transnational law

Georgia Law Foreign and International Law Librarian Anne Burnett presents virtual program for international lawyers through the Jacksonville Urban League Center 

University of Georgia School of Law’s Foreign and International Law Librarian Anne Burnett presented “Legal Research Reimagined: AI, Exams, and the Global Legal Mindset” for the Jacksonville Urban League Center for Advocacy and Social Justice on July 14, 2025. She discussed the rapidly-evolving impact of artificial intelligence on legal research and legal education as well as providing an introduction to the variety of paths and opportunities for international lawyers.

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

Georgia Law Professor Nathan S. Chapman presents at University of Queensland

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Nathan S. Chapman gave two presentations at the University of Queensland Law School in Brisbane, Australia this summer. He presented “Natural Law and Religious Liberty” at a faculty and student seminar, and “Fair Notice and Qualified Immunity” was presented at a faculty workshop.

Chapman received financial support to travel to the University of Queensland from the Dean Rusk International Law Center as a Rusk Scholar-in-Residence, an initiative promoting international opportunities for Georgia Law faculty that advance the mission of the Center.

Chapman currently serves as the law school’s associate dean for faculty development and holds the A. Gus Cleveland Distinguished Chair of Law. He writes and teaches about constitutional law, especially constitutional rights, and law and religion. Most recently, Chapman is the author, with Michael W. McConnell, of Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Promotes Religious Pluralism and Protects Freedom of Conscience (OUP, 2023).

Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq presents on trade and worker rights at the World Trade Organization  

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq recently delivered a presentation on the future of multilateralism, trade, and worker rights to World Trade Organization officials and researchers in Geneva, Switzerland.

LeClercq received financial support to attend this workshop from the Dean Rusk International Law Center as a Rusk Scholar-in-Residence, an initiative promoting international opportunities for Georgia Law faculty that advance the mission of the Center.

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. 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 Assaf Harpaz reviews article on regulatory mismatches between the United States and Europe

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Assaf Harpaz recently reviewed “Regulatory Mismatches in the United States and the European Union”, a paper by Michael S. Knoll, Ruth Mason, and Wolfgang Schön.

Below is a summary of the article:

This article explores regulatory mismatches, differences in regulations between different states, in the United States and the European Union, focusing on their differing approaches to market integration and regulatory diversity. The US emphasizes state autonomy, allowing regulatory pluralism to foster local experimentation and reflect diverse democratic preferences.

The Supreme Court’s handling of mismatches through balancing tests in decisions like Pike v. Bruce Church (1970), is limited and inconsistent, with a preference for leaving unresolved issues to Congress. In contrast, the EU prioritizes legislative and, to a lesser extent, judicial, harmonization and mutual recognition, with the Court of Justice rigorously reviewing member-state regulations for necessity, proportionality, and compatibility with fundamental market freedoms. Recent trends toward subsidiarity, however, signal a growing respect for national diversity. Both unions weigh state and market interests, but the United States tends to see regulatory diversity as a federalism benefit, whereas the EU views harmonization as essential to its integration goals.

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 Laura Phillips-Sawyer participates in the Business History Conference

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Laura Phillips-Sawyer participated in the Business History Conference in Atlanta, Georgia earlier this year. She was one of several speakers in the Harvard Business School Workshop entitled “Globalization, Multinationals, and Institutions.” Additionally, she chaired the panel “Trust and Antitrust: Standard Oil and the Creation of the Global Economy.”

Phillips-Sawyer is an expert in U.S. antitrust law and policy. Broadly, she is interested in questions of economic regulation, which intersect with legal history, economic thought, business strategy and structure, and political organization. She currently holds the Jane W. Wilson Associate Professorship in Business Law at the University of Georgia School of Law.

Georgia Law Professor Pamela Foohey presents at SASE Annual Conference in Montreal

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Pamela Foohey presented her forthcoming co-authored book Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy (University of California Press, 2025) as part of the panel “The Effects of Insecurity in Times of Crisis” at the Society of the Advancement of Socio-Economics annual conference held in Montreal during July. This year’s conference is entitled “Inclusive Solidarities: Reimagining Boundaries in Divided Times.”

Foohey joined Georgia Law faculty as a full professor in 2024. She currently holds the Allen Post Professorship and teaches Bankruptcy, Secured Transactions and a Bankruptcy Practice Seminar. Specializing in bankruptcy, commercial law, consumer finance and business law, Foohey’s scholarship primarily involves empirical studies of bankruptcy and related parts of the legal system. She presently is a co-investigator on the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a long-term research project studying persons who file bankruptcy. Data from this project serve as the basis of her co-authored book Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy, University of California Press (Aug. 5, 2025). Her work in business bankruptcy focuses on nonprofit entities, with a particular emphasis on how religious organizations use bankruptcy. Data from this project are included in her in-progress book Forgive Us Our Debts: How Black Churches Use Bankruptcy to Survive, forthcoming with the University of Chicago Press.

Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq presents at the Geneva Graduate Institute

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq recently presented her research on trade and labor at the Remaking Trade for a Sustainable Future research workshop at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland during June.

Convened by the Remaking Trade Project (RTP) and co-hosted by the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI), this workshop brought together a diverse range of researchers, economists, legal experts and policy advocates to explore the creation of a dedicated research stream as part of the RTP. Their stated goal is “…to continue strengthening the intellectual foundations of the trade-sustainability agenda, while also responding to a rapidly changing trade landscape in ways that are agile, inclusive, and impactful.”

Over twenty-five colleagues joined the day of interactive roundtables, from over 20 global institutions and/or countries, drawing from participants of the RTP’s work to date.

LeClercq received financial support to attend this workshop from the Dean Rusk International Law Center as a Rusk Scholar-in-Residence, an initiative promoting international opportunities for Georgia Law faculty that advance the mission of the Center.

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. 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 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).