Georgia Law

Georgia Law Professor William Ortman presents at Michele Taruffo Girona Evidence Week

Incoming University of Georgia School of Law Professor William Ortman presented on the history of plea bargaining as part of the panel “American Perspectives on Plea Bargaining” at the Michele Taruffo Girona Evidence Week in Spain last month.

The Michele Taruffo Girona Evidence Week aims to “be a meeting point for all members of the international community who are dedicated to or interested in evidential legal reasoning.”

Ortman will join the University of Georgia School of Law as a professor of law in fall of 2025. Ortman specializes in criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence. Since 2016, he has served on the faculty at Wayne State University Law School, where he was named the David Adamany Research Scholar (2024–25) and the Edward M. Wise Research Scholar (2020–23). While at Wayne State, Ortman was recognized with multiple teaching awards. He previously held positions as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School (2022) and as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School (2013–16).

Ortman’s scholarship focuses on the institutional and legal design of criminal adjudication. His recent work includes “Confession and Confrontation,” published in the California Law Review (2025), and “Cliff Running” (with Dov Fox), which is forthcoming in the Washington University Law Review.

Three Georgia Law students to pursue global externships in fall 2025

In the upcoming fall semester, three University of Georgia School of Law students will gain international hands-on learning experience through the Global Externships Overseas (GEO) initiative: Alexis Bartholomew (J.D. ’26), Eleanor Cox (J.D. ’26), and Kara Reed (J.D. ’26).

Two students will work in private law settings: Bartholomew with extern Gleiss Lutz in Stuttgart, Germany, while Cox will extern with Bodenheimer in Berlin, Germany, under the supervision of Dr. Christof Siefarth (LL.M. ’86). Reed has a public interest placement and will extern with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Bermuda under the supervision of Alexander White (J.D. ’09). Through their GEOs, students will gain experience in practice areas such as international arbitration and data privacy.

Cox has been selected as the recipient of a grant from the Halle Foundation to support her externship in Germany. Based in Atlanta, The Halle Foundation seeks to promote understanding, knowledge and friendship between the people of Germany and the United States. Cox is the third Georgia Law student to receive this grant to support a semester-long GEO in Germany, following Jack Buckelew (J.D. ’25) and Pace Cassell (J.D. ’26).

Since spring 2021, eight Georgia Law students have participated in semester-long GEOs, an extension of the Center’s existing GEO initiative that is offered jointly between the Center and the law school’s Clinical and Experiential Program. Professor Jessica L. Heywood, Clinical Associate Professor and Washington, D.C., Semester in Practice Director, teaches and directs students externing abroad in partnership with Taher Benany, Associate Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, who oversees the GEO initiative. Like Georgia Law’s summer GEOs, semester-long GEOs are legal placements placements around the world that offer all law students the opportunity to gain practical knowledge and experience in an international setting. They are typically supervised in their work by Georgia Law alumni/ae. Students return to Athens with new colleagues and mentors, legal practice skills that set them apart from their peers, and a deeper appreciation of the global legal profession.

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The Center is currently accepting applications for spring 2026 semester-long GEOs; all 1L and 2L students are eligible to apply. Applications are due September 15. For more information and to access the application, please email Taher Benany: taher.benany@uga.edu

Georgia Law Professor Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge and student Megan Greeley Bradford (J.D. ’26) publish article in the Daily Report

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge and student Megan Greeley Bradford (J.D. ’26) published “Case Not Quite Closed: Transnational Litigation and the Jurisdictional Limitations of Receivership” in the Daily Report earlier this month.

Rutledge holds the Talmadge Chair of Law. From 2015 through 2024, he served as dean of Georgia Law. Prior to his appointment as dean, Rutledge served as the associate dean for faculty development working closely with the law school’s faculty, especially its untenured professors, to expand and promote scholarly and research activities.

He is the author of the book Arbitration and the Constitution and co-author with Gary Born of the book International Civil Litigation in United States Courts. His works have been published by the Yale University Press, the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press, and his articles have appeared in a diverse array of journals such as The University of Chicago Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review and the Journal of International Arbitration. He also regularly advises parties on matters of international dispute resolution (litigation and arbitration).

Georgia Law Professor Christopher Bruner publishes chapter on corporate risk and sustainability

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Christopher Bruner published “Business Risk, Capital Markets, and Sustainable Companies” in The Prism of Sustainability: Multidisciplinary Profiles (Editoriale Scientifica, 2025). Edited by Alessio Bartolacelli, Associate Professor of Business Law at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, the volume brings together perspectives on sustainability from a variety of academic fields. 

Bruner’s chapter builds on ideas he presented in 2023 at a conference hosted by the University of Macerata in Italy.

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 Professor Desirée LeClercq participates in UC Berkeley Law webinar on gender-based violence in the maritime industry

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq served as a panelist in the virtual discussion “Inequalities and Violence at Sea.” This panel, moderated by Furaha Joy Sekai Saungweme and Costanza Hermanin, was part of a webinar series hosted by the Gender Justice and Harassment Working Group of UC Berkeley Law’s Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law. The series was launched in recognition of the International Day for Women in Maritime, an annual observance on May 18 that highlights the contributions of women across the maritime industry.

LeClercq discussed her recent article, “Gender-Based Violence and Harassment at Sea”, which examines the Maritime Labour Convention (2006). She was joined by panelist Tim Springett, Policy Director of the United Kingdom Chamber of Shipping, as they explored the gendered dimensions of labor, safety, and inclusion in the maritime sector.

LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law and U.S. Labor Law. This semester, LeClercq is overseeing the International Law Colloquium, a for-credit course designed to introduce students to international economic law through engagement with scholars in the international legal field. 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.

Georgia Law Professor Sonja R. West presents at Oxford’s Bonavero Institute of Human Rights

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Sonja R. West participated in two events hosted by the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford in June. First, she was part of a Comparative Media Law Workshop; then, she presented as part of a panel titled “The Future of Press Freedom” at the Democracy, Law, and Independent Journalism conference.

The Bonavero Institute is dedicated to fostering world-class research and scholarship in human rights law, to promoting public engagement in and understanding of human rights issues, and to building valuable conversations and collaborations between human rights scholars and human rights practitioners.

West holds the Otis Brumby Distinguished Professorship in First Amendment Law, a post shared by the law school and Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She specializes in constitutional law, media law and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Georgia Law Professor Diane Marie Amann presents “Child-Taking Justice and Forced Residential Schooling of Indigenous Americans” at American Society of International Law workshop

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Diane Marie Amann recently gave an online lecture entitled “Justice for Child-Taking and Other Crimes against and affecting Children” as part of “International Criminal Law, Conflict Resolution and Transitional Justice,” the week-long 24th Specialization Course in International Criminal Law for Young Penalists, held in Sicily, at the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, Italy.

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. Her Siracusa lecture drew upon her expertise on children, violence, conflict, and justice. Her most recent publication in this field is “Child-Taking,” 45 Michigan Journal of International Law 305 (2024); all her related publications are available here.

Georgia Law Professor Assaf Harpaz presents at the 2025 Law and Society Association Annual Meeting

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Assaf Harpaz  presented his paper, Artificial Intelligence and Taxpayer Entity, at the 2025 Law and Society Association Annual Meeting in May. This presentation was part of the Global Taxation and Policy panel. Harpaz also chaired the conference’s panel on Local Governments and Tax Benefits.

Below is an abstract of the paper:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the world and presents numerous challenges to legal and regulatory frameworks. The evolving, complex yet still ambiguous concept demands rethinking longstanding doctrines at risk of obsoleteness. These tensions are highlighted in federal income taxation, which generally compartmentalizes taxpayers into individuals and business entities. Technological developments such as generative AI upend these conceptions given their capacity to create value and operate autonomously, interacting with the economy in ways that combine human and non-human attributes.

Under current U.S. law, even the most advanced AI models are not directly subject to the income tax regime, as they are neither individuals nor separate business entities. AI is poised to dramatically reshape the tax base by altering both the sources of income (from humans to robots) and the type of income (from labor to capital) that is subject to tax.

This article examines the intersections and frictions between AI models and federal income tax policy. It focuses on questions of taxpayer entity and ownership that arise from the widespread use of AI. The article argues that the unique and non-binary characteristics of AI challenge the principles of personhood, income, and asset character, at the foundation of the income tax system. The extent of disruption will depend on the degree to which AI displaces human labor and achieves sentience.

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.

Georgia Law Professor Diane Marie Amann publishes on woman acquitted at Nuremberg

“Inge Viermetz, Woman Acquitted at Nuremberg,” an essay by University of Georgia School of Law Professor Diane Marie Amann, has just been published at 19 FIU Law Review 487 (2025).

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.

Her article appears in a special issue commemorating a 2024 symposium, “Perspectives on the International Criminal Court and International Criminal Law and Procedure: A Symposium in Memory of Megan Fairlie,”  at Miami’s Florida International University College of Law. An international criminal law expert, Dr. Fairlie had taught there from 2007 – the same year she earned her Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland-Galway – until her death in December 2022.

Here’s the abstract for Professor Amann’s article:

“Conventional narratives tend to represent the post-World War II international criminal proceedings as a men’s project, thus obscuring the many women who participated, as lawyers, journalists, analysts, interpreters, witnesses, and defendants. Indeed, two women stood trial before Nuremberg Military Tribunals. This article examines the case of the only woman found not-guilty: Inge Viermetz, who had been an administrator at Lebensborn, the Nazi SS adoption and placement agency. The article outlines the prosecution’s child-taking case against Viermetz, as well as her successful gendered self-portrayal as a conventionally feminine caregiver. With references to Professor Megan A. Fairlie, at whose memorial symposium it was presented, the article concludes by considering contemporary implications of this acquittal at Nuremberg.”

Georgia Law Foreign and International Law Librarian Anne Burnett wins award

University of Georgia School of Law’s Foreign and International Law Librarian Anne Burnett received the 2025 Daniel L. Wade Outstanding Service Award from the American Association of Law Libraries Foreign, Comparative and International Law Special Interest Section. Established in 2006, the Award honors an FCIL-SIS (“the Section”) member who has made outstanding contributions to the Section in the areas of section activity and professional service.

Burnett has been the foreign and international law librarian at the University of Georgia School of Law Alexander Campbell King Law Library since 1996. Burnett serves as the primary provider of reference services for the international, foreign and comparative law collections and is a member of the library’s research team. Burnett also teaches courses in international legal research, advanced legal research and the LL.M. Legal System of the United States course.

Burnett’s previous law library experience includes the Legislative Reference Library in Austin, TX, and the Young Law Library at the University of Arkansas School of Law. Her other professional legal experience includes working as deputy legislative counsel at the Legislative Counsel Bureau for the Nevada Legislature in Carson City, NV. She also worked as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Deborah A. Agosti, Second Judicial District Court, State of Nevada. Burnett is a member of the state bars of California and Nevada. She is active in the American Association of Law Libraries, the International Federation of Library Associations and the American Society of International Law.