International Law Prof Blog

FYROM Becomes North Macedonia; Country Can Now Join NATO and the EU

In an emotional and highly-divisive vote, the Greek Parliament voted 153-146 to approve its neighbor's name change from FYROM (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) to North Macedonia. The measure will now allow North Macedonia to join NATO and the European Union.

The Republic of Macedonia had declared independence in 1991 during the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Greece blocked the Republic of Macedonia from joining NATO and the European Union because it objected to the name. Greece feared that the name chosen would eventually lead that country to claim the Greek province of Macedonia as its own.

Many Greeks will still reject the name North Macedonia, as seen by the closeness of the parliamentary vote. But the Greek Parliament's approval of the new name will now clear the way for North Macedonia to join both NATO and the European Union.

(mew)

 

Best Job Posting of the Week

The Wine and Viticulture Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo is seeking a full-time, academic year, tenure track Assistant/Associate/Full professor in Wine Marketing Strategy to start September 12, 2019. Click here for details.

(mew)

American Society of International Law - International Courts and Tribunals Interest Group Works in Progress Conference in Chicago

The International Courts and Tribunals Interest Groups (ICTIG) of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) is holding a program on Friday, January 25, 2019 at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago to present various works in progress. Speakers include:

• Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak – How Environmental Justice Movements Need International Human Rights Frameworks
• Anastacia Greene – The Campaign to Make Ecocide an International Crime
• Christopher Bailey – Piracy Prosecution in Kenyan Courts
• Milena Sterio – The Role of Women at International Criminal Tribunals
• Sara Ochs – In Need of Prosecution: The Role of Personal Jurisdiction at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal
• Nergis Canefe –Through the Looking Glass: Hybrid Courts and International Criminal Law in the Global South
• Ashley Barnes – Compensation in the History of International Courts and Arbitral Tribunals

Hat tip to Stuart Ford, Co-Chair of the American Society of International Law International Courts and Tribunals Interest Group

(mew)

Nominations Open Until February 15 for the 2019 Scribes Book Award

Since 1961, Scribes--The American Society of Legal Writers--has presented an annual award for the best work of legal scholarship published during the previous year. The Scribes Book-Award Committee receives between 30 and 40 nominees each year. The Scribes Book Award is presented at a CLE program held in conjunction with the Scribes' annual meeting, which this year will be held in Washington, D.C. on Friday, April 12, 2019.

International law experts may remember that the 2018 winner of the Scribes Book Award was The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World by Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro. Honorable mentions went to The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein, and to Miles Lord: The Maverick Judge Who Brought Corporate America to Justice by Roberta Walburn.

Nominations for the 2019 Scribes Book Award will be accepted until February 15, 2019. To nominate a book for this year's book award, all a publisher needs to do is send a copy to each of our book award committee members.  For more information, please contact the Executive Director of Scribes, Philip Johnson, at [email protected].

(mew)

AALS Section of International Law

The Association of American Law Schools Section on International Law elected a new slate of officers for the 2019-20 term. These officer will serve until the end of the next AALS Annual Meeting, which will be held from January 2-5, 2020 in Washington, D.C.

• Section Chair: Professor Tom McDonnell (Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University)
• Section Chair-Elect: Professor Mark E. Wojcik (The John Marshall Law School - Chicago)
• Secretary: Dean Hari M. Osofsky (The Pennsylvania State University - Penn State Law)
• Treasurer: Professor Jason Palmer (Stetson University College of Law)
• Immediate Past Chair: Professor Milena Sterio (Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University)

(mew)

Chicago Council on Global Affairs Gets a $5 Million Grant for Its Global Cities Forum

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs announced today it has received a $5 million multi-year commitment from the Pritzker Foundation to support its annual three-day global cities forum. Launched in 2015, the forum convenes civic, business, cultural and academic leaders from around the world to raise provocative questions about the influence of global cities and how they can solve pressing global challenges. The forum, cohosted with the Financial Times, will be named the Pritzker Forum on Global Cities in honor of the commitment made to the Council’s Second Century Campaign. The 2019 Forum will take place June 5-7, 2019.

(mew)

Case Western Names New Directors of Cox International Law Center

Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Law has named a new director and co-director of its Frederick K. Cox International Law Center.

Established in 1991, and funded with a three million dollar endowment, the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center is the hub of CWRU’s international law program.  Michael Scharf has served as the Center’s Director for the past sixteen years.  Since becoming CWRU’s Co-Dean in 2013, Scharf has continued to direct the Center with the assistance of several faculty and staff.  Now CWRU has announced that Steven Petras, a long-time CWRU adjunct professor, has accepted the position of the director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center.

Petras, who retired in December as a partner from BakerHostetler, has served as Chairman of the Board of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs, President of the Greater Cleveland International Lawyers Group, Chair of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s International Law Section, and President of the Cleveland World Trade Association. He is currently Chair of the Board of the Council of the Great Lakes Region and US National Director of the Canada-U.S. Law Institute.  

Joining him will be Professor Juscelino Colares, who has taken on the role of co-director. Dr. Colares (PhD, JD) clerked for the Hon. Jean-Louis Debré, Chief Justice of France’s Constitutional Court (2008-09 term) and practiced at Dewey Ballantine, LLP, Washington, DC, where he litigated trade cases before federal agencies, federal courts and NAFTA panels. Colares served last year as the Chair of the University Faculty Senate. He was recently reappointed by the Office of the United Trade Representative to serve on the United States Roster of NAFTA Chapter 19 (Trade) Panelists.  Colares' research has been published in leading peer-review journals, including the American Law and Economics Review, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Journal of International Economic Law, Journal of World Trade and Jurimetrics.

The Cox Center’s other officers are Professor Richard Gordon, Associate Director of the Cox Center and Director of the Institute for Financial Integrity, Professor Avidan Cover, who serves as director of the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy, Adjunct Professor James Johnson, who serves as director of the Henry King War Crimes Research Office, and Professor Timothy Webster, who serves as director of Asian Legal Studies.  Dean Scharf will remain involved in the activities of the Cox Center, including as co-coach of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court team which has reached the international rounds seven times in the past fourteen years and won the world championship in 2008.  

(mew)

Bar Pass Rates and Other Issues Coming Before the ABA House of Delegates

The American Bar Association House of Delegates meets later this month with a full slate of resolutions, including proposals to change the bar passage rate standard for law graduates and another to oppose arming non-security personnel in the nation’s schools.  

The HOD, as the ABA policy-making body is known, meets Jan. 28 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas at the end of the 2019 ABA Midyear Meeting. Its preliminary agenda has about 30 different resolutions. The HOD consists of 601 delegates from state, local and specialty bar associations and meets twice a year.  

In a significant change, the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is asking the delegates to concur with Resolution 105, which would simplify the bar passage standard for the nation’s 203 ABA-approved law schools. The HOD rejected a similar change in 2017 that would require schools to have a bar-passage rate of at least 75 percent within two years for those who sat for the test. Now, schools can meet the passage standard through a variety of ways.  

A study released by the council found that nearly 9 of 10 law graduates who first sat for the bar in 2015 passed it within two years. Under ABA procedures, the HOD can review a change in ABA legal education standards twice but the council can still enact it without HOD concurrence.  

Resolution 106A would put the ABA on record as opposing laws that authorize teachers, principals or other non-security school personnel to possess a firearm in or nearby a pre-K through grade-12 school. The proposal also urges banning public funds for firearms training for teachers, principals or other non-security personnel or for firearm purchases for those individuals.  

Other resolutions range from ensuring the accuracy of criminal records to rescinding the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policies. They include: 

• • Resolution 107B seeks commitments from legal employers not to require pre-dispute mandatory arbitration of claims of unlawful discrimination, harassment or retaliation based upon race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status or status as a victim of domestic or sexual violence. 
  • Resolution 109A urges the U.S. attorney general to rescind the “Zero Tolerance” and “Operation Streamline” policies that mandate the prosecution of all persons alleged to have improperly entered the United States for the first time, a misdemeanor under 8 U.S.C. 1325; end the practice of expedited mass prosecution of immigrants; and allow for an individualized determination in deciding whether to file criminal charges.
  • Resolution 109B urges federal, state, local, territorial and tribal legislatures to define criminal arrests, charges and dispositions that are eligible for expungement or removal from public view by sealing these records; the proposal also sets out a process for individuals to have their criminal records expunged.
  • Resolution 101B recommends enactment of a rule by the highest courts or legislative bodies of all states, territories and tribes charged with the regulation of the legal profession, as well as by all federal courts, providing for a continuance based on parental leave of either the lead attorney or another integrally involved attorney with certain limitations.
  • Resolution 106B asks federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments to reduce potential harm that individuals may inflict on themselves or others by enacting statutes, rules or regulations allowing individuals to temporarily prevent themselves from purchasing firearms.
  • Resolution 107A urges the federal judiciary, Congress and the Department of Homeland Security to enact legislation and adopt policies to protect the privacy interests of those crossing the border by imposing standards for searches and seizures of electronic devices, protection of attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine and lawyer-client confidentiality.

The full slate of resolutions can be found here. Resolutions do not become ABA policy until approved by the House of Delegates and are subject to change before then. All ABA policies and procedures can be found in the ABA Policies and Procedures Handbook. 

(Adapted from an ABA Press Release)

Reminder: The Journal "Trade, Law, and Development" Seeks Submissions on Trade Facilitation

Trade, Law and Development

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Special Issue on Trade Facilitation

Founded in 2009, the philosophy of Trade, Law and Development has been to generate and sustain a constructive and democratic debate on emergent issues in international economic law and to serve as a forum for the discussion and distribution of ideas. In keeping with these ideals, the Board of Editors is pleased to announce Trade Facilitation as the theme for its next Special Issue (Vol. XI, No. 1).

Trade facilitation is the simplification, modernisation, and harmonisation of international trade procedures. It helps simplify customs procedures by reducing costs and improving their speed and efficiency through a multilateral understanding. The Trade Facilitation Agreement (‘TFA’) entered into force on February 22, 2017 and is one of the first major new agreements reached by the member countries of the WTO since its establishment in 1995. It contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, sets out measures for effective cooperation between customs and other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation, and contains provisions for technical assistance and capacity building in this area.

There is extensive empirical data to suggest that trade facilitation can significantly boost trade. However, several concerns exist regarding the projected benefits of the TFA, its implementation, and its enforcement in an increasingly protectionist trade environment. There is also uncertainty as to how the TFA will bring uniformity and consistency in the border management of developing and least-developed countries and the role of the Committee on Trade Facilitation in this respect. Moreover, most regional and bilateral preferential trade agreements negotiated in the recent past have incorporated varying provisions related to trade facilitation. It is unclear whether the TFA has been successfully able to achieve broad application of these commitments. These subjects have not received sufficient attention from mainstream academia yet. Consequently, existing literature is inadequate to effectively equip policymakers to deal with such issues.

Alongside this, India has been championing trade facilitation in services at the WTO. Trade in services too faces various barriers at and behind the border, which poses difficulties for service providers from developing countries like India in accessing key markets. India’s proposal focussed on making existing market access meaningful through reduction in transaction costs arising from unnecessary regulation. The proposal received a mixed response. Some Members like China even supported the proposed agreement going beyond the scope of domestic regulation under GATS, while others expressed concerns regarding the need for a separate legal text for trade facilitation in services and the nature and scope of the obligations put forth therein.

This Special Issue, currently scheduled for publication in July 2019, will provide an ideal platform to deliberate on trade facilitation initiatives at the WTO and how they relate to more regional initiatives. Accordingly, the Board of Editors is pleased to invite original and unpublished submissions for the Special Issue on Trade Facilitation for publication as ‘Articles’, ‘Notes’, ‘Comments’ and ‘Book Reviews’.

Manuscripts may be submitted via e-mail, ExpressO, or through the TL&D website. For further information about the journal and submission guidelines, please visit www.tradelawdevelopment.com.

In case of any queries, please contact the editors at: editors[at]tradelawdevelopment[dot]com.

LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 15TH FEBRUARY, 2019.

Hat tip to Radhika Parthasarathy, a student at National Law University, Jodhpur, India and Managing Editor, Trade, Law & Development.