International and Comparative Law

The Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law’s Impact Litigation Project and its Anti-Torture Initiative have submitted a comment urging the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to withdraw proposed rules on asylum in their entirety. The right to asylum and the right to be free from torture are recognized under domestic law and international law. The regulations proposed by the Departments would eliminate asylum for the vast majority of asylum seekers and make deferral or withholding of removal under the CAT unattainable for the majority of individuals seeking protection. As such, the regulations should be rejected in accordance with the United States’ treaty obligations and its commitment to upholding the dignity and rights of all human beings.

In a conversation with former ASIL President Sean Murphy, Professor Claudio Grossman, recipient of the Goler T. Butcher Medal, discussed the human rights movement within the context of international law. The field of human rights law largely rose from the ashes of World War II, leading to the creation of the United Nations, and various NGO and IGO’s seeking to refocus our attention from a largely state-centric system into one that focused on protecting the individual’s rights. 

The 22nd Annual Grotius Lecture is sponsored by AUWCL and takes place at the start of the American Society of International Law (ASIL)’s Annual Meeting in spring every year. This year's Grotius Lecturer was Professor James Gathii, and the Distinguished Discussant was Professor Fleur Jones. Professor Gathii focused on the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWIL). In his lecture, he set out two challenges for the members of ASIL. His first challenge demanded stronger scrutiny of the places to which scholars look to register significant doctrinal and legal developments in international law. He noted the discipline’s endemic under-attention to institutions and experts located in Africa, and asked to label innovations for which they are responsible. His second challenge takes account of the distinctive place of knowledge production of the third world. The third world approach contests the notion that international law is applied from nowhere, but instead that it is a tool of continued domination from the traditional places of creation of international law.

Professor Paul Williams co-authored The Research Handbook on Post-Conflict State Building, which is set for release on August 28, 2020. The book provides succinct, yet rigorous, treatment of the essential components of state building, complemented with insightful, detailed case studies from authors who worked on the ground as state building processes took place. ICLS interviewed Professor Williams to gain insight on his newest legal publication.

AUWCL Professor Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón started a four-year term as member of the Committee against Torture in January 2018, after being elected in October 2017 by the State Parties in Geneva, Switzerland. Recently, he was appointed Rapporteur (a.i.) of that Committee. The Committee against Torture supervises the States Parties’ compliance with the 1984 United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (“Convention against Torture”).

The Institute of International Law (IIL) created a special commission on Pandemics and International Law composed of 16 prominent international legal experts from all over the world to study the relationship between pandemics and international law. AUWCL’s own Dean Emeritus and Professor Claudio Grossman joined this working group in February 2020, when the group was first formed.