Human Trafficking: Criminal and Civil Approached to Forced Labor, Peonage, and Involuntary Servitude
March 13, 2018
Keynote address to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Vanderbilt Holocaust Lecture Series
Saul Friedlander is a Pulitzer Prize-Winning Israeli/American historian and currently professor emeritus of history at UCLA. Professor Friedlander, a historian and a memoir writer, will explore how these disparate genres intersect and, more importantly, where these disciplines of knowing can lead us to a faithful and enduring memory of the Holocaust in the twenty-first century and beyond.
September 26, 2017
The Fight for Kurdish Independence
Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, who is the Kurdistan Regional Government Representative to the U.S., discussed the Kurdish Independence Referendum at Vanderbilt Law School Sept. 27, just two days after the referendum passed with 92 percent of the vote on Sept. 25
(comments begin at 7:40)
“Making International Refugee Law Relevant Again: How to Move Beyond Crisis Thinking,” a talk by James C. Hathaway of Michigan Law School
October 2, 2017
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Renaissance Room
Reflections on U.S. National and Homeland Security with Jeh Johnson, former Secretary of Homeland Security
October 6, 2017
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Langford Auditorium
Making Trade Policy
Join the Federalist Society, International Law Society, and the International Legal Studies Program as we host a conversation between Clete Willems, former chief counsel in the Office of the United States Trade Representative, and Professor Tim Meyer about the process of creating trade policy. Mr. Willems will discuss his experience representing the United States at the World Trade Organization and contemporary issues in international trade law.
October 20, 2017
12:00 p.m.
Moore Room
A lecture by Oona Hathaway of Yale Law School on her new book, The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World
January 25, 2018
4:00 p.m.
Covington Room
Co-authored by Scott J. Shapiro, The Internationalists tells the story of the Peace Pact by placing it in the long history of international law from the seventeenth century through the present, tracing this rich history through a fascinating and diverse array of lawyers, politicians and intellectuals—Hugo Grotius, Nishi Amane, Salmon Levinson, James Shotwell, Sumner Welles, Carl Schmitt, Hersch Lauterpacht, and Sayyid Qutb. It tells of a centuries-long struggle of ideas over the role of war in a just world order. It details the brutal world of conflict the Peace Pact helped extinguish, and the subsequent era where tariffs and sanctions take the place of tanks and gunships.
Faculty Works-in-Progress Roundtable
January 26, 2018
8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Bass Berry Sims Room
Genocide Prevention Response Simulation
January 27, 2018, 5:00-9:00 p.m.
January 28, 2018, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Participants in this interactive experience will meet in one of six groups, which will in turn assemble in plenary sessions designed to develop appropriate responses to an impending mass atrocity. The scenario is quite realistic and exposes groups to detailed information relevant to an evolving potential mass atrocity situation in Zimbabwe. Groups will debate available options for dealing with a set of real world challenges based on shifting and often incomplete information. Participants will be exposed to the difficulties of making judgements about impending genocides and a structured decision-making process for generating better policy and legal judgments.
Social Justice, Gender and Legal Change in Asylum Law, a Lecture by Professor Debbie Anker, Harvard Law School
February 12, 2018
12:10-1:00 p.m.
Flynn Auditorium
Faculty Lunch Workshop: Andrew Woods, University of Kentucky College of Law
February 14, 2018
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Alexander Room
2017 Jonathan I. Charney Lecture "Global Challenges to Human Rights," a conversation with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein
April 5, 2017
12:00 p.m.
Flynn Auditorium
From Incentive to Commodity to Asset: How International Law is Reconceptualizing Intellectual Property
A talk with Susy Frankel, Chair in Intellectual Property and International Trade, Victoria University of Wellington School of Law
April 3, 2017
12:00 p.m.
Flynn Auditorium
"The Fight Against ISIS and the Refugee Crisis in Syria," a talk by Major General Tom Ayres
March 22, 2017
3:30 p.m.
Renaissance room
Peace v. Constitution in Colombia: Remarks on the Accords between the Government and FARC
March 15, 2017
12:10-1:00 p.m.
Renaissance Room
The First 50 Days of the Trump Administration: Foreign Policy and International Law
March 20, 2017
3:30-5:00 p.m.
Flynn Auditorium
The Executive Order on Immigration: Legal and Policy Issues
Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017
Renaissance Room
12:10-1:00 p.m.
The International Legal Studies Program hosted a panel discussion examining the executive order that President Trump signed on Friday, January 27th.
Panel Participants Included:
Karla McKanders, Associate Professor of Law, University of Tennessee College of Law
Spring Miller, Assistant Dean for Public Interest and Lecturer in Law, Vanderbilt Law School
Michael Newton, Professor of the Practice, Vanderbilt Law School
Moderator: Ingrid Wuerth, Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law and Director, International Legal Studies Program, Vanderbilt Law School
"A Conversation on Guantanamo -- Law, Psychology, and Ethics of Torture"
Retired Marine Corps Judge Advocate Colonel Bill Lietzau (left) and retired Brigadier General Stephen Xenakis (right), pictured here with Professor Mike Newton, participated in "A Conversation on Guantanamo: Law, Psychology and Ethics of Torture" at VLS Feb. 25.
Law & War: International Humanitarian Law Workshop and Lecture
January 23-24, 2015
Co-sponsored by the International Legal Studies Program and the American Red Cross
C-SPAN Book TV: 2014 Southern Festival of Books: Panel on Modern Conflicts (video) - November 6, 2014 - C-SPAN Book TV aired a panel with authors Lien-Hang Nguyen, Michael Newton, and Ganesh Sitaraman who appeared at the 2014 Southern Festival of Books to talk about modern conflicts from the Vietnam War to the war on terror.
2014-15 Jonathan I. Charney Lecture featuring Sir Michael Wood
, member of the UN International Law Commission and former principal legal adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom
- November 4, 2014
"What the Romans did for us – the Vindolanda tablets as legal documents," a faculty workshop by Paul du Plessis, University of Edinburgh - September 2, 2014 -
"Law, Politics, and the South China Sea," featuring
Cliff M. Johnson
, Assistant Legal Adviser for Oceans, International Environmental, and Scientific Affairs, State Department, and
Julian Ku
, Maurice A. Dean Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law, Hofstra University's Maurice A. Dean School of Law
Co-sponsored by the ILSP, ILS, and APALSA. - August 28, 2014 -
A Celebration of Michael Newton and Larry May's Proportionality in International Law
February 19, 2014 3:30 p.m.
"A True Vision: Perspectives on the Marrakesh Treaty for Persons with Vision Disabilities," a Hyatt Fund Event co-sponsored by the Disability Law Society, the International Law Society, and the Vanderbilt Intellectual Property Association - January 30, 2014 4:00 p.m.
"Questioning the Future of International Investment Arbitration," a talk by Eric Blinderman - January 22, 2014 12:00 p.m.
"The Challenge of Preventing Mass Genocides and Mass Atrocities," with James Finkel, former Special Assistant to the Director of National Intelligence - October 22, 2013
Women in International Law, featuring Christie Edwards, Director of International Humanitarian Law, American Red Cross - November 12, 2013
Michael Waibel, Professor of Law at Cambridge University, to teach a short course, International Trade - March 22, 2013
"International Corporate Governance and Public International Law" - A conference organized in cooperation with Vanderbilt Law School, İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law and Tilburg University, March 7-8, 2013 - Paper Presenters: Randall Thomas, Amanda Rose, Yesha Yadav, John Haley, Ron Masulis, Ingrid Wuerth
"The Challenge of Preventing Mass Genocides and Mass Atrocities," with James Finkel, former Special Assistant to the Director of National Intelligence - October 22, 2013 Sponsored by the International Law Society, the International Legal Studies Program, OUTlaw, and Law Students for Social Justice.
Brigadier General Mark Martins discusses the Military Commissions Act of 2009 - March 12, 2013 Sponsored by the International Legal Studies Program and the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.
International Corporate Governance and Public International Law - March 7-8, 2013. A conference organized in cooperation with Vanderbilt Law School, İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law and Tilburg University
"The Role of Non-State Actors in International Law," the Journal of Transactional Law's biennial symposium on February 8, 2013, featured a keynote conversation with Ian Smillie, chairman of the Diamond Development Initiative, and three panel discussions.
August 24, 2012 "Reflections from the International Criminal Court Prosecutor," - The 2012-13 Jonathan I. Charney Distinguished Lecture in Public International Law by Fatou B. Bensouda Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) formerly Deputy Prosecutor of the Prosecution Division of the Prosecutor and legal adviser and trial attorney at the International Criminal Tirbunal for Rawanda (ICTR).
Fatou Bensouda of The Gambia is Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, having assumed her duties on June 16, 2012. She previously served as Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecution Division of the Office of the Prosecutor since 2004. Mrs. Bensouda served as Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), eventually becoming Senior Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal Advisory Unit. Read more...
February 7, 2012 "Origin of the War Crimes Tribunal," - a lecture by David Scheffer, director, Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University. A Hyatt Event sponsored by the Vanderbilt International Law Society
October 20, 2011 "Will there ever be pease in the Middle East?" Elliott Abrams, Sr.
Counselor for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, Bennett-Miller Room.
View a slideshow from the event.
Criminal Justice Roundtable on Responses to 9-11, September 23-24, 2011 Co-sponsored with the Criminal Justice Program
Participants in this roundtable included: Diane Marie Amann (Georgia Law School); Norman Abrams (UCLA School of Law); Robert Chesney (University of Texas School of Law); Monica Hakimi (University of Michigan Law School); Peter Marguilies (Roger Williams University School of Law); Deborah Pearlstein (Princeton University); Harvey Rishikof (National War College); Stephen Vladeck (American University College of Law); Matthew Waxman (Columbia Law School); Benjamin Wittes (Brookings Institution), and members of Vanderbilt's criminal justice and international law faculty.
September 1, 2011 "Terrorist Trials in Dutch Courts: A Comparative Conversation" - A talk by Alexander van Dam, Senior Public Prosecutor, The Hague, Team Leader Prosecution Team. Co-sponsored by the International law Society.
April 8, 2011 Spring 2011 International Legal studies Roundtable - "International Organizations in Transition"
Harold Hongju Koh
, Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State, delivered Vanderbilt Law School's 2011 Charles N. Burch Lecture, “Foreign Official Immunity after Samantar: A U.S. Government Perspective,” in Flynn Auditorium February 4. As the keynote address of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law symposium addressing “Foreign State Immunity at Home and Abroad,” Koh's lecture offered an illuminating policy perspective on the impact of an important 2010 Supreme Court decision, Samantar v. Yousuf, addressing the limits of diplomatic immunity.
February 4, 2011 - "Foreign Sovereign Immunity at Home and Abroad" - conference
February 3, 2011 "Three Images of the Arctic and the Legal and Political Trends They Suggest" - 2011 Jonathan I. Charney lecture by David Caron, President, American Society of International Law.
November 29, 2010 "Cracks in the Intellectual Architecture: Individual and Group Religious Freedom Rights in the European Court of Human Rights"
November 15-16, 2010 "International Action to Prevent Genocide and Mass Atrocities." Working Group meeting, M�morial de la Shoah, Paris, France
October 22, 2010 "Human Rights Challenges in Trying Grave International Crimes" - A talk by Howard Morrison, Judge on the International Criminal Trial for the Former Yugoslavia.
September 14, 2010 “Guantanamo Bay: Discussion of Current Issues and the Way Forward,” co-sponsored with Criminal Justice Program. The detention center at Guantanamo Bay has spurred a tremendous amount of litigation, with a number of cases ending up in the United States Supreme Court. This panel examined the relevance of international law and treaties to American jurisprudence, the scope of preventive detention, the rights of enemy combatants, the habeas jurisdiction of the federal courts, and other topics.
Conversation with General David Petraeus, Commander, U.S. Central Command - March 8, 2010 - Professor Michael Newton led a discussion with General Petraeus, Commanding General of the United States Central Command, based on questions submitted in advance by students. General Petraeus is the four-star officer responsible for the conflicts in Iraq and the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater of operations as well as other smaller military efforts across the region. Sponsored by the International Legal Studies Program, the event is expected to be nationally televised.
Stephen Hadley, director of the National Security Council under former President George W. Bush, visited Vanderbilt Law School to deliver a talk open to to all law students and faculty. He also was a guest lecturer in Professor Ingrid Wuerth's Foreign Affairs class. January 20, 2009.
"Instability Indicators and Genocide Prevention" 2010 Genocide Prevention Conference. Co-sponsored by the National Intelligence Council; the Directorate of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency; Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State; and Vanderbilt University Law School in cooperation with Global Futures Forum.
"Mounting Tensions and Melting Ice: Exploring the Legal and Policy Future of the Arctic," symposium sponsored by the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law - February 6, 2009