News and Events @ American University Washington College of Law October 2009

Distinguished Fellowships Awarded to 17 2009 Graduates

WCL has awarded 17 JD Distinguished Fellowships to 2009 graduates.The Fellows will spend the coming months working for employers ranging from the ACLU to UC Davis to the American Bar Association. The Program was created to help recent graduates successfully navigate a challenging employment environment. MORE

Diane Orentlicher Appointed to State Department Position

Professor Diane F. Orentlicher has been named Deputy, Office of War Crimes Issues for the U.S. Department of State. The Office of War Crimes Issues, led by Ambassador-at-Large Stephen Rapp, advises the Secretary of State directly and formulates U.S. policy responses to atrocities committed in areas of conflict and elsewhere throughout the world. Orentlicher, co-director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at WCL, is a leading authority on war crimes tribunals and has lectured and written extensively on the scope of states' obligations to address mass atrocities and on the law and policy issues relating to international criminal tribunals. MORE

LatCrit XIV Conference Brings International Law Experts to WCL

WCL participated in the 14th Annual LatCrit Conference Oct. 1-4, and hosted the conference activities on Oct. 3. This was the largest LatCrit conference ever staged. There were over 225 speakers in 75 conference sessions from law schools from across the US, including at least 4 deans and many distinguished professors. MORE

 

WCL and Netherlands Embassy Co-host International Human Rights Event

WCL co-hosted an event with the Royal Netherlands Embassy titled "Upholding International Human Rights: Shared History and Shared Challenges for the Netherlands and the United States." The seminar, held Monday, Oct. 5, 2 - 5:30 p.m. at WCL, compared and contrasted the approaches of two progressive democracies to upholding and encouraging international human rights around the world and at home. MORE

WCL Professors Featured Prominently in Media Coverage of 2009-10 Supreme Court Term

As the new Supreme Court term began earlier this month, WCL faculty experts were featured prominently in the media offering insight on the upcoming cases, their larger societal implications, and what to expect from new Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Stephen Wermiel, Law and Government fellow, was quoted in an Associated Press story published by 239 news outlets including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Houston Chronicle, and the Chicago Sun-Times. MORE

Dean Grossman Participates in Pan American Health Organization Meeting in Chile

Dean Claudio Grossman, in his role as chair of the United Nations Committee against Torture, attended a meeting called by the Pan American Health Organization at the CEPAL (Comision Economica para America Latina y el Caribe) headquarters in Santiago, Chile Oct. 5-6. The meeting, attended by representatives from countries throughout the western hemisphere, was called to discuss what can be done to promote and protect the human rights of the elderly in the Americas. He addressed the same issues in a live interview on CNN Chile: VIEW NOW

WCL Holds Second Annual Teaching International Humanitarian Law Workshop

Professors from more than 20 U.S. law schools took part in the Second Annual Teaching International Humanitarian Law workshop at WCL, Oct. 2-3. The workshop, run jointly by the WCL Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the International Committee of the Red Cross, brought together noted faculty and a broad section of law teachers from around the U.S. to train and support a new cadre of teachers of the law of armed conflict. MORE

PIJIP Finnegan Lecture Will Offer Insight on Patent Law Debate

WCL's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) presents the Fifth Annual Finnegan Distinguished Lecture on Intellectual Property on Oct. 20. Rochelle C. Dreyfuss, Pauline Newman Professor of Law at NYU Law will give a lecture titled "What the Federal Circuit Court Can Learn from the Supreme Court – and Vice Versa.” MORE

Center on International Commercial Arbitration Holds Sixth Annual Seminar

This year’s seminar takes place Oct. 13-16 and features a mock case on handling BIT arbitration cases primarily under the auspices of International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Through interactive lectures and scenario-based exercises, participants will have the opportunity to work in small groups in constant debate with international experts and will be taught skills, strategies, and tactics for successfully conducting a BIT arbitration. This year’s participants come from 21 countries and a wide variety of international firms and organizations. MORE

WCL Student Elected as Representative to the Board of Directors of the National LGBT Bar Association

Samuel Pearson-Moore '11, has been elected to the national board of directors of the National LGBT Bar Association as a student representative. He is one of two student representatives nationwide to receive this honor. The LGBT Bar board of directors counts three WCL alumni as members. MORE