Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Call for Program Suggestions: 2017 ASIL Annual Meeting

The American Society of International Law has issued a call for program suggestions for its 111th Annual Meeting, which will take place April 12-15, 2017, in Washington, DC. The conference theme is: "What International Law Values." Here's the call:

Program Suggestions Sought – ASIL Annual Meeting 2017

The American Society of International Law will convene its 111th Annual Meeting from April 12 to 15, 2017 in Washington D.C. The ASIL Annual Meeting Committee (chaired by Aloysius Llamzon, Julie Maupin, and Saira Mohamed) invites session proposals reflecting the meeting's theme, "What International Law Values."

Description of conference theme:

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.

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

Instructions for submitting proposals:

To suggest a session to the Committee, please complete the form found below by no later than August 1, 2016.

Proposals should include

  • a proposed title for the session
  • a proposed description of the session, including the proposed format and an explanation of the overall goal of the session

Proposers may also wish to include ideas for speakers to be considered, but speaker proposals are not required.

Selection criteria:

The Program Committee welcomes proposals addressing this year's theme both within and across the many sub-fields of international law. Drawing on session suggestions, the Committee will create a program with the following goals in mind:

- coverage of a breadth of timely topics of interest to ASIL members;
- participation by individuals from a variety of backgrounds; and
- a vibrant exchange of ideas through the use of innovative program formats.

The Committee will prioritize session proposals that involve formats other than traditional panels, such as interviews, question-and-answer roundtables, lectures, debates, poster sessions, or the use of multimedia or interactive audience participation features.

The Committee will also prioritize novel or cutting-edge topics in international law. In addition, the Committee is committed to expanding diversity in the issues and voices represented at the Annual Meeting.

Important note on how the ASIL Annual Meeting program is crafted

The Program Committee appreciates the work required to propose a program session, and it takes seriously the proposers' views on areas of focus and format for the Annual Meeting. Nonetheless, given the number of proposals expected, the inevitable similarities between some proposals, and the goals and themes articulated above, not all session proposals can be accepted into the program as proposed. The Committee reserves the right to accept but significantly modify proposed sessions, which may result in omitting proposed participants (including the proposer), adding new participants, combining multiple proposals, or modifying a session's description, focus, or goals.