Diane Marie Amann

UGA Law Professor Amann presents “Child-Taking” scholarship at British universities in Cambridge and London

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Diane Marie Amann, whose expertise includes child rights, international criminal law, and global legal history, recently discussed her research on “child-taking” at two universities in the United Kingdom.

At the end of September Amann – who is Regents’ Professor of Law, Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center – presented “Child-Taking and Human Rights Law” at the 2023 European Human Rights Law Conference. Entitled “Human Rights Law: Prospects, Possibilities, Fears & Limitations,” the two-day conference took place at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law.

Last week, she gave a public lecture on “Child-Taking in International Criminal Law” at King’s College London Department of War Studies.

Both talks drew from Amann’s forthcoming article, “Child-Taking,” to be published in the Michigan Journal of International Law.

As Amann theorizes it, child-taking occurs when a state or similarly powerful entity abducts children from their community and then endeavors to remake the children in its own image. This conduct lies at the heart of the International Criminal Court warrants pending against President Vladimir Putin and another top Russian official. The article also examines other examples of the phenomenon, including the Nazis’ kidnappings of non-German children during World War II and the forced placement of Indigenous children into boarding schools in North America, Australia, and elsewhere.

UGA Law professor Diane Marie Amann and UCL Professor Martins Paparinskis

UGA Law Professor Amann presents “Child-Taking and the International Criminal Arrest Warrant” at University College London Faculty of Laws

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Diane Marie Amann, an expert on child and human rights, international criminal law, and the laws of war, presented a lecture entitled “Child-Taking and the International Criminal Arrest Warrant” at University College London Faculty of Laws in June.

News that the International Criminal Court is seeking the arrest of Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, and Child Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, drew attention to the war crimes charged: “unlawful deportation of population (children)” and “unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas.” Professor Amann’s lecture examined these and similar crimes, which she labels “child-taking.” International child-taking trials date to the Nuremberg tribunals, and have continued in modern forums like the ICC. Court records demonstrate that child-taking is no minor crime. Its present gravity and future consequences are heavy; so too, the prosecutorial burdens of securing indictments, conviction, and redress.

This presentation was chaired by UCL Professor of Public International Law, Martins Paparinskis.

Amann is the Regents’ Professor of International Law, the Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, and a Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center.