Fall 2018 Events

August 27, 2018 (Monday)

Welcome Reception for New Students Interested in International and Comparative Law

Steinhart Courtyard | 5:00-6:30 pm

The Miller Institute is hosting a reception to welcome incoming JD, LLM, JSD, and JSP students interested in international and comparative law. Students will have an opportunity to meet members of the international law faculty, hear from international law student groups, such as the Berkeley Journal for International Law and the Boalt Hall Committee for Human Rights, and learn about international law classes, programs, and events.

For more information, contact Karen Chin (kchin@law.berkeley.edu)

Profs. Laurel Fletcher and Katerina Linos, Co-Faculty Directors of the Miller Institute, welcome students to the 2017 reception

September 13, 2018 (Thursday)

New Ways to Investigate Human Rights Violations

Goldberg Room (297 Law Building) | 6:00-7:30 pm  

Organized by the Human Rights Center and Amnesty International
Co-sponsored by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

The Human Rights Center’s Tech and Human Rights Director Felim McMahon in conversation with Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Team:

  • Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director
  • Micah Farfour, Special Advisor for Remote Sensing
  • Milena Marin, Senior Advisor for Tactical Research
  • Scott Edwards, Senior Advisor for Tactical Research

Introduction by Alexa Koenig, HRC Executive Director

On-the-ground evidence gathering is being combined with cutting-edge remote investigative methods to transform the way human rights defenders respond to crisis situations. With Amnesty International’s support, the Human Rights Center launched its Human Rights Investigations Lab (HRC Lab) in 2016 to begin teaching those methods for the first time in a university. Today, Berkeley students are assisting global investigations in real time. Come meet members of one of the teams they support.


September 14-15, 2018 (Friday-Saturday)

Memorial and Conference to Commemorate Professor David D. Caron ’83

Please join us for two events to commemorate the life and work of Professor Emeritus David D. Caron (1952-2018), a prominent international law expert and Berkeley Law professor for 26 years.

A leading scholar, judge, and arbitrator, Caron taught at Berkeley Law from 1987 to 2013, gaining a reputation as a warm and generous peer and teacher. Colleagues recalled him as an international law “superstar,” an innovator, a mentor, and a nurturing father. He left Berkeley Law in 2013 to become Dean of the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. He also served as president of the American Society of International Law, was a member of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague, and sat as judge‎ ad hoc at the International Court of Justice.

Memorial for Professor David D. Caron ’83
September 14, 2018 | 4:00 pm
Chevron Auditorium, International House | 4:00 pm

The Elegance of International Law: A Conference in Commemoration of Professor David D. Caron ’83
September 15, 2018 | 8:30 am-4:00 pm
Berkeley Law, University of California

To register and learn more about these events, please visit www.law.berkeley.edu/david-caron.


September 20, 2018 (Thursday)

A Landmark Case on Maternal Mortality in Uganda

Professor Noah Novogrodsky
University of Wyoming Law
and
Professor Ndola Prata
UC Berkeley School of Public Health

170 Law Building |12:45pm

Organized by the Human Rights Center
Co-sponsored by the Human Rights Center, the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Human Rights Law Students Association, and the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

The Uganda-based Center for Health, Human Rights and Development and the families of women who suffered preventable deaths in childbirth have sued the Ugandan government in a landmark case, demanding that the state provide minimum health guarantees to expectant mothers. University of Wyoming Law Professor Noah Novogrodsky and UC Berkeley School of Public Health Professor Ndola Prata will discuss the challenge of promoting social and economic rights through test-case litigation. The Human Rights Center and Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health have supported this groundbreaking project from inception.


September 20-21, 2018 (Thursday-Friday)

Conference on Common Currents: Examining How We Govern the Ocean Commons

International House
500 Riverside Drive, New York

Organized and sponsored by the Law of the Sea Institute, UC Berkeley; the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology; the Center for Korean Legal Studies, Columbia University; and the Korea Polar Research Institute (cooperating sponsor)
Additional support by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

Experts in international ocean law, policy, economics, and science will gather in New York City to discuss to what extent, and to what effect, we manage the oceans as a global commons. Participants will strive to identify when and how ocean resources or areas have been managed as a commons, and to analyze and evaluate the efficacy of such efforts. The conference will feature a series of panel discussions about key areas and resources, that will span jurisdictional boundaries and engage cross-disciplinary expertise.

For more information, please visit the conference website.


October 1-31, 2018

Miller Institute-ASIL Student Fellowship Application Period

Co-sponsored with Berkeley Law’s Advanced Degree Programs Office

The Miller Institute-American Society of International Law (ASIL) Student Fellow is awarded funding to attend the ASIL Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, the largest and most important gathering each year of international law practitioners, policymakers, and scholars. The ASIL Annual Meeting regularly features lectures and panels made up of the world’s most eminent international lawyers, including many Berkeley Law faculty and alumni. Attending the meeting is an unparalleled opportunity for students to expand their knowledge and build their network.

The 2019 ASIL Annual Meeting on “International Law as an Instrument,” will be held in Washington DC from March 27-30. Applicants must be available to travel during the Annual Meeting dates. The application period is October 1-31 and the winner will be notified by Thanksgiving (November 22).

For more information, see the Fellowship page.


October 4, 2018 (Thursday)

Freedom and Ethics in The Era of Big Data

Peter Dabrock
Director, Deutsche Ethikrat (German Ethics Council) and
Chair of Systematic Theology (Ethics), Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

170 Law Building | 12:50-2:00 pm

lunch will be served on a first-come / first-service basis

Co-sponsored with the Institute for European Studies, the Center for German and European Studies, the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, and the UC Berkeley School of Information

[LINK TO ABSTRACT]

Prof. Dr. Peter Dabrock has been Chair of Systematic Theology (Ethics) at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg since 2010. After a vicarship at the Protestant Church in Holzwickede, Germany (1995), he held several positions in academia as researcher, Assistant, Associate and Full Professor in Bochum and Marburg (1995-2010). In 2011, he became ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria.

Prof. Dabrock has served in many high-level national and international advisory bodies in academia, Church, and Society including the Central Ethics Committee at the German Medical Association (2004-2013), the DFG-Permanent Senate Commission on Animal Protection and Experimentation (since 2011), and the European Group on Ethics (2011-2016).  He was appointed as a member of the German Ethics Council in 2012, and was elected Vice-Chair (2012-2016) and Chairperson (2016-present). Since 2017 he has been an appointed member of ACATECH (German National Academy of Science and Engineering).

Prof. Dabrock has published several books and more than 200 articles with special focus on ethics of life sciences, of biomedicine, of technology, of social justice and of life forms.


October 9, 2018 (Tuesday)

“The Rohingya: On the Edge of Existence” – Photo Show Opening Reception

Donor Lobby, Boalt Hall | 5:00-7:30 pm

Organized by the Human Rights Center
Co-sponsored by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

The Human Rights Center will present a striking show of black-and-white photography by Chris Beale documenting the Rohingya through the events of 2012-2017, beginning with life in the villages and confinement camps of Rakine State (Myanmar), through the wave of ethnic cleansing and the mass exodus of Rohingya people over land and on boats, to the now sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh. The opening will feature HRC staff experts on human rights and hate speech in Myanmar such as Eric Stover and Felim McMahon.

 

Photographer Chris Beale speaking about his work

October 16, 2018 (Tuesday)

“Mother, Daughter, Sister” – Film Screening and Panel on Sexual Violence in Myanmar

100 Law Building | 5:00 pm

Organized by Human Rights Center, Human Rights Law Student Association, Amnesty International, Center for Southeast Asia Studies, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, Center for Bangladesh Studies, Institute for South Asia Studies
Co-sponsored by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

Filmmaker Jeanne Hallacy joins Muslim Burmese interfaith activist Myo Win, Rohingya lawyer and activist Wai Wai Nu, the HRC’s Kim Thuy Seelinger and UC Berkeley Burmese professor Kenneth Wong to screen her newest film and discuss sexual and gender based violence in both Rakine and Kachin states in Myanmar and globally.


October 23, 2018 (Tuesday)

Is a Habitable Planet a Human Right? The Juliana case 

110 Law Building |12:50 pm

Co-sponsored by the Human Rights Center, the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment, the Human Rights Law Students Association, and the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

Panelist/Discussants:

  • Kelly Matheson, WITNESS
  • Sharon Duggan, Our Children’s Trust
  • Tamara Morgenthau, International Human Rights Law Clinic
  • Ted Lamm, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment

Moderator: Jordan Diamond, Center for Law, Energy and the Environment

In the case of Juliana vs. the United States slated to be heard in US District Court this month, 21 youth plaintiffs assert that “through the government’s affirmative actions that cause climate change, it has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty and property…and failed to protect essential public trust resources.” Other cases brought internationally against governments and fossil fuel corporations seek to protect the survival of people and ecosystems. Can litigation and advocacy protect the vulnerable peoples of the world where democracy and politics have failed?


October 23, 2018 (Tuesday)

Hear PJ’s Story: Fighting Crimmigration with Community

140 Law Building | 12:45 pm

Lunch will be provided

Sponsored by Community Restorative Justice Project, Post-Conviction Advocacy Project, Berkeley Immigration Group, Prisoner Advocacy Network, California Asylum Representation Clinic, Criminal Defense Society, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

Join us on Tuesday October 23 at 12:45 pm in room 140 to hear the story of Borey “PJ” Ai in conversation with Berkeley Law student Henna Kaushal.

PJ’s lived experiences have been shaped by the crimmigration system that is affecting the lives of many, especially those in the Southeast Asian community. As a formerly incarcerated, formerly detained Cambodian refugee, PJ remains at high risk of re-detention and deportation to a country he has never been to. Community members have rallied behind PJ and organized a campaign to support him.


October 25, 2018 (Thursday)

Practicing Pro Bono Law in France: Champions and Challenges

Jean-Claude Beaujour

134 Law Building | 4:00 pm

Organized by Berkeley Comparative Equality & Antidiscrimination Law Study Group
Co-sponsored by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

Pro bono is a tradition that dates back to medieval times. Still today, French Bar Associations strongly encourage pro bono work, as it is a way to contribute to rendering justice accessible to all, and to redefine the power relationship between the various actors of our society. In that sense, pro bono is paramount in a democracy. Jean-Claude Beaujour is convinced this is an excellent way for lawyers to show their commitment to the principle of the rule of law. How is pro bono organized in France and what are the challenges in the face of social, economic and technological changes?

Jean-Claude Beaujour is a leading member of the Paris Bar. He practices international business law and is also a pro bono civil rights lawyer, dividing his time between France and the United States. Jean-Claude further sits at the strategic board of a French company, experience which enables him to help startups with their legal affairs as part of his pro bono activity.


October 30, 2018 (Tuesday)

Gender and Transformative Equality: New Horizons

Sandra Fredman
Professor of the Laws of the British Commonwealth and the USA
University of Oxford

240 Law Building | 4:00 pm5:00 pm

Organized by Berkeley Comparative Equality & Antidiscrimination Law Study Group
Co-sponsored by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

 

Professor Sandra Fredman proposes a transformative understanding of gender equality, requiring attention be paid simultaneously to four dimensions of equality: redressing disadvantage (the distributive dimension); addressing stigma, stereotyping, prejudice and violence (the recognition dimension); facilitating voice and participation (the participative dimension); and accommodating difference and achieving structural change (the transformative dimension).

Sandra Fredman is Professor of the Laws of the British Commonwealth and the USA at the University of Oxford. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and became a Queen’s Council (honoris causa) in 2012. In 2012, she founded the Oxford Human Rights Hub, of which she is the director. She has published widely and has numerous peer reviewed publications in the fields of gender equality, labour law, and human rights.

Her books include Comparative Human Rights (OUP, 2018 forthcoming); Human Rights Transformed (OUP 2008); Discrimination Law (OUP, 2nd ed 2011); Women and the Law (OUP, 1997); The State as Employer (Mansell, 1988) with Gillian Morris, and Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Great Britain (2nd ed, Kluwer, 1992) with Bob Hepple. She edited Age as an Equality Issue (Hart, 2003) with Sarah Spencer, and Discrimination and Human Rights: the Case of Racism (OUP, 2001). She has been an expert advisor on equality for a variety of governments and organizations, including the UK, Northern Ireland, Canada, the ILO, UN Women, the World Bank, the EU Commission and the UN Working Group on non-discrimination against women in social and economic life. She holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.


November 27, 2018 (Tuesday)

The Practice of Freedom: Impunity, Justice, and the Law

Navi Pillay
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2008-2014) and Judge on the International Criminal Court (2003-2008)

Goldberg Room (297 Law Building) | 5-6:30 pm

Organized by the Political Conflict, Gender, and People’s Right Project,  UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender
Co-sponsored with the International Human Rights Law Clinic, UC Berkeley’s Gender and Women’s Studies, and the University of Kwazulu-Natal at Durban’s School of Law

 

Judge Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay will speak to her work spanning the struggle for freedom in South Africa, on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, on the International Criminal Court, and as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including her current work on international justice and against the death penalty.

For more information, click here.

*  *  *

Opening remarks by:
Professor Leti Volpp, Robert D. and Leslie Kay Raven Professor of Law in Access to Justice at Berkeley Law and Director, Center for Race and Gender

Moderated by:
Professor Angana Chatterji, Founding Co-chair, Project on Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights and Visiting Research Anthropologist, Center for Race and Gender

Discussants:

Professor Abdul R. JanMohamed, Department of English

Professor Mariane C. Ferme, Anthropology and African Studies and Curator of African Ethnology at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology

Professor Paola Bacchetta, Gender and Women’s Studies and Co-chair, Project on Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights

Professor Managay Reddi, Dean and Head of the School of Law, University of Kwazulu-Natal at Durban and Advocate of the High Court of South Africa

Professor Christoph Safferling, Chair for Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, International Criminal Law and Public International Law, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg