The little known efforts of the Representative of the UN Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons are a case study in the effective development and implementation of human rights norms.  For more than a decade, the first representative, Francis Deng, and his successor, Walter Kalin, have worked to improve the status of “internally displaced persons,” or “IDPs”.   Those forced from their homes, but not across international borders, fall outside of international law protecting “refugees”.  But the hardship of the internally displaced is often no less, and with civil war and internal conflict on the rise, their numbers only grow.  Today, approximately 25 million displaced persons worldwide have been forced from their homes and communities because of armed conflict and violence.  Millions more are similarly displaced within the borders of their own countries as a result of human rights violations, natural disasters, and development projects.  Lacking the protection of international and domestic law, many displaced persons are deprived of adequate access to shelter, food, and education.  Others face discrimination, gender-based violence, forced resettlement, and other violations of their fundamental rights.  Deng and Kalin along with Manfred Nowak (Ludwig Bolzman Institute of Human Rights, Vienna) and Robert Goldman (Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, DC) have filled the gap with the “Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.”  The principles provide a normative framework for upholding the basic rights of the internally displaced and have been carefully gleaned from existing international human rights and humanitarian law as is reflected in a new edition of Kalin’s annotations on the principles, published by ASIL in conjunction with the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement.  And as we heard at a recent ASIL Annual Meeting panel, what were once mere “guiding principles” that governments were encouraged to consider are increasingly assuming the character of “hard law.”  (Audio from the session will soon be available at http://www.prolibraries.com/asil/?select=session&sessionID=39.)  In addition, more and more states are developing national laws that implement the principles and guarantee the rights of displaced persons in the process.  While so many other sessions of the ASIL Annual Meeting highlighted the erosion of international principles,this one stood as a welcome success story. 

A faculty member of a leading law school recently told me that more than 50% of the incoming 1Ls today say they want to practice international law.  Whether they see themselves prosecuting cases before an international war crimes tribunal or litigating before the World Trade Organization, advocating the rights of refugees or negotiating international treaties, today’s law students want to play a role in the governance of our globalized world.  Knowing what they want is the easy part.  Charting a career path in this ill-defined field can be daunting.

ASIL receives hundreds of inquiries from students trying to figure it out.  My advice is three-fold: develop language skills; work summers overseas; and network.  This guidance was echoed in a “webinar” we held with practicing international lawyers.  (View it at http://www.asil.org/events/calendarmore.cfm?confid=441&URLmonth=3&URLyear=2008&CatID=0&TheType=&Webinars=.)  Fellowships—like ASIL’s Helton Fellowship—open up valuable overseas summer opportunities that expose students to international practice and build their network of mentors.  International practice is not like the traditional domestic path.  No one sets out the hoops you have to jump through in a clear way.  Finding mentors—among faculty, summer employers, and professional associations like the ASIL—is key to developing a successful international legal career.

See ASIL’s Career Development Resource for announcements of fellowships and job openings, as well as to order Careers in International Law, which contains profiles of international lawyers and a list of fellowship and internship opportunities.  It can be found at http://www.asil.org/careers/careerwebsites.html.  And consider attending our annual meeting, April 9-12, which includes an April 12 Law School Fair, highlighting the international study opportunities available at leading US schools.  For more information on it, visit http://www.asil.org/events/am08/program.html.

ASIL is planning its 102^nd Annual Meeting under a timely theme of “The Politics of International Law.”  The meeting will gather more than 1,000 international lawyers, scholars, jurists, and students in Washington, DC, for four days of discussions, April 9-12, at the Fairmont Washington Hotel.  In more than 30 sessions, participants will discuss the relationship between law and politics, the politics of international organizations, and, of course, how international law is playing out in the current U.S. presidential race. 

Keynotes include an address by Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, Ambassador of Jordan to the United States, and another by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.  In between, participants will wrestle with issues such as “Polar Politics,” “The Politics of Sudan,” and “The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals.”  A highlight promises to be an April 10 panel of foreign policy advisers of the US presidential candidates.  Another will bring together legal advisers from foreign ministries of four nations. 

ASIL's Annual Meeting is open to everyone with an interest in international law.  For a complete program and registration information, visit the meeting site at http://www.asil.org/events/am08/index.html.

In mid-January 1906, a group of international lawyers, including then-Secretary of State Elihu Root, met at the Bar of the City of New York and launched the American Society of International Law.  Today, as the Society celebrates its 102^nd birthday, we have published a new collection of international law-related speeches by U.S. Supreme Court Justices over the course of the past century.  A Decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind . . ., edited by ASIL Member Christopher J. Borgen, a professor at St. John's University Law School, presents eleven speeches by U.S. Supreme Court Justices to the Society’s members.  The speeches stretch from Chief Justice William H. Taft’s 1922 address on the merits of international tribunals for resolving inter-state conflicts to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 2005 speech on the role of foreign and international law in U.S. judicial decision-making.  In between the speeches capture Chief Justice Robert H. Jackson’s reflections on Nuremberg and post-World War II developments in international law and Justice Antonin Scalia’s skepticism of foreign legal sources.  As globalization presents the Court with a growing docket of cases that present foreign or international legal issues, A Decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind . . . provides valuable historical context for the Court’s deliberations and decisions.  For more information about the book, visit http://www.asil.org/resources/books.html or post your questions and comments here.

As the 2008 Presidential primary season gets under way next month, we at the American Society of International Law are paying particularly close attention to what the candidates have to say about international law. 

How would these Presidential Wannabes purport to regulate global climate change? What international trade policies would they pursue? What do they think about the International Criminal Court? How would they apply international law in the context of efforts to combat terrorism? And what would they do to shore up the nuclear non-proliferation regime?

As a non-partisan educational institution, ASIL does not endorse candidates nor advocate specific answers to these questions. But our members and the voting population are curious to learn about the candidates’ views on these important matters.

Last week, ASIL launched a new website (www.asil.org/il08) to get some answers. International Law 2008 will track the candidates’ positions on the above and other international legal issues. It includes relevant comments, speeches, and policy statements for each candidate; responses to an ASIL survey of all of the candidates (to date Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich, and Obama have replied); and statements of ASIL leaders’ views of “the most important international law-related issue facing the next U.S. administration.” 

We hope that the site will be a resource to the candidates and voters alike and that it will serve to strengthen debate about these key international legal issues in the campaign. Let us know what you think!