Boalt’s Global Challenges and the Law (GCL) hosted a day-long meeting of international law faculty from the western United States on October 14. The agenda called for a morning discussion with Judge William Fletcher about recent cases of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dealing with treaty interpretation and immunity of states. In the afternoon, the conversation turned to organizational matters concerning the American Society of International Law (ASIL). Society leadership President Jose Alvarez, a professor at Columbia Law School, and Executive Director Betsy Anderson led the discussion focused on ASIL’s future. Professor David Caron, a vice president of the ASIL, stated that this was a significant discussion for the Society. “We’re delighted that Boalt and GCL can assist ASIL as it looks toward the next centennial.”
ASIL was established in 1906 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1950 to foster the study of international law and promote the establishment and maintenance of international relations on the basis of law and justice. ASIL holds Category II Consultative Status to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and is a constituent society of the American Council of Learned Societies. While its educational mission remains as central today as it was then, its programs have adapted to dramatic changes in international law, as both an expansive topic and an evolving professional discipline. The Society will celebrate its centennial in 2006 under the theme, “A Just World Under Law.”