International Law Weekend West 2003 Set for February 7 & 8 at Loyola Law School Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — International Law Weekend West 2003, a biennial conference convened by the American Branch of the International Law Association, is being held on the Loyola Law School campus near downtown Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday, February 7 & 8, 2003. The conference is free and open to the public. It will be held from Noon to 8 p.m. on Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. on Saturday.

On Friday evening, the keynote address will be given by David J. Scheffer, Senior Vice President of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, and former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes in the Clinton Administration. Ambassador Scheffer will speak on "The United States and the Future of International Law." The charge for the Keynote dinner is $30.

The two-day conference brings together an estimated 200 legal practitioners and academics to discuss cutting-edge issues in international law. Panels are to address a wide-range of subjects, including terrorism, U.S. unilateralism, restrictions on the use of force, intellectual property, NAFTA and property regulation, human rights litigation, international entertainment law, and environmental development. Selected papers will be published in a forthcoming issue of The Loyola of Los Angeles International & Comparative Law Review.

The conference’s many co-sponsors attest to its broad appeal among international lawyers and scholars. Co-sponsors include: the American Society of International Law; California Western School of Law; the International Law Section of the State Bar of California; the International Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association; Morrison & Foerster; Munger, Tolles & Olson; HirsonWexlerPerl — Immigration Attorneys; GVS Global Visa Solutions, LLC; and the International Criminal Court Alliance, Inc.

The co-chairs for International Law Weekend West 2003 are Professor Laurence Helfer of Loyola Law School and Professor William Aceves of California Western School of Law.

"The conference provides a unique opportunity for attorneys and scholars to debate today’s most pressing international legal problems," state the conference co-chairs. "There is simply no other conference like it in the Western United States." The Schedule

At noon on Friday, Feb. 7, the plenary panel addressing the topic of "9/11 and its Aftermath" will be comprised of William Aceves of California Western School of Law (moderator), James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, John S. Gordon of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges (invited), and Jordan Paust of the University of Houston Law Center.

Several panels follow in the afternoon on Friday:

Panelists for "Positivism versus Natural Law – The Jurisprudence of International Law," will be comprised of Charles Siegal of Munger Tolles & Olson (moderator), Mariano-Florentino Cuellar of Stanford Law School, Brad Roth of Wayne State University Law School, and Al Rubin of Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Panelists for "Perspectives on U.S. Unilateralism" include Greg Fox of Chapman University School of Law (moderator), Diane Amann of UC Davis School of Law, Paul Dubinsky of New York Law School, and Judy Wilkenfeld of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

Panelists for "Unlawful Combatants?" will be Beth Van Schaack of Santa Clara University School of Law (moderator); Nathaniel Berman of University of Brooklyn School of Law (visiting Stanford Law School), George Harris of Morrison & Foerster, LLP, and Tobias Wolff of UC Davis School of Law.

And, panelists for "International Copyright and Entertainment Law" will be Laurence Helfer of Loyola Law School (moderator), Schuyler M. Moore of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, Shira Perlmutter of AOL Time Warner, and Peter Yu of Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School.

Additional panels will be held all day on Saturday:

Panels begin the morning with "Legality of the Use of Force." The panelists will be Beth Van Schaack of Santa Clara University School of Law (moderator), Brad Roth of Wayne State University Law School, Jaume Saura of University of Barcelona (visiting Loyola Law School), and Edwin Smith of USC Law Center.

Panelists for "Structuring Cross-Border Transfers of Intellectual Property" will be Alan Kindred of Buchalter Nemer Fields & Younger (moderator), Michael J.A. Karlin of Karlin & Co., and Minda Schechter of Hogan & Hartson, LLP.

Panelists for "Death Penalty Litigation and the Use of International Law to Interpret the Constitution" will be Roger Alford of Pepperdine Law School (moderator), Kurt Lash of Loyola Law School, Michael Ramsey, University of San Diego School of Law, and Richard Wilson of the American University, Washington College of Law.

Panelists for "Extraterritoriality and the Criminal Law: Terrorism and Other Contemporary Challenges" will be David Stewart of the U.S. Department of State (moderator), Sara Criscitelli of the U.S. Department of Justice, Harold Maier of Vanderbilt University Law School, and John Murphy of Villanova University School of Law.

A luncheon discussion on ABILA activities will be given by James Nafziger of Willamette University College of Law.

The conference continues into Saturday afternoon, with "Immigration Law: Planning Global Employment Assignments after 9/11." The panelists will be David Hirson of Hirson, Wexler, Perl (moderator), Wade Arai of Deloitte & Touche, Andrea Elliott of Global Visa Solutions, and Catherine Haight of the Law Offices of Catherine Haight.

Panelists for "Sustainable Development After Earth Summit 2002" will be Hari Osofsky, adjunct Loyola Law School (moderator), Gunther Handl of Tulane Law School, Donna Weiss of Midstream Partners, LLC, and Tseming Yang of Vermont Law School.

Panelists for "Current Developments in Alien Tort Claims Act Litigation" will be Beth Van Schaack of Santa Clara University School of Law (moderator), Sandra Coliver of the Center for Justice & Accountability, Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman, LLP, David Stewart of the U.S. Department of State, and Edwin Woodsome of Howrey Simon Arnold & White.

And lastly, the panelists for "NAFTA and the Takings Clause," will be Roger Alford of Pepperdine Law School (moderator), Jack Coe of Pepperdine Law School, John Eastman of Chapman University School of Law, and John D. Echeverria, Georgetown Environmental Law & Policy Institute.

International Law Weekend West 2003 is free and open to the public. The charge for the keynote dinner is $30. And attorneys seeking 8 hours of MCLE credit will be charged $200 (or $100, if employer is a nonprofit, public interest organization). To register or obtain more information, please visit the Loyola Law School web site at http://events.lls.edu/intl/. Or please call Bridget Klink at (213) 736-1407 to register or for further information.