Miller in the News

Professor Andrew Guzman’s New Book Reviewed in Washington Post

Professor Andrew Guzman's new book, Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change (Oxford University Press) received an excellent review in the Washington Post. Juliet Eilperin praises his “clear-eyed assessment of the costs involved in various policy responses” to climate change.

To read the review, please click here.

Professor Andrew Guzman Receives Faculty Chair

Professor Andrew Guzman, Jackson H. Ralston Professor of Law and Associate Dean of International and Graduate Programs, was among the six Berkeley Law professors who received faculty chairs on May 1 during a ceremony at the University Club inside Memorial Stadium. Nominated by a committee of faculty colleagues, the professors were honored for their scholarly achievements and teaching excellence.

Guzman’s scholarship underscores the impact of international law lacking both the tools for coercive enforcement and a legislative body. “My work has sought to shed light on how states make promises to one another and the ability to solve problems through those promises,” he said. “Why would the act of making a promise alter the behavior of a state? Why would other states ever change their own behavior in reliance? Perhaps most importantly, how much help can international law provide as we try to respond to the world’s most important problems?

For an article on the new faculty chairs, click here.

(from left to right): Professors Mark Gergen, Leti Volpp, Gillian Lester,
Andrew Guzman, and Holly Doremus

Contribute to Berkeley Journal of International Law's New Blog: Travaux

Travaux is the new blog established by the Berkeley Journal of International Law to provide an open environment where students, practitioners, and experts can discuss and debate contemporary international legal issues in real time. They currently have teams dedicated to covering topics such as human rights, international finance, international organizations, and the United States’ relationship to international law, and they are looking for new contributors.

If you think your work would offer a fresh perspective, such as what you have done in humanitarian law, national security, immigration law, and your work with the UN, consider submitting a blog post to Travaux.

If you are interested or if you have any questions, please contact Sylvia DeTar (detar@berkeley.edu).

Lauren Groth (Berkeley Law ’11) Wins ASIL’s Francis Lieber Award

Lauren Groth ('11) is the 2013 recipient of the Francis Lieber Prize for her article on “Transforming Accountability: A Proposal for Reconsidering How Human Rights Obligations Are Applied to Private Military Security Firms” (Hastings International and Comparative Law Review 35:29, 2012). The Prize is awarded annually by the American Society of International Law's Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict to an author 35 years or younger for outstanding scholarship in the field of the law of armed conflict.

Lauren will be clerking for 2013-14 with Judge Richard Paez on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She was an Associate Attorney and member of the Litigation Department of Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington, DC. Lauren holds a J.D. with International Law Certificate from Berkeley Law, where she was Notes Editor of the California Law Review. Prior to law school, she pursued an M.A. in International Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Berkeley Law Students Travel to Jordan for Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project

Three members of the Berkeley Law chapter of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) returned from the organization’s annual delegation to Amman, Jordan at the end of March. IRAP helps Iraqis in danger because of their work with the US government during the Iraq War resettle in the United States. The organization has chapters at many law schools around the country, including the one at Berkeley Law. After participating in IRAP for their entire law school careers, Courtney Bowman (‘13), Robert Landicho (‘13), and Matthew Pelnar (‘13) were eager to take part in the annual IRAP delegation so they could meet their clients who had fled Iraq for Amman. Thanks to the generous support of the Miller Institute, all three were able to attend.

While in Amman the Berkeley students met with clients, visited various refugee assistance organizations, and took part in client intake. The students also attended meetings at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Jordan, the principal organization processing visa applications for refugees seeking to enter the United States. The trip was both productive and valuable – the students not only got to meet their clients face-to-face, they also enhanced their knowledge about the issues facing Iraqi refugees and networked with contacts that are helpful to IRAP and its clients.

Miller Institute Student Travel Support for ASIL Annual Meeting

The Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law funded the participation of Remi Moncel, first-year Berkeley Law Student and Dean’s Fellow, in the American Society of International Law’s annual meeting in Washington, DC in April. See Remi’s comments on this invaluable opportunity to meet with and learn from the most prominent scholars and practitioners in the world.

Remi’s travel support was one of the benefits of the Miller Institute ASIL Student Member Award, which he received in 2012. Berkeley Law is an Academic Partner of ASIL. As such, the Miller Institute is able to provide one Berkeley Law student with a complimentary one-year membership in ASIL, which Remy is using to “learn from leading scholars with a view to exploring the various facets of international law in the three main areas of practice I am considering: academia, international institutions, and practice.”

Students interested in applying for the 2013 Student Member Award should check the “Opportunities for Students” page in the Fall 2013 semester for the call for applications.

New Publications from Berkeley Law’s International Law Faculty

Berkeley Law’s faculty continue to break new ground in research and publications on international law. Works from Kenneth Bamberger, Richard Buxbaum, Kate Jastram, Deirdre Mulligan, Jamie O’Connell, and Harry Scheiber exemplify the tradition of engaged scholarship and innovative inquiry nurtured at Berkeley Law. Subjects include a comparative study of corporations and privacy practice in the European Union and the United States; the continuing litigation surrounding German bonds issued during the Weimar Era; a legal history of reparations in 20th-century Europe; the legal status of Haitian refugee children in Guantanamo; the impact of political developments after the Arab Spring; and the institutions and regions of ocean governance.

For more information on these articles, including their abstracts, click here.