The University of Pittsburgh School of Law Center for International Legal Education (CILE) and The Law and Humanities Institute (LHI) are proud to co-sponsor, "Sovereignty, Humanity, and Law," Thursday, April 8 and Friday, April 9, 2021.
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This program has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board for five (5) hours of substantive and one (1) hour of ethics credit. The ethics credit has been approved for the keynote address. There is a $100 fee to cover all CLE credit for the event.
Conference Co-Sponsors:
Center for International Legal Education (CILE), University of Pittsburgh School of Law
The Center for International Legal Education (CILE) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law exists to advance legal education and the rule of law, both at the School of Law and throughout the world. CILE programs are designed to benefit Pitt Law JD students, foreign students enrolled in LLM and SJD programs, and external constituencies. These programs benefit students by responding to personal academic and career goals and providing opportunities that help each student achieve their goals. CILE offers students exposure to the world of international and comparative law in settings that help develop the necessary competence to become a global lawyer. CILE brings students to the School of Law from around the world to educate them in comparative legal systems, develop relationships, and create diversity in understanding the rule of law. CILE reaches out to countries in transition, providing training and a focus on legal education as core to a functioning legal system that is necessary to the rule of law and trains those who will educate future generations of lawyers in those transition countries. Without lawyers, there cannot be rule of law, and without good legal education, there cannot be the type of lawyers who will help establish and sustain the rule of law.
Law and Humanities Institute (LHI)
The Law & Humanities Institute (LHI) is a not-for-profit organization in its fifth decade of encouraging work inter-weaving law with the humanities. LHI supports amicus briefs where literary expression is being censored, endeavors to make the law clearer as it interacts with ordinary people, assists with new readings of canonic and lesser-known stories, and cosponsors events such as this one on "Sovereignty" so that in recent years it has contributed to presenting such disparate themes as the "Blood Libel," the "Rosenberg Spy Trials," "How we Value Lives," "Shylock vs Antonio on Appeal [a mock trial with scenes presented from THE MERCHANT OF VENICE]," and "The Abolition of War."
Conference Theme
While the conference will focus generally on the concept of sovereignty, the more specific focus will be on how the concept of sovereignty affects the law and, in particular, the way in which the law does or does not facilitate the development of human rights in the relationship between the sovereign and the citizen. Panels will reflect both a legal focus as well as a focus on law and literature.
Thursday, April 8, 2021
2-2:10 p.m. Welcome, Pitt Law Dean Amy Wildermuth
Ronald Brand, CILE
Richard Weisberg, LHI
2:15-3:45 p.m.
Panel 1: Current Litigation of Sovereign Responsibility
This panel will discuss recent legal developments in the law of U.S. foreign sovereign immunity. A divergence of views has led to an inter-circuit conflict in which the Supreme Court is poised to resolve this term on issues of the exhaustion of local remedies, the role of international human rights and international comity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. This panel will examine these issues and consider potential paths forward as the law develops.
Moderator
Elena Baylis, Professor of Law, Pitt Law
Panelists
A Critique of the Genocide Exception to Sovereign Immunity
Vivian Curran, Distinguished Professor of Law, Pitt Law
The Perverse Reappearance of the Executive Branch in FSIA Disputes
Richard Weisberg, Visiting Professor of Law, Pitt Law; Walter Floersheimer Professor of Constitutional Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
Exhaustion of Remedies Under the FSIA
Yanis Klumpp
Comments
Todd Grabarsky, Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice
3:45-4 p.m.: Break
4-5 p.m.: Keynote Address
Holocaust Justice and Sovereignty
Stuart E. Eizenstat, Senior Counsel, Covington & Burling
Friday, April 9, 2021
2-3:30 p.m.
Panel 2: The Sovereign and the Individual in the Law
This panel will address the concept of sovereignty and individual rights from multiple perspectives, especially considering private parties engaged in economic relationships with governments. Attention will be given to the role of the sovereign in the twenty-first century. The question of sovereignty in the relationship between the state and private parties in dispute resolution often is segmented, with a focus on either human rights litigation or economic rights litigation. The panel will cross these lines, considering the importance of decisions and developments in international economic law (e.g., bilateral investment treaties, international trade agreements, etc.) as well as decisions and developments in international human rights law.
Moderator
Haider Ala Hamoudi, Vice Dean and Professor of Law, Pitt Law
Panelists
Sovereignty, Agency, and the Division of Powers Historical Models
Paul Guyer, Professor of Philosophy, Brown University
Private Rights and Sovereign Obligations under International Law
Charles Kotuby, Partner, Jones Day, Washington, D.C.
The Role of Sovereignty in International Law
Ronald A. Brand, Professor of Law, Pitt Law
Comments
Jules Lobel, Professor of Law, Pitt Law
3:30-3:45 p.m. Break
3:45-5:15 p.m.
Panel 3: The Sovereign in Literature and History
This panel approaches the concept of sovereignty from a literary perspective, ranging from Nietzsche's genealogical approach to Shakespeare's representations and those of other imaginative writers.
Moderator
Bernard Hibbitts, Professor of Law, Pitt Law
Panelists
Pardoning After Trump
Bernadette Meyler, Carl and Sheila Spaeth Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
Angels and Diplomats: Sovereignty, Dignity, and the Human
Christopher Warren, Associate Professor of English with a Courtesy Appointment in History, Carnegie Mellon University
Nietzsche's Sovereign Individual and the Sin of Sodom
Michael Pantazakos, Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing, Cardozo Law School
Comments
Shaina Trapedo, Lecturer in English, Yeshiva University
5:15-5:30 Closing Remarks