Events: International, Comparative and Foreign Law

Event times are listed in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT/UST-4). Please check back often for more events at HLS and around the University.

Events at HLS

2021 China Law Symposium: Building Bridges over Troubled Waters
Please click on the link above for a detailed agenda and list of speakers.
Panel: “U.S.-China Relations at the Crossroads”
Monday, April 12 at 12:00 p.m. | Online; register here
Panel: “Racial Profiling Against Chinese-American Scientists”
Monday, April 12 at 8:00 p.m. | Online; register here
Panel: “Intellectual Property Law in China: Past, Present, and Future”
Tuesday, April 13 at 8:00 p.m. | Online; register here
Panel: “Cross-Border Practice: International Litigation and Arbitration”
Wednesday, April 14 at 8:00 p.m. | Online; register here
Keynote Speech: Wei Sun Christianson, CEO, China and Co-CEO, Asia Pacific, Morgan Stanley
Thursday, April 15 at 8:00p.m. | Online; register here
Sponsored by the Harvard Law School China Law Association

Careers in Public International Law with Prof. Michael Schmitt
Professor of International Law at the University of Reading, the Charles H. Stockton Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the US Naval War College, the G. Lieber Norman Lieber Distinguished Scholar at West Point, and a Senior Fellow at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence
This event is open to current Harvard Law School students and staff; advance registration required
Wednesday, April 14 at 12 p.m. | Online; register here
Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC) and the HLS Comparative and International Law Program of Study

The Human Cost of Incendiary Weapons and Shortcomings of International Law
A discussion with Christine Collins, critical care trauma nurse and former captain, U.S. Air Force; “Abu Taim,” survivor of an incendiary weapons attack on a Syrian school; Dr. Jeffrey Schneider, Medical Director of Trauma, Burn, and Orthopedic Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital; Bonnie Docherty, Lecturer on Law  and senior researcher, Human Rights Watch; and Roos Boer, Humanitarian Disarmament Program Lead, PAX
Wednesday, April 14 at 2 p.m. | Online; register here
Sponsored by the International Human Rights Clinic

A talk with Matthew Nimetz LL.B. ‘65
Mr. Nimetz is a U.S. diplomat and was the UN Special Representative who successfully mediated the Macedonian naming dispute between Greece and North Macedonia
Thursday, April 15 at 1 p.m. | Online; register here
Sponsored by the Harvard Central and Southeast Europe Law Students Association

International Law of the Sea, the South China Sea, and US-China Relations
A talk with James Kraska, visiting professor, Harvard Law School, and professor and chair, Stockton Center for International Law, U.S. Naval War College
Friday, April 16 at 12 p.m. | Online; register here
Sponsored by the Harvard Asia Law Society

A talk with Nasredeen Abdulbari LL.M. ‘08, Minister of Justice, Republic of Sudan

Nasredeen Abdulbari currently serves as Minister of Justice of the Republic of Sudan. (Read “Pursuing justice, freedom and peace,” a profile on Harvard Law Today.) Earlier, he was a lecturer in the International and Comparative Law Department, University of Khartoum, where he taught courses in public international law, conflict of laws, and an introduction to the English legal system. He also worked, on a Satter Fellowship from Harvard Law School, as Head of the Protection, Peace-building, and Psychosocial Unit of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO). In East Africa, Abdulbari was a senior researcher at the Rift Valley Institute and consultant for the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

His academic articles have been published in the Journal of African Law (University of London), the African Human Rights Law Journal (Pretoria University), the Birkbeck Law Review (University of London), and the Harvard Human Rights Law Journal, and his opinion pieces have been published in The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Global Observatory. He is a co-author of The Future Constitution of Sudan: Aspirations and Views (Ahfad University for Women, Sudan, 2013). His most recent work, “The Interlinkage between Understandings of Self-Determination and Understandings of Peace,” was published as a book chapter in Making and Breaking Peace in Sudan and South Sudan: The Comprehensive Peace Agreement and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Abdulbari holds an LL.B. and LL.M. from the University of Khartoum; an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, where he was a Stoffel Scholar and a Landon H. Gammon Fellow; and an S.J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Lisa Dicker, Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor, Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, will serve as moderator.

This event is open to the Harvard community. Please use your Harvard email address to register and access the Zoom link.

Friday, April 23 at 12 p.m. | Online; register here

Sponsored by International Legal Studies and the Human Rights Program.

Around the University

Nigeria in the World:  Fostering Peace in Nigeria’s Restive Middle Belt
A talk with Priscilla Ankut, Esq., Chief Executive Officer, Kaduna State Peace Commission
Monday, April 12 at 12 p.m. | Online; see the link above for access
Sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Center for Peace, Democracy and Development, University of Massachusetts Boston

Peru’s Presidential Election: A Path Out of Crisis, or More of the Same?
A discussion with Marisa Glave, Peruvian Sociologist and Member of Congress (2016-2019); Maria Antonieta Alva, former Peruvian Minister of Economy and Finance (2019-2020); Salvador del Solar, Peru’s Former Prime Minister (2019) and Former Minister of Culture (2016-2017); Alberto Vergara, Professor of Social and Political Sciences, Universidad del Pacífico; and Steven Levitsky, Director, David Rockefeller Center and Professor of Government, Harvard University
Tuesday, April 13 at 12 p.m. | Online; register here
Sponsored by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Book Talk — India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present
A talk with the author, Shivshankar Menon, former National Security Advisor and Foreign Secretary of India
Tuesday, April 13 at 12 p.m. | Online; register here
Sponsored by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Future of Diplomacy Project, Harvard Kennedy School

Critical Issues Confronting China:  China’s Role in Global Finance
A talk with Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy, Cornell University; Senior Fellow and New Century Chair in International Economics, Brookings Institution; and Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
Wednesday, April 14 at 12:30 p.m. | Online, register here; also streaming on YouTube
Sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

The Rise of China: Challenges and Opportunities
A talk with Julie Bishop, Fisher Family Fellow and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia
Wednesday, April 14 at 7 p.m. | Online; register here
Sponsored by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Future of Diplomacy Project, Harvard Kennedy School

The Abraham Accords: A Pathway to Peace with Economic Prosperity
A discussion with His Excellency Yousef Al Otaiba. Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the U.S.;  His Excellency Shaikh Abdulla bin Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the U.S.; and Bonnie Glick IOP Spring 2021 Resident Fellow and former Deputy Administrator/Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Agency for International Development
Friday, April 16 at 1 p.m. | Online; register here
Sponsored by the Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School

Deadlines and Announcements

• International Legal Studies is accepting applications for the 2021-2022 International Legal Studies Post-Graduate Fellowships. These fellowships are designed to improve participants’ understanding of international and/or transnational law by supporting graduating HLS students or recent J.D. or LL.M. graduates who will be clerking or interning at an international or foreign regional/supranational court or tribunal in 2021-2022.  The Fellowship is open to HLS 3Ls or LL.M. students who will graduate in May 2021 or recent graduates (those who received the J.D. or LL.M. in 2018, 2019, or 2020). Applications are due to International Legal studies by Monday, April 19.
• Want to connect with a fellow student to learn more about how to approach international opportunities at HLS?  Contact an ILS Peer Advisor: you can ask a question via email or even set up a Zoom chat to learn more about their experiences.  Meet the ILS Peer Advisors here (HarvardKey required).

→View an archive of past events at HLS