Symposium: The Use and Misuse of History in U.S. Foreign Relations Law

The Saint Louis University Law Journal and the Saint Louis University School of Law Center for International and Comparative Law will host a symposium on The Use and Misuse of History in U.S. Foreign Relations Law, at the Saint Louis University School of Law, March 7, 2008. The program is here. Why attend?

In the past few years, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided several high-profile cases in which litigants have asserted that various sources of domestic and international law constrain the range of policy options available to the government in pursuing U.S. foreign policy objectives. Invariably, the opposing parties submit legal briefs that rely heavily on historical practice and precedent to support their respective positions. This symposium will bring together a group of leading legal historians and foreign relations law scholars to examine the use and misuse of history in framing legal arguments related to the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. The symposium is organized around four main panels. For each panel, a principal author will present his or her paper, and two other scholars will provide commentaries.