Fall 2011 Speaker Series

Professor Adrien K. Wing of the University of Iowa School of Law

The "Arab Fall": The Future of Women’s Rights

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011 - 4PM - Room 1001, Kalmanovitz Appellate Advocacy Moot Courtroom - Davis, CA

Global attention has been focused on the revolutionary changes taking place in the Middle East and North Africa throughout 2011. In this lecture, Professor Adrien K. Wing brings nearly thirty years of experience and expertise in the study of law, politics and the history of the Middle East and North Africa and a critical race feminist perspective to assess the amazing events of what many political scientists, academics and popular commentators have labeled the “Arab Spring” or the “Revolutionary Era.”

Emphasizing that women’s rights must not be forgotten, Professor Wing will begin with an analysis of women’s issues in the region prior to the events that sparked the Revolutionary Era in Tunisia and Egypt in December 2010-January 2011. Following an analysis about what has happened over this past year and what is likely to happen in 2012, the lecture will conclude with some discussion about next steps and the position of women's rights in the Revolutionary Era in selected countries. International human rights, international humanitarian law, constitutional law and family law are among the topics that will also be addressed. 

Professor Wing is the Bessie Dutton Murray Professor of Law at the University of Iowa School of Law and Bette & Wylie Aitken Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Chapman University School of Law. She earned her B.A. at Princeton University, her M.A. at UCLA and her J.D. at Stanford Law School and teaches courses in International Human Rights, Law in the Muslim World, Constitutional Law and Critical Race Theory.

Reception to follow with light refreshments.

This event is co-sponsored by the California International Law Center at King Hall (CILC)

Rebecca Cohen, J.D.

Producer of WAR DON DON, Guest Lecturer at Harvard Law School

Monday, Oct. 24, 2011 - Time and Location TBD

Ms. Cohen is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School. She graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. She received her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where she now teaches. She is the producer of the international human rights film WAR DON DON, and interned as an investigator at the Bronx Defenders doing investigative work at the Special Court for Sierra Leone for Alex Tamba Brima in the AFRC-accused case.

WAR DON DON profiles the trial of a leader of a separate warring faction in Sierra Leone. For her work on WAR DON DON she was awarded the Cinereach Award for excellence in vital, artful storytelling and the Hugo Munsterberg Award for psychology of human nature in cinema. WAR DON DON also won the Special Jury Prize at the SXSW Film Festival and was nominated for two Emmy Awards: Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story (Long Form) and Outstanding Editing. In 2010 Ms. Cohen was profiled in Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces in Independent Film as an "up-and-comer poised to shape the next generation of independent film." JILP may screen her movie sometime this school year, so look out for it!

The Honorable Judge Joan Donoghue presents, "International Law and Today’s Global Challenges: A Briefing from the Hague"

Tuesday, August 30, 4 PM, Room 1001 - Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom - Davis, CA

The Honorable Judge Donoghue will deliver a public lecture in the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom about contemporary challenges for international law. The Honorable Judge Joan Donoghue is the first American woman on the bench of the International Court of Justice and only the third woman elected to the Court.

This event is co-sponsored by the California International Law Center at King Hall (CILC)

Spring 2011 Speaker Series

Dr. Nidal Jurdi, Ph.D. - American University of Beirut

The International Criminal Court, The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), and National Court Systems

April 19, 2011 - 12pm - Room 1001 - Kalmanovitz Appellate Moot Courtroom - Davis, CA

A seasoned expert in International Criminal Law, Post-Conflict Resolution, and International Humanitarian Law in the Middle East and North Africa, and Lecturer in International Law & Organizations at the American University of Beirut, Dr. Jurdi will address how the International Criminal Court (ICC) navigates a delicate relationship with diverse national judicial systems under Articles 17 and 20 of the Rome Statute. In this Spring 2011 Speaker Series Event, Dr. Jurdi will examine some of the modalities and complexities of interaction between international courts and domestic jurisdictions, focusing on the ICC and the Special Tribunal For Lebanon (STL), and presenting material from his recently published book, The International Criminal Court and National Courts: A Contentious Relationship.
Dr. Jurdi arrives at UC Davis Law upon return from a recent visit to Tunisia. Accordingly, Dr. Jurdi hopes to provide his initial take as a scholar on current events and the movement for constitutional reform in Tunisia, as well as a brief Q&A session on key human rights protections available to active participants in emerging popular democratic movements throughout the region.

In August 2005, Dr. Jurdi joined the ICC as a Law Clerk at the Office of the Prosecutor, focusing primarily on Darfur and the Middle East. In September 2006, he worked as a Legal Consultant for a UN International Independent Investigative Commission (UNIIIC) in the Middle East. Dr. Jurdi has frequently been called upon as an expert resource for a number of Human Rights and International Criminal Law trainings in Morocco, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon. Dr. Jurdi has also published a number of works on the ICC, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), and on human rights in Lebanon and the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region.

Since 2007, he has worked as a Human Rights Officer at OHCHR-ROME, and currently serves as a Lecturer in International Law and Organizations at the American University of Beirut.

This event is co-sponsored by the California International Law Center at King Hall (CILC).

Winter 2011 Speaker Series

Judge Fausto Pocar - Italian Jurist; Professor of International Law

March 3, 2011 - 12pm - Room 1001 - Kalmanovitz Appellate Moot Courtroom - Davis, CA

Judge Pocar was an elected member of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations from 1984 to 2000, serving as the Committee's chairman from 1991 to 1992. He served in the Italian delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York and to the Commission of Human Rights in Geneva several times. In 1999, he was appointed as a judge to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and was President of that tribunal from November 2005 to November 2008. He is also a member of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2000.

This event is co-sponsored by the California International Law Center at King Hall (CILC)

Judge Christopher Greenwood - Judge, International Court of Justice; Professor of International Law

March 1, 2011 - 4-6pm - Room 1001 - Kalmanovitz Appellate Moot Courtroom - Davis, CA

Judge Greenwood is currently a judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ). From 1996 until 2009 he was a professor of international law at the prestigious London School of Economics. He has numerous appearances as Counsel before the ICJ, the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Communities, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and various international arbitration tribunals.

This event is co-sponsored by the California International Law Center at King Hall (CILC).