2015 Law Dialogs Speakers and Panelists
The Robert H. Jackson Center announces the 9th annual International Humanitarian Law Dialogs scheduled for Monday August 31st- Tuesday September 1st at Chautauqua Institution. This year’s theme will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre and the 70th anniversary of the opening commencement of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremburg. Speakers and Panelist this year include:
MARK AGRAST– American Society of International Law, Mr. Agrast is the Executive Director of The American Society of International Law (ASIL). Since 2009 he has served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U. S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legislative Affairs. From 2003 to 2009 Mr. Agrast served as a Senior Vice President and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Previously he held a senior staff position with two members of the U.S. House of Representatives. He has also served as the Chair for the Section of Individuals Rights and Responsibilities and the Commission on Immigration. Since its inception and has played a central role in designing and implementing its Rule of Law Index. After graduating from Case Western Reserve University, Mr. Agrast pursued his post-graduate studies as a Rohodes Scholar at the University of Oxford and received his J.D. from Yale Law School where he was editor in chief of the Yale Journal of International Law.
DIANE AMANN– University of Georgia School of Law, Professor Amann is the Associate Dean for International Programs & Strategic Initiatives at the University of Georgia School of Law. She also serves as the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Special Adviser on Children in Armed Conflict. Before entering into academia, Professor Amann served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender, a clerk for Judge Prentice H. Marshall of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and a judicial clerk for U. S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Professor Amann previously served as Vice President of the American Society of International Law and Chair of the Section on International Law of the Association of American Law Schools. In 2013, she received the Prominent Women in International Law award from ASIL. She also received the 2010 Mayre Rasmussen Award for the Advancement of Women in International Law from the Section on International Law of the American Bar Association. Professor Amann was the founding contributor to IntLawGrrls blog and now serves as Editor Emerita.
ELIZABETH ANDERSEN– American Bar Association, Ms. Andersen was appointed Director of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in 2014. She previously served as Executive Director of the American Society of International Law (ASIL). She serves on the governing boards of the Friends of the Law Library of Congress, the International Law Institute, and Williams College, and she is an adjunct professor of law at American University Washington College of Law. She has served as Executive Director of the American Bar Association’s Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, as well as Executive Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. Ms. Anderson has served as a law clerk to Judge Georges Abi-Saab of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and to Judge Kimba M. Wood of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.
ANDREW BEITER– Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies, Mr. Beiter, a Social Studies educator, serves as Director of Youth Education at the Robert H. Jackson Center, as well as Director of the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies in Buffalo, NY. He also serves as co-Director of the Educators’ Institute for Human Rights, which recently led a conference for Rwandan teachers in Kigali. A Regional Education Coordinator for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Mr. Beiter also serves as a Teacher Fellow for the Lowell Milken Center for Tolerance in Kansas, and as a consultant for the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo.
HENRIKE CLAUSSEN–Memorium Nuremberg Trials, Henrike Claussen received her Master’s degree in Modern History, History of Arts and Archaeology from the University of Cologne, Germany. She worked as an academic staff member for the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Nuremberg, Germany) and the White Rose Foundation (Munich, Germany). In 2007 she became the project coordinator for the establishing of the new permanent exhibition “Memorium Nuremberg Trials” in the Nuremberg courthouse. Since its opening in November 2010 she has been serving as the exhibition’s curator and was recently appointed as the new director of the Memorium Nuremberg Trials. She has written articles and given lectures on various topics ranging from national trials against nazi criminals, German culture of remembrance since 1945 and questions of jurisprudence. Currently she is working on a book “The Nuremberg Trials: Origins – History – Legacy” to be published in 2016.
MARK DRUMBL- Washington Lee & University School of Law, Professor Drumbl is a Class of 1975 Alumni Professor and serves as Director of the University’s Transnational Law Institute. Professor Drumbl’s research includes public international law, global environmental governance, international criminal law, post-conflict justice, and transnational legal process. Prior to becoming a Professor, Drumbl clerked for Justice Frank Lacobucci of the Supreme court of Canada. He was appointed co-counsel for the Canadian Chief –of-Defense-Staff before the Royal Commission investigating military wrongdoing in the UN Somalia Mission. In 2012 he was appointed to the Global Engagement Advisory Committee of the Association of American Law Schools. Professor Drumbl has also served as an expert in ATCA litigation in the US federal courts, in US immigration court, as defense counsel in the Rwandan genocide trials, has consulted with various organizations, and has taught international law in a plethora of countries.
KATE ELCI– International Peace and Security Institute, Kate Elci, serves as the Program Director, International Programs. Kate holds a B.A. in anthropology from Kalamazoo College and an M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University’s School for International Service, where she was the Mustafa Barzani Graduate Peace Fellow. Kate has extensive experience in curriculum design, training and facilitation, specifically in the areas of negotiation, human rights and conflict resolution. She has also designed and facilitated a variety of multilateral simulations based on conflicts in Syria, Turkey, and elsewhere. Before moving to Washington in 2009, Kate worked and studied in Germany and Turkey for over six years; she speaks German and Turkish.
ANDREA GITTLEMAN—United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Andrea Gittleman is the program manager for the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. Previously, she was interim director of U.S. policy and senior legislative counsel at Physicians for Human Rights. She served as an Arthur Helton Global Human Rights Fellow with the Burma Lawyers’ Council in Mae Sot, Thailand. She also worked with the New York University Immigrant Rights Clinic as a law student and has had legal internships with Legal Momentum , the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Rights Project, and Human Rights Watch’s Women’s Rights Division. Prior to attending law school, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mauritania, where she managed gender and development programs.
MARK HARMON— Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Judge Harmon is currently an international Co-Investigating Judge at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Before joining the ECCC, he worked as a senior trial attorney at the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for 17 years. Prior to working at the ICTY, he served as a Federal Prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and a Deputy Public Defender in Santa Clara County, California. Harmon has taught at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and Stanford University Law School. Additionally, he has authored several publications on the ICTY and international criminal law.
KYLE HERDA – Impunity Watch, Kyle Herda serves as the 2015 Editor and Chief of Impunity Watch. Impunity Watch Law is an interactive website that operates as both a law review and news reporting site, with the website serving as our primary publication platform. Impunity Watch was created through the efforts of a dedicated group of students and Professor David Crane, the founding Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The Journal and website were launched in October 2007 with a very small dedicated staff. Impunity Watch is now comprised of over 40 active law student members.
JOSEPH KARB– Director of Teacher Initiative, Robert H. Jackson center Mr. Karb is a middle school Social Studies educator who also serves as Director of Teacher Initiatives at the Robert H. Jackson Center. Recently selected as the National Middle School Social Studies Teacher of the Year, Mr. Karb is a teacher fellow with C-SPAN, and facilitator of the national human rights video contest sponsored by Speak Truth to Power and the American Federation of Teachers. His work has also been featured in social studies research studies, PBS Newshour and Britannica Online.
DOUGLAS NECKERS– Robert H. Jackson Center Board Chair, Dr. Douglas Neckers is an organic chemist with a specialization in the photochemical sciences. His capstone achievement in the field was establishing the Center for Photochemical Sciences at Bowling Green State University – a Center targeting studies of the interactions of light with matter. Over 45 years in the academy, he published more than 400 papers, 11 books, edited 3 series, and was the inventor of more than 70 patents. His lab produced 39 Ph.D.s who hailed from 37 foreign countries. In 1990, he founded Spectra Group Inc. Ltd to develop the then-new technology of stereolithography in medical imaging. His labs were the first in the world to print MRI and CT data as 3D models using stereolithography (1988). Doug Neckers has degrees from Hope College and the University of Kansas. He taught at Hope College, University of New Mexico, and for most of his career at Bowling Green State University. He left Bowling Green in 2009 to become CEO of Spectra Group, a position he now holds. He is also Henry T. King Fellow, and Board Chair at the Robert H. Jackson Center.
Michael Newton– Vanderbilt Law School Professor Newton is currently the Director of the Vanderbilt-in-Venice Program at Vanderbilt Law School where he teaches an innovative International Law Practice lab. He is also an expert on accountability, transnational justice and conduct of hostilities issues. Professor Newton is an elected member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law and the International Bar Association. Additionally, He serves on the executive council of the American Society of International Law and previously served on its task Force on U. S. Policy Toward the International Criminal Court. Notably, Professor Newton served as the U.S. representative on the UN Planning Mission for the Sierra Leone Special Court. From 1999 to 2000 served in the State Department’s Office of War Crimes Issues and worked as the senior advisor to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues. After a successful military career as an armor officer and a military attorney, Professor Newton served as a professor of international and operational law at the Judge Advocate General’s School and Center in Charlottesville, Virginia from 1996-1999.
Valerie Oosterveld– University of Western Ontario, Professor Oosterveld was appointed Associate Dean (Research and Administration), Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario. Her research and writing focus on gender issues within international criminal justice. She teaches Public International Law, International Criminal Law and International Organizations. She is the Acting Director of Western University’s Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction, and is affiliated with the Department of Women’s Studies and Feminist Research. Before joining Western Law in July 2005, Valerie served in the Legal Affairs Bureau of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. She was a member of the Canadian delegation to the International Criminal Court negotiations and subsequent Assembly of States Parties. She also served on the Canadian delegation to the 2010 Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in Kampala, Uganda.
Claudia Paz y Paz- Georgetown University Institute for Women, Peace, and Security, Dr. Paz y Paz Baily is currently the distinguished scholar in residence at Georgetown’s Institute for Women, Peace, and Security. She was Guatemala’s first female Attorney General and has worked for over 18 years to strengthen the justice system in Guatemala. She also served as the national consultant to the UN Mission in Guatemala. In 1994, she founded the Institute for Comparative Criminal Studies of Guatemala, a human rights organization that protects the rights of marginalized and discriminated groups during criminal proceedings. From 2010 to 2014, Dr. Paz y Paz assumed leadership of Guatemala’s Ministerio Publico, the prosecutor’s office. During that time she pursued cases against organized criminals and perpetrators of human rights abuses.
Leila N. Sadat- Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law, Professor Sadat is the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law and Israel Treiman Faculty Fellow at Washington University School of Law and has been the Director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute since 2007. In 2008, she launched the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative and, since then, has served as Chair of its Steering Committee. In December 2012, she was appointed Special Adviser on Crimes Against Humanity by International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and earlier that year was elected to membership in the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. In 2011, she was awarded the Alexis de Tocqueville Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Paris, France. Sadat is an internationally recognized human rights expert specializing in international criminal law and justice and has published more than 75 books and articles. From 2001-2003 Sadat served on the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom.
William Schabas- OC, MRIA, Middlesex University School of Law, Professor Schabas is professor of international law at Middlesex University in London. He is the editor-in-chief of Criminal Law Forum, a quarterly journal of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, and President of the Irish Branch of Criminal Investigation. From 2002-2004 he served as one of three international members of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Professor Schabas served as a consultant on capital punishment for the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, and drafted the 2010 report of the Secretary-General on the status of the death penalty. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006, and elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2007. He was awarded the Vespasian V. Pella Medal for International Criminal Justice of the Association Internationale de Droit Pénal, and the Gold Medal in the Social Sciences of the Royal Irish Academy. Professor Schabas has authored more than 20 books dealing with international human rights law and has published more than 300 articles in academic journals.
Michael P. Scharf- Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Professor Scharf is Interim Dean and Joseph C. Baker – Baker & Hostetler Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. In 2005, Scharf and the Public International Law and Policy Group, a NGO he co-founded and directs, were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their work. Scharf served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State, where he held the positions of Attorney-Adviser for Law Enforcement and Intelligence, Attorney-Adviser for UN Affairs, and delegate to the UN Human Rights Commission. In 2008, Scharf served as Special Assistant to the Prosecutor of the Cambodia Genocide Tribunal. He is the author of sixteen books, and won the American Society of International Law’s Certificate of Merit for outstanding book in 1999, and the International Association of Penal Law’s book of the year award for 2009 . Scharf produces and hosts the radio program “Talking Foreign Policy,” broadcast on WCPN 90.3 FM.
Federico Barillas Schwank- American Red Cross, Mr. Schwank is a Legal Advisor for International Humanitarian Law at the American Red Cross. Previously, Federico worked at International Center for Not-for-Profit Law and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He has assisted civil society groups seeking legal reform and represented indigenous peoples and victims of abuse before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and in U.S. asylum procedures. Before moving to Washington D.C., Federico worked representing low-income migrant workers at the Southern Poverty Law Center and led the outreach program at the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama.
Jennifer Trahan- New York University Center for Global Affairs, Professor Trahan is Associate Clinical Professor of Global Affairs at New York University. She served as counsel and of counsel to the International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch; Iraq Prosecutions Consultant to the International Center of Transitional Justice; and worked on cases before the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She served as an observer for the Association of the Bar of the City of New York to the International Criminal Court’s Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression, as Chairperson of the American Branch of the International Law Association’s International Criminal Court Committee, a member of the ABA 2010 ICC Task Force, and as a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Task Force on National Security and the Rule of Law. She was a NGO observer at the ICC Review Conference in Kampala, and lectured at Salzburg Law School’s Institute on International Criminal Law.
Beth Van Schaack- Santa Clara University School of Law, Professor Schaack is a Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School and Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Security & Cooperation. She recently stepped down as Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice of the U.S. Department of State. Prior to that appointment, Van Schaack was Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law, where she taught and wrote in the areas of human rights, transitional justice, international criminal law, public international law, international humanitarian law, and civil procedure. She was a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Council on International Law and served on the United States interagency delegation to the International Criminal Court Review Conference in Kampala in 2010. Professor Van Schaack is a founding editor and contributor to IntLawGrrls blog .
Patricia Viseur Sellers- Oxford University Master’s Programme in International Human Rights Law, Professor Sellers currently works at Oxford University Master’s Programme in International Human Rights Law. Previously she worked as a Special Advisor for Prosecutions Strategies to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. She also worked as Special Advisor to the UN High commissioner for Human Rights, and the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict. From 1994-2007 Professor Sellers served as the Legal Advisor for Gender Related Crimes and Senior Acting Trial Attorney in the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Professor Sellers previously served as the Directorate General for external Relations at the European Commission, the Ford Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, and the Philadelphia Defender Association. She is also the recipient of the American Society of International Law’s Prominent Women in International Law Award.
Hon. Patricia Wald– Open Society Justice Initiative, The Honorable Wald is a current Board member and former Chair of the Open Society Justice Initiative. Previously she served as a judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and as the first female Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. She also served on the Iraq Intelligence Commission, an independent panel tasked with investigating US intelligence surrounding the United States 2003 invasion of Iraq and Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. In 1977 she was appointed Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs for the US Department of Justice. Judge Wald also helped found the California International Law Centre at the University of California-Davis School of Law.
Paul Williams- Public International Law and Policy Group, Dr. Williams is the Rebecca Grazier Professor of Law and International Relations at American University and the President and co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group. In 2005, Dr. Williams, as Executive Director of PILPG, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by half a dozen of his pro bono government clients. Dr. Williams has assisted over a dozen clients in major international peace negotiations, including serving as a delegation member in the Dayton, Lake Ohrid, and Doha negotiations. He also advised parties to the Key West, Oslo/Geneva and Georgia/Abkhaz negotiations, and the Somalia peace talks. Previously, Dr. Williams served in the Department of State’s Office of the Legal Advisor for European and Canadian Affairs, as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and as a Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge.
