scholarship

Georgia Law Professor Amann presents in Geneva conference on children and International Criminal Court

Georgia Law Professor Diane Marie Amann presented Thursday in a 2-day global conference entitled “A New Path towards Accountability for Crimes and Violations affecting Children in Armed Conflict.” Sponsor of the event, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, in a hybrid format, was the nongovernmental organization Save the Children.

Amann’s online presentation at last week’s conference concerned the ICC Office of the Prosecutor Policy on Children (2016) (left), which she helped research and draft. She recapped the 4-year process leading to publication of the 2016 Policy, surveyed key points in its content, and suggested areas in which the policy and its implementation could be enhanced.

Amann is Regents’ Professor of International Law, Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center here at the University of Georgia School of Law. By appointment of ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, Amann served from 2012 to 2021 as the first Special Adviser to the ICC Prosecutor on Children in & affected by Armed Conflict. She continues to publish and present on issues relation to international child law. (prior posts)

Indeed, such an enhancement effort began at Thursday’s event: ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan QC, who took office in mid-2021, announced the launch of a process “to build upon, and renew,” the 2016 Policy. He issued a public call for submission of suggestions, as part of a consultation process set to unfold in the new few months.

Assisting in this Policy-renewal process will be Amann’s successor as Special Adviser in this area: Véronique Aubert, who is also the Lead on Children & Armed Conflict at Save the Children. Aubert spearheaded the organization of last week’s conference in Geneva.

Georgia Law Professor Christopher Bruner presents on corporate sustainability disclosure in joint Minnesota-Dublin seminar

Christopher M. Bruner, the Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law here at the University of Georgia School of Law, recently took part in a seminar session on corporate sustainability disclosures, presented online for students at the University of Minnesota Law School and University College Dublin Sutherland School of Law.

“Sustainability Disclosure Around the World” was the title of the presentation by Bruner, a scholar of corporate law, corporate governance, comparative law, and sustainability, whose most recent book is The Corporation as Technology: Re-Calibrating Corporate Governance for a Sustainable Future (OUP 2022) (prior posts).

Joining Bruner in presenting the seminar were Professor Brett McDonnell, Dorsey & Whitney Chair in Law at Minnesota Law, and Xiaoyu Gu, who is a Managing Director at AB CarVal, a global alternative investment management firm. Professor Claire Hill, who is James L. Krusemark Chair in Law at Minnesota Law, and Professor Joe McGrath, of University College Dublin Law, convened the event.

Georgia Law Prof Amann presents on children and peace agreements at California-Davis Law symposium

Georgia Law Professor Diane Marie Amann spoke on “Children, Armed Conflict, and Peace Agreements” Friday in a hybrid symposium at the University of California, Davis, School of Law.

Amann, who is Regents’ Professor of International Law, Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center here at the University of Georgia School of Law, gave an online presentation, as part of a panel on “Human Rights and Social Justice in the International Sphere,” which also featured Wadie E. Said, who is the Miles and Ann Loadholt Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina School of Law. Their talks were part of “Justice in War and Conflict: The Role of International and Humanitarian Law,” this year’s annual symposium of the University of California, Davis, Journal of International Law and Policy.

Professor’s Amann’s talk drew upon her research into children and peace settlement options. This research initially was conducted for a project at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, England, and subsequently was published as “International Child Law and the Settlement of Ukraine-Russia and Other Conflicts,” 99 International Law Studies 559 (2022). (prior posts available here)

The symposium took place on the one-year anniversary of the ongoing war which began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a fact that Professor Amann noted even as she stressed that the findings of her research are applicable to settlement of any armed conflict or similar instance of extreme and protracted violence,

Georgia Law Professor Harlan G. Cohen presents paper on trade-security measures at Temple Law-ASIL workshop

Harlan Grant Cohen, who is Gabriel M. Wilner/UGA Foundation Professor in International Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center here at the University of Georgia School of Law, took part earlier this month in a workshop at Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia.

Cohen presented “Toward Best Practices for Trade-Security Measures” at the workshop, which waswhich was organized by Temple Law Professor J. Benton Heath and hosted by Temple Law’s Institute for International Law and Public Policy, in coordination with the American Society of International Law International Legal Theory Interest Group.

Within the overall theme of “The Concept of Security in International Law,” the workshop brought together scholars from a range of fields in order to address shifting understandings of security in international law and foreign affairs, as well as how law can respond to these developments.

Georgia Law Professor MJ Durkee presents at University of Pennsylvania symposium on “Commercial Space Age”

Professor Melissa J. “MJ” Durkee, the law school’s Associate Dean for International Programs, Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, and Allen Post Professor, presented her scholarship Friday at “The Emerging Commercial Space Age: Legal and Policy Implications,” a symposium co-hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition and its Journal of Law & Innovation.

Her talk, “Space Law as Twenty-first Century International Law,” will be published in that journal.

Host of the symposium in Philadelphia was the Center’s Founding Director, Christopher S. Yoo, who is the John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Commentator for Durkee’s presentation was Professor Rebecca Crootof, University of Richmond School of Law.

Georgia Law Professor Usha Rodrigues quoted in Agence France-Presse article on challenge to “empire of Indian tycoon”

Georgia Law Professor Usha Rodrigues was quoted in an Agence France-Presse article about claims levied against against the Adani Group, led by Gautam Adani of India.

Author of the article, entitled “A US corporate scourge deflates the empire of Indian tycoon Adani,” is AFP’s Thomas Urbain. Published on January 31, the item was reprinted in several global media.

Rodrigues, a corporate law expert who is University Professor and M.E. Kilpatrick Chair of Corporate Finance & Securities Law here at the University of Georgia School of Law, is also serving as our university’s Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.

Georgia Law Professor Walter Hellerstein presents on tax obligations on digital platforms at conference in Vienna

Walter Hellerstein, Distinguished Research Professor & Shackelford Distinguished Professor in Taxation Law Emeritus here at the University of Georgia School of Law, recently presented in Vienna, Austria, as part of a panel entitled “Obligations Imposed on Digital Platforms Regarding VAT/GST,” concerning tax obligations imposed on digital platforms.

His presentation formed part of “Court of Justice of the European Union: Recent VAT Case Law,” a 3-day conference at the Institute for Austrian & International Tax Law, Vienna University of Economics & Business.

In addition to Austria and the United States, the conference included judges, academics, and practitioners from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Georgia Law Professor MJ Durkee presents “Pledging World Order” in Brooklyn Law School colloquium

Professor Melissa J. “MJ” Durkee, the law school’s Associate Dean for International Programs, Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, and Allen Post Professor, presented her scholarship online Monday as part of the Brooklyn Colloquium on International Economic Law sponsored by the Block Center for International Business Law at New York’s Brooklyn Law School. Hosts were Brooklyn Law faculty members Stephen Dean and Irene Ten Cate.

Durkee presented “Pledging World Order,” forthcoming soon in volume 48, issue 1, of the Yale Journal of International of Law.

Climate change innovation to be explored February 10 at Georgia Law’s 35th annual Red Clay Conference

“Climate Change Innovation: Stakeholders and Tools” is the title of the Red Clay Conference to be held Friday, February 10, 2023, here at the University of Georgia School of Law.

This will mark the 35th annual edition of the student-run conference, which was established to increase public awareness of environmental issues. Cosponsoring the event are the law school and its students’ Environmental Law Association, led this year by 2L Hannah Jellema and 3L Anna Scartz, president and vice president, respectively.

Here’s the program for the conference, which will take place in the Larry Walker Room on the 4th floor of Dean Rusk Hall:

➣ 9:15 a.m. Opening remarks

Opening the conference will be Melissa J. “MJ” Durkee, Associate Dean for International Programs, Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, and Allen Post Professor at Georgia Law.

➣ 9:10 a.m. Panel 1, Roles of Humans

Addressing the impact of climate change on agriculture, urban environments, and environmental justice communities will be: Pam Knox, Director of the UGA Weather Network and an agricultural climatologist within the university’s College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences; Tawana Mattox, Director of Community Education & Empowerment and Neighborhood Sustainability Project Manager at the Athens Land Trust; and Professor J. Marshall Shepherd, the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia. Shana Jones, Assistant Director of Strategic Operations & Planning Assistance at the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government, will moderate.

➣ 10:55 a.m. Panel 2, Rights of Nature

Examining how the rights-of-nature doctrine can be used to combat climate change will be: Chuck O’Neal, Speak Up Wekiva, Florida; Eduardo Salazar-Ortuño, Associate Professor of Law, University of Murcia, Spain (via Zoom); and Kekek Stark, Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic at the Alexander Blewitt III School of Law, University of Montana. Georgia Law Associate Professor Christian Turner will moderate.

➣ 12:55 p.m. Peter Appel Honorary Keynote

Marilyn A. Brown, Regents’ and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, will discuss her experience in policy work aimed at acceleration the implementation of sustainable energy sources and technology.

➣ 2:10 p.m. Panel 3, Responsibilities of Corporations

Exploring how corporate governance can reduce environmental externalities will be: Christopher M. Bruner, Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law at Georgia Law; Kelly Rondinelli, Associate – Environmental & Natural Resources at Vinson & Elkins LLP in Washington, D.C.; and Michael Vandenbergh, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law and Director of the Climate Change Research Network at Vanderbilt Law School. Melissa J. “MJ” Durkee, Associate Dean for International Programs, Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, and Allen Post Professor at Georgia Law, will moderate.

➣ 3:25 p.m. Closing Remarks

Closing the conference will be Adam D. Orford, Assistant Professor of Law and Faculty Advisor of the Environmental Law Association at Georgia Law.

Attorneys licensed in Georgia can earn 4 CLE credits by attending the conference (pending approval by the state bar’s Institute of Continuing Legal Education).

Details and conference registration here.

Georgia Law Professor Louis B. Sohn (1914-2006), noted international law expert, featured as “Groundbreaker”

A renowned member of the University of Georgia School of Law faculty, Louis B. Sohn (1914-2006), is the latest subject in the university’s “Georgia Groundbreaker” news series.

Author Robin Lally starts her article, “Louis B. Sohn: An international legal scholar,” with these apt words:

“Louis B. Sohn spent his life promoting international law and peace.”

The article proceeds to discuss his birth in the city now known as Lviv, Ukraine, and his move to the United States in 1939, just weeks before the Nazi invasion. Installed at Harvard, he helped to draft the United Nations Charter, wrote many books, including the co-authored World Peace through World Law.

As a Georgia Law professor teaching human rights law and law of the sea from 1981 to 1991, Sohn mentored a generation of students. Lally’s article quotes several such Georgia Law alums: Jean-Marie Henckaerts (prior posts), who is a Legal Adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland; Susan Timberlake, a former United Nations lawyer; former U.S. diplomat Kit Traub (prior post); and Paige Otwell (prior posts), an Assistant District Attorney in Athens-Clarke County.

The article features many photographs of Sohn, and pays tribute to his donation of 5,000 volumes from his personal collection, now formed the Louis B. Sohn Library on International Relations. Housed in the Dean Rusk International Law Center, it is a branch of Alexander Campbell King Law Library at Georgia Law

Also quoted is Regents’ Professor Diane Marie Amann, who holds the Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, which Sohn had inaugurated upon his arrival at Georgia Law. Amann said:

“‘Professor Sohn was a path breaker in international human rights law, the law of peace, and international environmental law, fields of keen interest to our students, important to our world …'”