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Conferences and Symposia

The Dean Rusk Center plays an active role in the international arena by hosting conferences, colloquia and lectures that bring scholars, practitioners, government officials, business leaders, students and alumni together to discuss relevant international law and policy issues. Rusk Center conferences and lectures seek to increase the understanding of international law and policy decisions, as well as contribute to the solution of challenges of global significance.

Our goal is to provide a forum for true legal and policy debate. In addition to promoting the academic value of these programs we also remain concerned with exposing how the legal and policy issues at hand actually play out in a practical sense, and seek to gain insight from participants who are directly affected by changes in these laws and policies. Through the publication of our conferences and lectures we extend these insights to the legal community at large.

Upcoming Conferences:

On February 5th, 2013 the Dean Rusk Center and the Georgia Journal for International and Comparative Law will host a daylong conference on “International Law in a Time of Scarcity.” The scarcity of resources, whether food, water, fuel sources, or clean air, may be a defining reality for global policy in the years to come. By bringing together leading policy makers and legal scholars, conference organizers intend for the forum to serve as a foundation for future scholarship on the role of international law in scarcity issues. The keynote speaker will be Ertharin Cousin, United Nations World Food Programme executive director and 1982 Georgia Law alumna. Among the issues to be addressed are: how best to conceptualize scarcity, the regulation of scarcity and its potential impacts, and how to work forward in addressing the problem from the current available solutions. To register, visit:

http://www.law.uga.edu/gjicl-annual-conference-registration

On March 22nd, 2013 the Dean Rusk Center will bring together a variety of viewpoints on the Cuban Embargo for a valuable discussion on the effectiveness and consequences of economic sanctions, as well as the potential outlook for trade with the United States in a post-embargo era. The daylong conference entitled “The Cuban Embargo: Policy Outlook after Fifty Years” will take place in the Larry Walker Room of Rusk Hall at the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens, Georgia from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  Panelists will include Cuban and American scholars, legal practitioners, and trade specialists. The first panel will lay the groundwork for the conference by discussing the economic effects of the embargo over the past 50 years, the effect of the embargo on political and economic reforms in Cuba and the possibility for changes in Cuba with or without economic sanctions. There will be a discussion in the second panel on executive actions that might be taken to ease sanctions short of legislation and the legal issues related to lifting the embargo through legislation. The final panel will explore the potential impact of lifting the embargo on trade and investment opportunities and on the U.S.-Cuban economic relationship. This conference is co-sponsored by the Dean Rusk Center and the Hispanic Law Students Association.

Midyear Meeting and Annual Research Forum of the American Society for International Law (ASIL): Oct. 19-21, 2012

This October Georgia Law and its Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy hosted the Midyear Meeting and Annual Research Forum of the American Society for International Law (ASIL). The meeting kicked off on Friday, October 19 with programs at Coca Cola’s headquarters in downtown Atlanta, including a career and mentoring program geared to students and new professionals, a panel discussion on international arbitration, and an early evening reception. Saturday and Sunday events took place on the campus of the University of Georgia School of Law, an ASIL academic partner institution. In addition to a wide variety of research forum workshops, the conference featured a keynote address by Patricia O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Legal Counsel and the inaugural meeting of ASIL-Southeast. Additionally the event included dinner tributes to departed Georgia Law faculty members, Dean Rusk and Louis B. Sohn.

 

Back to the Future: Global Perspectives on the Future of IP Law in the Next Decade: March 2, 2012

This daylong event took place in Dean Rusk Hall on North Campus and explored copyright law, trademark law and patent law, focusing on the perspectives of the European Union and the United States. Panelists included experts from multiple U.S. intellectual property law areas as well as experts on EU design-protection law who discussed the current issues facing intellectual property law and projected its evolution throughout the next decade. This event was sponsored by the law school's Journal of Intellectual Property Law and the Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy.

 

Striking the Right Balance: Energy Security in International Law: Feb. 3, 2012

The University of Georgia School of Law's Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law hosted a daylong conference on international energy security Friday, Feb. 3 in the Larry Walker Room of Dean Rusk Hall on North Campus. The conference touched on international energy governance issues, regulatory law in the renewable energy sector, nuclear safety law and nuclear waste legal regimes post-Fukushima. Discussing these topics was a mix of policymakers, academics and practitioners representing U.S. and foreign perspectives. Commissioner William C. Ostendorff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the keynote address. View the full program for this conference.

 

Civil Rights or Civil Wants?: August 26, 2011

The Georgia Law Review partnered with the Dean Rusk Center to present this symposium commemorating the 50th anniversary of the integration of the University of Georgia. The keynote speaker was Stacey Abrams, House minority leader for the Georgia General Assembly and state representative for the 84th House District. Practitioners and academics discussed international aspects of civil rights, as well as issues related to immigration, education and privacy. The Georgia Law Review will publish this 2011 Symposium in the spring of 2012.

 

The Future of International Trade: An American Perspective:  Friday, February 18, 2011

The Dean Rusk Center and UGA's Terry College of Business, along with the Business-Law Society, presented a daylong conference exploring issues related to the business aspects of international trade, future challenges for trade, and the future of multilateral trade negotiations.  Ambassador Demetrios Marantis, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, served as the keynote speaker for the event. The conference proceedings have been published as Vol. 7 of the Dean Rusk Center Occasional Papers series.

 

15 Years of TRIPS Implementation: Intellectual Property Protection from a Global Perspective:  Friday, January 28, 2011

The Journal of Intellectual Property Law and the Dean Rusk Center presented a daylong conference that explored the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization that sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property regulation as applied to nationals of other WTO Members.

 

Fallout: The Future of Nuclear Security and Non-Proliferation:  Friday, November 12, 2010

Co-sponsored by the Dean Rusk Center and the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law. This daylong conference evaluated the U.N Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and included in-depth discussions on the future legal framework for nuclear non-proliferation, balancing nuclear energy and security, and emerging nuclear threats.

 

American, Danish, and Australian Idols? International Franchising of Television Formats in the Absence of Copyright: Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Considered an expert in the intellectual property law field, Martin Kretschmer  presented his research on the international franchising of television formats such as "American Idol." This was the second of two lectures featuring Kretschmer, who is the professor of information jurisprudence and director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management at Bournemouth University, U.K. The first lecture took  place April 6 (see below).

 

Slicing Up the Entertainment Pie: Copyright, Contracts, and Artist Compensation in the EU: Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Considered an expert in the intellectual property law field, Martin Kretschmer discussed his groundbreaking work in artist compensation in the European Union as well as the contractual structures that drive creative industries. This was the first of two different lectures featuring Kretschmer, who is the professor of information jurisprudence and director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management at Bournemouth University, U.K. The second lecture will took place April 7 (see above).

 

April 2010 Nuclear Security Summit: Expectations and Realities

A follow-up conference to the two-day, NATO conference held in Vienna, Austria in January-held in Athens, GA and co-sponsored by the Center for International Trade and Security, the symposium focused on the role of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 in providing an umbrella mechanism for further developing a legal framework designed to reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism and strengthen overall nuclear security.  The current role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as well as proposals to expand and further support the organization's mandate and resources, were also discussed.

 

America for Sale? Foreign Investments in the U.S. : February 16, 2010 

German Perspective was a panel discussion held in Athens, GA and co-sponsored by the German American Law Society, a student group at Georgia Law. The panelists, including Dr. Peter Huber, Visiting Professor from Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz; Martina Stegmeier, Vice President and Director of the German American Chamber of Commerce in Atlanta; Mona P. Maerz, Senior Counsel with Chamberlain Hrdlicka; and Teri A. Simmons, partner with Arnell Golden Gregory, discussed the potential impacts and challenges of foreign investments in the United States.

 

International Human Rights and Climate Change: February 12, 2010 

A one-day conference held in cooperation with the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law in Athens, GA. Leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of international human rights, climate change, and philosophy attended to address the fairly recent movement to further incorporate a human rights perspective into talks about climate change.  The purpose of the conference was to advance this discussion and provide policy makers with the necessary tools to make the right decisions.

 

Legal Framework for Strengthening Nuclear Security and Combating Nuclear Terrorism: January 28-29, 2010

A two-day NATO conference held in cooperation with UGA's Center for International Trade and Security (CITS) held in Vienna, Austria, the conference was an advanced research workshop with an objective of providing a set of recommendations for the April 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C.

 

 

Past Events

 

International Commercial Arbitration: Fifty Years after the New York Convention

was a one-day conference held at the Dean Rusk Center on January 30, 2009. The event, co-sponsored by the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, featured Gary Born as keynote speaker and other leaders in the field of international commercial arbitration including, Robert Davidson, Executive Director of JAMS Arbitration Practice; William K. Slate, II, President, American Arbitration Association; and Anne Marie Whitesell, Former Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

 

The Report of the Secretaries of State: Bipartisan Advice to the Next Administration

In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Dean Rusk Center for International Law, the University of Georgia School of Law joined the Southern Center for International Studies on Thursday, March 27, 2008 in presenting the 16th Report of the Secretaries of State. Secretaries Henry Kissinger, James Baker III, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell came together in a unique forum moderated by newscaster Terence Smith of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." The conference was videotaped and will be available as a streaming video later this year.

 

Colloquium on Rome II: The 2007 EU Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-contractual Obligations - European and American Perspectives, was a one-day colloquium held at the Dean Rusk Center on November 5, 2007. The event, co-sponsored by the Georgia Society for International and Comparative Law, featured presentations by Diana Wallis (Vice President of the European Parliament) and other American and European experts in private international law, who explored new European Union legislation on the law applicable to torts and compared it to approaches in U.S. law.

 

The International Fight Against Terrorism: A Colloquium on the Prospects for Further Cooperation between the European Union and the United States, was a two-day colloquium held at the Dean Rusk Center in partnership with the Center for European Law, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, on April 13-14, 2007. Speakers from around the globe convened in Athens to address a range of transcendent issues relating to terrorism and security affecting both the EU and the U.S., including common challenges and achievements, data mining, and the conflict between freedom of the individual and governmental measures taken to protect civil society. The conference opened with a keynote address delivered by Jonathan Faull, Director General for Justice, Freedom and Security at the European Commission. This was followed by two panel discussions and an evening dinner with U.S. Congressman from Georgia, Jim Marshall, as the keynote speaker. A third panel was held the following day to conclude the colloquium's activities.

 

International Trade under the Rule of Law, a conference held March 23 & 24, 2006, in Dean Rusk Hall, was organized and sponsored by the Dean Rusk Center and designated an American Society of International Law Centennial Regional Meeting. The conference focus was on the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO), with a view toward discussing the need for a superstructure of international law governing trade and economic cooperation between states. From the time the dispute settlement system was established pursuant to the Uruguay Round negotiations, questions concerning the reform of enforcement measures and the system as a whole, the role of Appellate Body decisions in global governance, and the issue of who benefits most from the system have continued to challenge practitioners and scholars alike. This conference was an assembly of distinguished international panelists, comprised of diplomats, academics, legal practitioners, and government officials, who addressed and explored these and other questions relating to international trade under the rule of law.

 

The Limits of International Law, a Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law symposium, in conjunction with the School of Law and the Dean Rusk Center, held on October 28 and 29, 2005 in which the internationally prominent authors of the book, The Limits of International Law (Oxford UP, 2005), Jack L. Goldsmith and Eric A. Posner, discussed the relevance of international law with leading scholars in the field.

 

U.S.-China Trade: Opportunities and Challenges, a Rusk Center conference with two days of panel discussions, was held April 14 & 15, 2005. Speakers with special expertise on the U.S.-China economic relationship provided unique insights to the conference audience. Panels were composed of business, legal, and policy participants drawn from government, academia, and the private sector. The panel discussions focused on investment and services & market access on day one in Atlanta, Georgia, and on agriculture, textiles, intellectual property, and export controls on day two at the University of Georgia in Athens. The Deputy Secretary of Commerce gave the keynote address in Atlanta.