“International Law Weekend” New York City, Oct. 25-27

International Law Weekend 2012 – the premier international law event of the fall season, will be held on October 25-27, 2012, in New York City. The overall theme of ILW 2012 is Ideas, Institutions, and Interests – Dynamics of Change in International Law. International Law Weekend is sponsored and organized by the American Branch of the International Law Association (“ABILA”).

The unifying theme for this year’s meeting is to explore the mechanisms of change in international law. The weekend opens at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, October 25 at the New York City Bar Association at 42 West 44th Street, in mid-town Manhattan with a blazing panel on China — with former U.S. Ambassador to China Winston Lord, NYU Law School human rights expert Jerome Cohen, China environmental expert Liz Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations, legal eagle John Crowley of Davis, Polk and Wardwell, and Professor Ben Liebman of Columbia Law School — followed by a free cocktail reception.

It continues 9 a.m. Friday October 26 at the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham Law School, 140 West 62nd Street — with a Conversation with famed former SDNY U.S. Attorney and Debevoise litigation chief Mary Jo White, who indicted Bin Laden and pursued Siemens for foreign corrupt practices; a Lecture by the chief Yugoslav tribunal war crimes judge Ted Meron; a two-part series on ICSID investment arbitration with ICSID secretary general Meg Kinnear; and a talk by blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng.

Other Friday panels include resource management in non-sovereign areas, comparative corporate governance, international disabilities law, international family law, intellectual property and sustainable development, due process in Security Council sanctions, solitary confinement and whether it is cruel and unusual punishment, sovereign debt claims, climate geoengineering, events in the European Union, the contemporary relevance of the 1982 Manila Declaration on the peaceful settlement of disputes, maritime boundary delimitation, Guantanamo military commissions, and a host of other topics.

The clinch continues on Saturday with discussions of the Alien Tort Statute, the Israeli-Iranian crisis and the nature of anticipatory self-defense, the cholera scandal in Haiti where blame has been cast in the direction of U.N. peacekeepers, the prosecution of sexual violence in international law; intellectual property rights enforcement; international sports law; off-shore tax havens and transfer pricing; the situation in Egypt; Islamic finance; the law of outer space; and a career-path fair.

Free for all students; $70 package deal for practitioners who join the International Law Association and wish to attend the conference; and $50 for members of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

The event is supported by 25 U.S. law schools and graduate law programs, as well as by blue chip law firms, bar associations, and law publishers. Registration is available at www.ila-americanbranch.org