April 17, 2008: Latest Center newsletter now available





The Spring 2008 issue of The International Review is now available for viewing and downloading. You may also pick up actual copies on the bulletin boards outside of C-303. The International Review was awarded the 2007 Gold Award for “Best Edited Organization Newsletter” by the publisher of The Newsletter on Newsletters. It is also the only academic newsletter published by an ABA-accredited law school that reports on a wide range of contemporary international and comparative law issues.


April 16, 2008: Lecture by Russia expert

• Title: The European Union and Russia: Strategic Partners or Vexing Neighbors?
• Speaker: George L. Bustin, Senior Counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (New York), and Lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University
• Date: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
• Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
• Location: Wellington Conference Center (5th floor, "C" building)
• CLE and general registration: Click here

In 1997, both the European Union and Russia used the rhetoric of “strategic partnership” in describing their relationship. But the reality in early 2008 is quite different. George Bustin will address several issues between the EU and Russia, including the widening values gap concerning democracy, state control over energy resources, and internal legal conflicts. Mr. Bustin will also speak about his own experience in advising the Russian Ministry of Finance on its sovereign debt restructuring within the Paris Club and insights gained from that time.


April 8, 2008: Lecture by counterterrorism expert

• Title: Self-Defense from the Wild West to 9/11
• Speaker: Amos Guiora, Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah; and formerly of the Israel Defense Forces Judge Advocate General's Corps (Lt. Col. Ret.)
• Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2008
• Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
• Location: Wellington Conference Center (5th floor, "C" building)
• CLE and general registration: Click here

Professor Amos Guiora will examine the concept of state self-defense and describe the inconsistency between modern-day armed conflict (where states fight against non-state actors such as terrorists) and existing international law, which largely views conflicts among nations only. He will also examine the development of a new state self-defense standard by using the American Wild West as a historical analogy.


February 20, 2008: Lecture by speaker from Human Rights Watch

• Title: Smart Power and Human Rights: Reestablishing U.S. Human Rights Leadership
• Speaker: Suzanne Nossel, Chief of Operations, Human Rights Watch
• Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2008
• Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
• Location: Wellington Conference Center (5th floor, "C" building)
• CLE and general registration: Click here

Suzanne Nossel will address the imperative of restoring the U.S.'s leadership in the arena of human rights and the promotion of democracy, address the hurdles and challenges to doing so, and propose strategies and approaches to guide the way.


November 7, 2007: Lecture on U.S. Supreme Court and the United Nations

• Title: New York v. the United Nations: The Implications of Unpaid Property Taxes
• Speaker: John J.P. Howley '89, Partner, Kaye Scholer LLP
• Date: Wednesday, November 7, 2007
• Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
• Location: Wellington Conference Center (5th floor, "C" building)
• CLE and general registration: Click here

In June 2007, the United States Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, decided that federal courts had jurisdiction to hear lawsuits against UN missions concerning unpaid property taxes. John Howley —who represented the Permanent Missions of India and Mongolia before the Supreme Court and is a partner at Kaye Scholer LLP—will analyze the court’s majority and dissenting opinions, and discuss these and other questions.


October 16, 2007: Lecture by prominent international arbitrator

• Title: Jurisdiction to Decide Jurisdiction in Commercial Arbitration
• Speaker: William W. Park, Professor of Law and R. Gordon Butler Scholar in International Law, Boston University School of Law
• Date: Tuesday, October 16, 2007
• Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
• Location: Wellington Conference Center (5th floor, "C" building)
• RSVPs: None. The entire NYLS community is welcomed to attend.

Professor William Park will address both the timing and the binding character of jurisdictional rulings that affect the very legitimacy of private dispute resolution. Taking a comparative approach that draws on several legal systems, the lecture will suggest a paradigm attempting to balance arbitral efficiency against the needs of procedural integrity.