International Law Prof Blog

The United States Now Has 200 Law Schools Approved by the ABA

Last week the American Bar Association granted provisional accreditation to two law schools in North Carolina, making them numbers 199 and 200 in the list of law schools that are accredited or provisionally accredited in the United States.  The newest law schools are Charlotte College of Law and Elon University in Greensboro.

Click here for the ABA press release with links to information about the law school approval process.   

Read more here in an article that says that there are too many law schools.

Hat tip to David Austin

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Thank You, Intlawgrrls!

Thank you to the warm welcome from Intlawgrrls, which also picked up our post congratulating the first woman president of the International Law Students Association.  Click here to visit their website and its post congratulating Leila Sadat.

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Canada: Proposed Amendments to the Copyright Act

Here's an update for those of you who teach international intellectual property law, or who include some IP when teaching international business transactions or international trade law.  Canada has proposed some new amendments to its copyright law.  The Canadian law firm Gowlings has a sheet that explains the proposed amendments.  Click here.

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WTO - Schedule of Meetings for 2008

Click here for the calendar of WTO meetings through the rest of 2008. 

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American Immigration Law Foundation Analysis of Today's Supreme Court Decision

We've just received this press release from the American Immigration Law Foundation on today's Supreme Court decision.

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WASHINGTON, DC – Immigrants eligible for “green cards” – lawful immigrant status – will benefit from a decision the U.S. Supreme Court issued today. The Court held that certain people who may be eligible for legal status in the U.S., for example, through a U.S. citizen spouse, can remain in the country to process their applications, rather than leaving the country, which would end their very entitlement to this benefit.

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The Court held that, under some circumstances, people may withdraw their voluntary agreement to leave the U.S. and continue with an application for lawful status. The decision resolved conflicts in the lower courts and a possible conflict between two parts of the immigration law. Under the government’s reading of the law – which had been accepted by some federal courts – intending immigrants who left the U.S. would no longer be eligible for a “green card,” but if they stayed in the U.S. longer than authorized, they also would not be eligible for it. The Court found a way to resolve this “rock and hard place” dilemma, allowing these people to withdraw their agreement to leave and remain in the country to pursue their application for lawful status.

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“The Supreme Court rejected the government’s hard-line approach to immigrants and to lawful immigration options,” said Nadine Wettstein, legal director of the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF), which filed a “Friend of the Court” brief in the case.   “The Court correctly held that immigrants’ rights under the law must be respected,” Wettstein added.

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“This decision should send a message to the government,” added Beth Werlin, AILF’s Litigation Clearinghouse Attorney and co-author of AILF’s Amicus Curiae brief. “The government should have reached this conclusion on its own years ago, rather than fighting through the courts.”

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The decision is Dada v. Mukasey, No. 06-1181, reversing the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.   Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion for a five-justice majority. Justice Scalia filed an opinion for three dissenters. Justice Alito wrote a separate dissent.

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U.S. Supreme Court Immigration Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court today issued an opinion in Dada v. Mukasey, No. 06-1181. 

We will leave a more complex legal analysis of that decision to our friends on the Immigration Prof Blog, but the decision today essentially holds that an alien can withdraw a request for voluntary departure if the departure date has not yet expired.

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ICJ: Mexico Asks for an Interpretation of Avena and Seeks Urgent Provisional Measures

The International Court of Justice has scheduled oral arguments in Mexico's request for an interpretation of the Avena judgment.  Click here for more information.  The public hearings will be held on June 19 and 20, 2008.

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ITLOS - International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea - New Judges Elected

ITLOS, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, announced the election of seven judges who will each serve nine-year terms on the tribunal.  Here is the press release, including contact information for ITLOS.  The ITLOS website also has a useful question and answer page for information about the tribunal.  Click here to see it.

INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE LAW OF THE SEA
TRIBUNAL INTERNATIONAL DU DROIT DE LA MER
Press Release

SEVEN MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE LAW OF THE SEA ELECTED IN NEW YORK


      The eighteenth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in session at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, elected seven members of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on Friday, 13 June 2008 for a term of nine years commencing on 1 October 2008.
    
       Among those seven members, Judge Wolfrum (Germany), Judge Akl (Lebanon), Judge Marotta Rangel (Brazil), Judge Chandrasekhara Rao (India) and Judge Jesus (Cape Verde) were re-elected and Mr Bouguetaia (Algeria) and Mr Golitsyn (Russian Federation) were newly elected by the States Parties.  The biographies of the judges who were re-elected are available on the website of the Tribunal and those of Mr Bouguetaia and Mr Golitsyn may be found in document SPLOS/173 which is available on the website of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the United Nations at www.un.org/Depts/los.
    
      Elections for the judges of the Tribunal are held every three years at the Meeting of States Parties. The judges are elected by the States Parties to the Convention by secret ballot for a term of nine years and may be re-elected. In accordance with article 2 of the Tribunal's Statute, each State Party may nominate up to two candidates from among persons enjoying the highest reputation for fairness and integrity and of recognised competence in the field of the law of the sea.
    
      The Statute also requires that equitable geographical distribution be assured among the Members and that the principal legal systems of the world be represented. It further stipulates that there should be at least three Judges from each geographical group as established by the General Assembly of the United Nations and that no two judges may be of the same nationality. The persons elected shall be those nominees who obtain the largest number of votes and a two-thirds majority of the States Parties present and voting, provided that such majority includes a majority of the States Parties.

The press releases of the Tribunal, documents and other information are available on the Tribunal's websites: www.itlos.org and www.tidm.org and from the Registry of the Tribunal. Please contact Ms Julia Ritter: Am Internationalen Seegerichtshof 1, 22609 Hamburg, (Germany) Telephone: +49 (040) 35607-227, fax: +49 (040) 35607-245/275 e-mail: press @ itlos.org

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ASIL Law in the Pacific Region Interest Group

Elizabeth Chien-Hale announced that Edmund Sim was elected as co-Vice Chair of the Law in the Pacific Region Interest Group of the American Society of International Law.  Jacques deLisle will serve as co-Vice Chair, continuing his term for another year.  The interest group's web page has been updated to reflect the new officers, and it also provides some more information about the interest groups.  Membership in ASIL Interest Groups is now free for members of the American Society of International Law.  Click here. 

Hat tip to Elizabeth Chien-Hale, Chair of the ASIL Law in the Pacific Region Interest Group

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International Education Research Grants

Applications for grants for research on international educational systems are available from the International Educational Reseach Foundation, P.O. Box 3665, Culver City, California 90231.  Click here to visit their website.

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