How Legal Norms Factor into Israeli-Palestinian Debate
American Society of International Law - The Ritz-Carlton
The Role of Legal Norms in Mediation and Negotiation: Views from the FieldHow - and how well - does international law function in the context of efforts to negotiate or mediate solutions to disputes between states? Drawing on their rich and varied experiences as high level officials and lawyers in international diplomacy, participants in this roundtable will discuss how international law is used (and perhaps abused) when governments undertake to resolve their differences outside of court, offering an applied perspective on the relationship between international law and international relations.Moderator:NICOLAS MICHELGeneva University Law Faculty and the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development StudiesSpeakers:JOHN CROOKGeorge Washington University Law School; former commissioner, Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims CommissionJOEL HERNANDEZ GARCIALegal Adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of MexicoLORD PETER GOLDSMITHDebevoise & Plimpton LLP, former Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern IrelandJENNIFER LAKEIndependent DiplomatInternational law, and the world in which it operates, are increasingly both harmonious and dissonant. The Society’s Annual Meeting in 2011 will focus on the evolution of international law in the context of this paradox.The paradox of simultaneous segmentation and seamlessness raises important questions. Most broadly, when should international law be segmented, and when should it be seamless? What are the mechanisms for deciding this question, and what are the values that inform those decisions? What do these trends say about international law as a coherent system? To what extent are certain groups and their viewpoints excluded or ignored? What does this say about who the influential players within the international legal system are, and how that influence is exercised? What does the existence of competing conceptions of international law itself mean for ASIL's constituents, including judges deciding international issues, practitioners seeking to persuade courts and craft international policy, and scholars seeking to understand and propose solutions to global problems?Society members are uniquely positioned to tackle these questions with their diverse perspectives, experiences, and areas of expertise, and their unifying commitment to investigating the limits and possibilities of international law. We look forward to an exciting and dynamic meeting that will examine such trends, and their implications for international law and legal institutions in the 21st century.