate the formation of faculty teams and collaboration around critical areas of research expertise or emerging research topics. The goal is to stimulate large-scale research team formation and position UGA faculty groups to be more competitive in attracting resources for collaborative research, including internal UGA seed grants and ultimately, external grant support.
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, International Law and 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.
Last month, University of Georgia School of Law Master of Laws (LL.M.) students had the opportunity to visit the Athens-Clarke County courthouse as part of their Legal System of the U.S. course taught by ProfessorAnne Burnett, Foreign and International Law Librarian.
The speakers at the courthouse provided an in-depth look into the local system of justice, the challenges it faces, as well as the dedication of the court personnel to achieving positive outcomes. The LL.M. students, who are pursuing a ten-month master’s degree at the law school, brought their own legal experience in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America, and South America to the discussion. They enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions on a variety of matters, including the hierarchy of courts, caseloads, and career paths.
The group was privileged to hear about the operation of superior and state courts from John Donnelly, chief public defender in the Western Judicial Circuit, assistant district attorney Kris Bolden, as well as Judge Ryan Hope. Kristen Daniel and Christia Martinez provided insights into the local treatment and accountability courts.
The Dean Rusk International Law Center is grateful to all of the speakers who gave generously of their time and to law school lecturer Sherrie Hines and court administrator Laura Welch for their assistance in organizing this professional development trip.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor Assaf Harpaz published “Global Tax Wars in the Digital Era” in the American University Law Review (Vol. 75, 2025). The article explores the global conflict over tax governance, particularly the tensions between OECD-led Global North countries and the UN-backed Global South. It argues for a shift toward source-based taxation that would allow countries to tax online businesses that have a “significant economic presence” without a physical one.
The article’s abstract can be found below:
The digital economy fundamentally disrupts international tax principles that rely on physical presence. When a business earns income abroad, the country of residence (where the taxpayer resides) and the country of source (where income is generated) both have legitimate, competing claims to tax that income. The international tax system tends to favor residence-based taxation. The source country has the right to tax business profits only if the enterprise carries on a permanent establishment within its borders, which typically requires physical presence. The permanent establishment standard becomes flawed in a digital economy where profit shifting practices are abundant and businesses no longer need a physical presence in the location of their online consumer markets.
An upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation recognizes these challenges and is overwhelmingly supported by Global South economies. However, the Global North has historically dominated the international tax regime through the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), informally known as the “World Tax Organization.” A U.N. framework convention creates potential conflict in international tax policymaking and would need to bridge the underlying North-South divide.
This Article explores the “tax wars” surrounding the leadership for global tax governance, contrasting the taxing powers and interests of the OECD-led Global North with those of the U.N.-backed Global South. It argues for a shift toward source-based taxation by revisiting the permanent establishment standard. To achieve this, the Article promotes a significant economic presence doctrine that would expand the permanent establishment criteria to include online businesses. This proposal addresses longstanding inequities and is increasingly warranted in a digital economy that does not depend on physical presence.
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.
University of Georgia School of Law student and Dean Rusk International Law Center Student Researcher Adoris M. Gibbs (J.D. ’26) received the Law School Student Excellence in Access to Justice Award from the State Bar of Georgia. Gibbs was nominated for “her passion and commitment to advocating for justice and increasing access to legal services.”
In her role at the Center, Gibbs assists with integral Center tasks, including: researching Center history, drafting blog posts, conducting research on peer and aspirational institutions, designing social media graphics, assisting with Center event setup and cleanup, and promoting the law school’s international programs at law school and university-wide events. Gibbs participated in Global Governance Summer School in summer 2025, which is administered by the Center.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor Emeritus Walter Hellerstein presented at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Technical Advisory Group to Working Party No. 9 on Consumption Taxes meeting in October in Paris, France.
The Working Party No. 9 on Consumption Taxes is a forum for the discussion of consumption tax policy and administration, working with both Members and non-Members of the OECD to develop appropriate and effective taxation outcomes.
Hellerstein is the Distinguished Research Professor & Francis Shackelford Distinguished Professor in Taxation Law Emeritus. He is a recipient of the National Tax Association’s Daniel M. Holland Medal for outstanding lifetime contributions to the study and practice of public finance, is widely regarded as the nation’s leading academician on state and local taxation. He has authored numerous books, textbooks, and law review articles, and has practiced extensively in the field. Hellerstein is currently a Visiting Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and he remains actively involved in his scholarship, consulting, and, in particular, his work as an academic advisor to the OECD.
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. During her current research-intensive semester, she is an Affiliate Academic at University College London Faculty of Laws.
Her chapter appears in The Oxford Handbook on Women and International Law, co-edited by Professors J. Jarpa Dawuni (Howard University), Nienke Grossman (University of Baltimore), Jaya Ramji-Nogales (Temple University), and Hélène Ruiz Fabri (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne). The thirty-five-chapter volume spans many topics – topics that its four dozen authors explore through a variety of methods, including substantive legal analysis, legal history, and global critical race feminism.
Amann’s chapter draws from research that she had presented online as part of “In/ex-clusiveness of the Legal Construction of Justice,” a panel of the 17th Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law, held in 2022 at Utrecht University in The Netherlands.
Women seldom surface in conventional accounts of the many war crimes trials that took place after World War II. Yet as this chapter shows, hundreds of women lawyers and other professionals were present, thus helping to lay the foundations of an international criminal justice project that continues to this day. Combining methodologies of narrative with theories sounding in global legal history and feminist scholarship and discussing what it reveals as dances of absence-presence, visible-invisible, and inclusion-exclusion, this chapter first examines how and why women were absented and then surfaces their contributions. It concludes with a look at contemporary international legal practice.
The University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center is pleased to announce that our Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree program will be represented at several upcoming recruiting events in Europe this month.
The LL.M. degree at Georgia Law offers foreign-educated law graduates opportunities to learn about the U.S. legal system, deepen knowledge of an area of specialization, and explore new legal interests at one of the nation’s top law schools. The ten-month program provides individualized support through the Center and prepares internationally trained students for a globalized legal market.
In Brussels, Belgium, Georgia Law’s Mandy Dixon, International Professional Education Manager, will participate in the EducationUSA LL.M. Fair on Monday, November 4, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The event will take place at the Deloitte Legal offices at the Brussels Airport, offering prospective students the opportunity to learn more about legal study in the United States and at Georgia Law in particular.
In Paris, France, Dixon will join the EducationUSA LL.M. Fair on Tuesday, November 5, from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. The fair will be held at Sciences Po Paris. The fair will be preceded by a country briefing for university representatives featuring remarks from a Sciences Po faculty member. While in Paris, Dixon will also visit the Maison Internationale at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne to share information and materials about Georgia’s LL.M. program.
Finally, Dixon’s travels will conclude in Frankfurt, Germany, where she will participate in LL.M. Days, a recruiting event organized by e-fellows.net, on Friday, November 15, from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at IHK Frankfurt. Georgia Law alumna Franzisca Heinze (LL.M. ’21) will join Dixon to share her experiences as a student in the program. While in Frankfurt, Dixon will also meet with another alumna, Fabienne Taller (LL.M. ’25).
Georgia Law looks forward to meeting talented lawyers and law graduates from across Europe who are interested in advancing their legal education in the United States. For information about upcoming virtual and in-person recruiting events, visit our webpage.
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