It was with heavy hearts that Diane Marie Amann and I put IntLawGrrls on hiatus last December.  We had spent several months trying to figure out how we could keep the blog running given the substantial administrative and editorial burdens involved.  With Beth Van Schaack already at the State Department and Diane’s appointment to the ICC as Special Advisor to the Prosecutor on Children in Armed Conflict imminent, I knew that, with two small children at home, I would not be able to keep the blog going single-handedly.  We came to the conclusion that we had no other choice but to shut down.

We were touch, amazed, and then overwhelmed by the responses we received from contributors and readers — via e-mail and at conferences you told us how much you missed the blog and how sorely this space for women’s voices on international law was needed.  I began to think about how we could revive the blog, in a new form, that would minimize editorial duties.  Without Diane’s superhuman energy and tremendous dedication, not to mention rigorous editorial hand, this would be a daunting task.

With a new, more collective structure in mind, I reached out to our former contributors to set up the new blog.  That led to the creation of our new editorial team, as well as a host of bloggers whose names will become visible on the right-hand column of this page once they submit their first post!  The core editorial team includes women from a variety of international law subfields and geographic regions of interest: Cecilia Bailliet, Andrea Ewart, Sital Kalantry, Elizabeth Ludwin King, Milena Sterio, and yours truly.   Kate Doty is returning as our social media editor, and Sarah Stephens is jumping in to help out as technical editor.  We also welcome three student editors: Sasha Filippova, Beverly Mbu, and Maggie Spicer.  Special thanks to Maggie, who has put in countless hours to get the blog up and running.  The International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago also helped us to put up this new site and has committed to ongoing institutional support, for which we are very grateful.

We’ve added a “Contributors by Expertise” page — our very own “binders full of women.”  The page is still under construction, but we hope it will be a helpful source for academics and practitioners looking for speakers for conferences and authors of solicited volumes as well as journalists looking for experts to opine on questions of international law and policy.  One glimpse at the page speaks volumes; the under-representation of women in international legal circles cannot be attributed to a dearth of interest or talent.

We plan to maintain the old site, which you can reach through the “IntLawGrrls Archive” link on the bottom right of this page.  It’s also worth visiting Diane’s excellent new solo blog (from which she promises to cross-post from time to time).  It is to her that we owe the vision and growth of this space, and we honor her today by naming her Editor Emerita of IntLawGrrls.

We thought that International Women’s Day was a fitting revival date, and look forward to charting our new course with you.  We hope that you will enjoy the new format and welcome feedback on any aspect of the blog!