Commenting on the ICRC Geneva Commentaries: 30 March in D.C.

March 15, 2016 / Diane Marie Amann / Leave a comment

Honored to be part of the International Committee of the Red Cross launch of its new Commentary on the First Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in the Field, a volume due for release next Tuesday, March 22.

My role begins a week later, with a panel discussion of the new Commentary at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, and will continue later in the year with an anticipated Georgia Law conference on the same subject (stay tuned).

The March 30 panel discussion will take place in the Columbia Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Ave N.W., Washington, D.C. That’s the same hotel hosting the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law from March 30 to April 2. This is a side event, though ASIL and its international humanitarian law interest group, the Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict, are cosponsors of this event, hosted by the ICRC’s D.C.-based Regional Delegation for the US and Canada.

The Commentary is the 1st in a series of volumes intended to update earlier versions, some of which are pictured above: 4 circa-1952 volumes on the 4 Geneva Conventions of 1949, edited by Jean S. Pictet, plus a circa-1987 volume on Additional Protocols I & II of 1977, produced by multiple editors. In the words of the ICRC:

“Since their adoption, the Conventions and Protocols have been put to the test, and there have been significant developments in how they are applied and interpreted. The new Commentaries seek to incorporate these developments and provide an up-to-date interpretation of the law.”

This initial update carries particular significance because it contains commentary on Articles 1, 2, and 3 Common to all 4 Geneva Conventions. Common Article 2 and Common Article 3 have endured significant re-examination in the counterterrorism climate that’s prevailed since the attacks of September 11, 2001, readers of decisions such as Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and a plethora of academic literature well know (and as I’ve written here and elsewhere).

The discussion at the March 30 launch in D.C. will feature:

► Dr. Jean-Marie Henckaerts (left), Head of the Commentaries Update Unit at ICRC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland – and, I’m proud to add, a 1990 LLM alumnus of Georgia Law

► Yours truly, Diane Marie Amann (right), Associate Dean and Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law at Georgia Law, and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Special Adviser on Children in & affected by Armed Conflict

► Colonel (ret.) Dick Jackson, Special Assistant to the Army Judge Advocate General for Law of War Matters, and Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown Law

► Michael Matheson, Professorial Lecturer in Law, George Washington University Law School, and former member of the U.N. International Law Commission

RSVPs for March 30 welcome; for that and any other information on that event, contact Tracey Begley, trbegley@icrc.org.

(Cross-posted from Diane Marie Amann)

Georgia Law marks decades-old intlaw tradition – & UN Charter’s 70th birthday

October 20, 2015October 20, 2015 / Diane Marie Amann / Leave a comment

The UN Charter turns 70 this week, and we at Georgia Law are honored to be joining in the global celebration – not least because it’s also the 38th birthday of our Dean Rusk International Law Center.

On Monday, October 26, from 4-6 p.m., we’ll rededicate the Louis B. Sohn Library on International Relations in its new home, our renovated Center unit. An alum, Dr. Kannan Rajarathinam (LLM88), Head of Office, UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, Basra, will speak on a critical topic: “The United Nations at 70: Pursuing Peace in the 21st Century.”

Also giving remarks – on Georgia Law luminaries like Professors Sohn, Professor and former U.S. Secretary of State Rusk, Professor Gabriel Wilner, and Professor Sigmund Cohn – will be Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge, Professor Harlan Cohen, alums Dorinda Dallmeyer (an IntLawGrrls contributor) and Ken Dious, and myself.

Our event is honored by multiple cosponsors: the American Bar Association Section of International Law, the American Branch of the International Law Association, and the American Society of International Law, for which Professor Sohn served, respectively, as Chair, Vice President, and President. Those titles signal the influence of Professor Sohn, who, inter alia, helped draft the UN Charter, advised UN agencies, and chaired the conference that led to conclusion of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Sponsors among the Georgia Law community include the Alexander Campbell King Law Library, whose staff have contributed immensely to the move of Sohn’s 5,000-volume personal collection to its new space in our Center. Cosponsoring student organizations are the Asian Law Students Association, the Davenport-Benham Chapter of the Black Law Students Association, the Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law, the Georgia Society for International & Comparative Law, the Hispanic Law Students Association, the Jewish Law Students Association, the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition team (that’s Georgia Law’s 1990 Jessup world champions in the poster at top), and the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot team.

Details here. If you are in our area on the day, please join us. If you can’t be there in person, feel free to watch the livestream.

(Cross-posted from Diane Marie Amann)

You go ‘Grrl! Diane Marie Amann named Georgia Law Associate Dean for International Programs and Strategic Initiatives

February 6, 2015 / Karen Hoffmann / 2 Comments

We’re delighted to announce that IntLawGrrls founder and contributor Diane Marie Amann has been named the first Associate Dean for International Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Georgia School of Law!

In this role, she will oversee collaborations between the Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy and the law school’s faculty and students. Diane will also assist the law school with strategic initiatives such as growing its LL.M. program, strengthening partnerships with foreign universities and beginning work on the school’s next strategic plan.

“Diane brings a wealth of expertise and experience to this role,” said Georgia Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge. “Her scholarly record in international law, and her leadership positions with organizations such as the American Society for International Law and the International Criminal Court, make her the ideal candidate to help build on our law school’s strong international programs and the late U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk’s legacy. Moreover, Diane’s former positions at other law schools will help inform our efforts to address the unique challenges and opportunities facing legal education today.”

It’s a position for which Diane’s amply qualified, as IntLawGrrls readers will know from having read her numerous IntLawGrrls posts. Diane joined the Georgia Law faculty in the fall of 2011 as the holder of the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, which she still occupies. Her courses include Public International Law, International Criminal Law, the Laws of War, Refugee and Asylum Law, Children and International Law, and Constitutional Law. She is an affiliated faculty member of UGA’s African Studies Institute and serves as the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s special adviser on children in armed conflict.

Her scores of articles on international criminal law and international humanitarian law include Calling Children to Account: The Proposal for a Juvenile Chamber in the Special Court for Sierra Leone and Message as Medium in Sierra Leone, both of which focus on child soldiers.

Diane’s also been honored for her tremendous contributions to the field of international law more generally. Amann is a past vice president of the American Society of International Law and past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on International Law. She received the 2013 Prominent Women in International Law Award from ASIL’s Women in International Law Interest Group as well as the 2010 Mayre Rasmussen Award for the Advancement of Women in International Law, and the Article of the Year in International Criminal Law Award from the American National Section of the International Association of Penal Law.

Beyond her expertise, we at IntLawGrrls have benefited greatly from Diane’s energy and dedication to this blog and wish her all the best in this new venture. Heartfelt congratulations, Diane!