What International Law Values

Well into the second decade of the 21st century, international law continues to expand on numerous fronts. Yet seemingly intractable global problems persist, raising vital questions about the field. We often ask whether international law is achieving its goals. In this Annual Meeting, we seek to consider the normative basis of international law and how those goals are realized in practice.

Does international law reflect the values of the international community? How do these values affect the practice and theory of international law? For that matter, should international law reflect the international community’s values, and what constituencies ought to be considered in determining what those values are? If international law should not reflect values, why not, and what interests are served or harmed by treating this body of law as a value-neutral set of rules? What role should international lawyers play in the shaping of those values and how can the core values of our profession – in all its heterogeneity, contestation, and dynamism – be brought to bear?

Through the panels and events of the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, leading and emerging voices in international legal scholarship, policy, and practice will attempt to answer these urgent questions.

Attendees can expect to participate in:

• Keynote addresses by leading figures in international law
• More than 40 substantive panels on a wide variety of international law topics
• Multiple networking and social events
• Interest Group social events and substantive meetings
• Access to the leading publishers of international law materials
• Optional Continuing Legal Education credits
• Optional luncheons

Session Tracks:

• Territory, the sea, space; the management and regulation of natural resources and energy; climate change and sustainable development
• International dispute settlement in its public, private, and hybrid modalities (including interstate adjudication and arbitration, international investment arbitration, and international commercial arbitration; regional and special courts and tribunals; and other forms of dispute resolution, including conciliation and mediation); the structural, operational, and normative dilemmas of inter-governmental organizations
• Use of force, armed conflict, national security, cybersecurity, cyberwarfare, and military technology
• Human rights, migration, labor, and criminal law
• Interactions among international, regional, and national law in their public and private forms: international law as domestic law, domestic law as international law, transnational law, foreign relations law, international law in domestic and regional courts, private international law and the conflict of laws
• International economic law: trade, investment, sovereign debt, financial regulation, monetary law, international intellectual property, tax, internet governance, and other cross-border economic technologies and their associated governance regimes

2017 Annual Meeting Committee Members list