Schedule

If you didn’t pick up your name badge on Friday, you can do so before the conference begins at 09:30. A German-style breakfast will also be available for $28 USD per person. 

The cost to attend the day’s programming, including lunch, is $108 USD per person.

Constitutionalism, democracy, and the rule of law have increasingly come under attack. What role can judges play in helping to check contemporary populist movements or to repair harm already done? What are the greatest challenges the judiciary faces today, and how (if at all) do they differ from what came before? Is it time for a new accommodation, a new equilibrium of politics and reason, or for redoubling our resolve and strengthening our tools of protection? And finally, how have these challenges affected judges, not just in their institutional capacity, but personally as well?

Moderator: Daniel Halberstam, the Eric Stein Collegiate Professor of Law and director of the Law School’s European Legal Studies Program

Panelists:

Susanne Baer, LLM ’93, former justice of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court and an L. Bates Lea Global Professor of Law Professor at Michigan Law

Hon. Tamara Perišin, Fulbright Scholar at Michigan Law 2005–2006; Judge, Court of Justice of the European Union

Hon. Siniša Rodin, LLM ’92, Judge, Court of Justice of the European Union

Justice Goran Selanec, LLM ’02, SJD ’12, Judge, Constitutional Court of Republic of Croatia
 

Competing Regulatory Frameworks Between the EU and US in the Digital Age: Trade Tensions and Sanctions

Drachenhaus Room

The European Union (EU) took the global lead in data privacy with the enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  Recently, the EU has moved forward with new initiatives in regulating Big Tech with the EU Artificial Intelligence Act and the Digital Markets Act. Additional measures are proposed In the sustainability area with the CSDDD (Due Diligence Directive). Trade tensions between the US and Europe are also at the highest level in a generation. With this backdrop, this panel will explore these initiatives and how the US and Europe are approaching these regulatory frameworks and the potential collision course along the way.

Moderator: Timothy L. Dickinson, JD ’79, adjunct clinical assistant professor and founding faculty member of the International Transactions Clinic at Michigan Law

Panelists:

Jean-François Bellis, LLM, ‘74, partner, Van Bael & Bellis

Nicola Bonucci, former general counsel of the OECD

Kathleen Paisley, partner, AMBOS

View from the Quad: Building International Careers for Current Michigan Students & Scholars

Wintergarten Room

The nexus of Michigan Law’s tremendous international resources and its mission to educate and train the next generation of the legal profession is the panoply of international opportunities provided to JD, LLM, and SJD students and recent graduates. In this session, learn about new and expanded opportunities at international courts, alumni-led firms, and NGOs, as well as best-in-class externship and internship opportunities around the globe. We will also welcome new ideas and insights into future priorities from current lawyers and others.

This panel will be moderated by Eric Christiansen, assistant dean for international affairs at Michigan Law, and will feature Anna Nicol, adjunct clinical assistant professor of law and coordinator for Michigan Law’s Geneva Externship Program, alongside James Brown, LLM ’23 and rising 3L in the JD program, and Dmytro Soldatenko, LLM ’25 and current SJD candidate.

Join Bruno Simma, former judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and prominent international legal scholar, in conversation with Steven R. Ratner, the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law. They will discuss how international law may be brought forward by the ICJ to alleviate the consequences of today’s political crises, as well as other timely developments and topics related to international law.

Audience members will be encouraged to participate with questions and reflections. Neel Sukhatme, the Law School’s incoming dean who will begin his term on July 1, will offer introductory remarks. The cost to attend Saturday’s conference, including this luncheon and hospitality offered at breaks, is USD $108 per person.
 

The “All Tools” Approach to Challenging Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan

Wintergarten Room

Former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has labeled the situation of Afghan women and girls under draconian Taliban rule “the biggest violation of women’s rights on Earth.” The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan recently called for an “all tools” approach when addressing such an entrenched system of subordination. One of the principal tools that Afghan women human rights defenders have been seeking to employ is the emerging international legal concept of “gender apartheid,” something which has been closely studied at the University of Michigan Law School. What is the added value of the gender apartheid framework? How can it be used to challenge Taliban practices? How does this approach relate to the use of other tools, such as Germany’s announcement of possible proceedings under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in the International Court of Justice, or the request by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders for gender persecution?

Moderator: Karima Bennoune, JD ’94, the Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law

Panelists:

Shaharzad Akbar, academy associate, International Law Programme, Chatham House

Richard Bennett, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan

Ewelina Ochab, senior programme lawyer, International Bar Association Human Rights Institute


Prospects for the Peaceful Resolution of Disputes

Drachenhaus Room

Join moderator Julian Arato—faculty director of the Law School’s SJD program and the Center for International and Comparative Law, and the director the Program on Law and the Global Economy at Michigan Law—in discussion with:

Diamana Diawara, director, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution for Africa at the International Chamber of Commerce

Fernando Lusa Bordin, Schermers Chair and professor of international institutional law, University of Leiden Faculty of Law; college associate professor and John Thornely Fellow in Law at Sidney Sussex College; fellow, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law

Marko Milanovic, LLM ’06, professor of public international law at the University of Reading School of Law; director of the Global Law at Reading research group

Andreas Paulus, visiting professor 2003-2004; dean of the faculty of law of the University of Göttingen 
 

This panel will feature a wide-ranging conversation about an array of issues that shed light on how international law and international institutions have been changing—and how they will continue to change, or ought to, in the next 75 years.

Moderator: Kristina Daugirdas, the Francis A. Allen Collegiate Professor of Law

Panelists:

Christine Chinkin, an L. Bates Lea Global Professor of Law at Michigan Law and an emerita professor of international law at the London School of Economics and Political Science at the University of London

J. Christopher McCrudden, an L. Bates Lea Global Professor of Law at Michigan Law, professor of human rights and equality law at Queen’s University Belfast, and a practicing barrister-at-law with Blackstone Chambers

Anne Peters, an L. Bates Lea Global Professor of Law at Michigan Law and director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany
 

Join alumni, faculty, and other members of the Michigan Law community to cap off an exciting day of programming and community building with dinner and drinks. The cost to attend is $135 USD per person.

Reflect on the weekend and connect with other attendees at this farewell breakfast. An American-style breakfast will be available; the cost to attend is $37 USD per person.

See Berlin from the water! Michigan Law has secured 50 tickets for a boating tour of Berlin and the city’s extensive network of bridges, locks, and notable landmarks. Live commentary will be offered in English and German and is included in the pricing. The tour will depart from Jannowitzbrucke Bridge at 14:15 and last slightly over three hours. The deadline to register is Wednesday 11 June. The cost to attend is $30 for adults and $18 for kids under 15. All sales are final.