Paulina Vera, JD ’15, Professorial Lecturer in Law and Supervising Attorney of the Immigration Clinic, has been selected by the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) as a recipient of its 2021 Top Lawyers Under 40 Award. The award recognizes legal achievement, integrity, commitment to the Hispanic community, and dedication to improving the legal profession. Ms. Vera also was featured recently in Washington Lawyer magazine, in which she discussed her project Hermanas in the Law, a community of Latina lawyers discussing important aspects of law school and the legal profession.

Achinthi Vithanage, Professorial Lecturer in Law and SJD candidate, has been recognized as a top environmental and energy lawyer in the field of international environmental law by Lawdragon. The guide recognizes lawyers who are making important contributions to environmental justice, challenging harm to the environment, and seeking the protection of disproportionately impacted communities. She is one of the youngest attorneys ever chosen for a Lawdragon guide.

Laura Cahier, an LLM student specializing in international and comparative law, received the prestigious Jamie Grodsky Prize for Environmental Law in spring 2021. The award is presented by the Environmental and Energy Law Program for the best student paper written in the previous year focusing on the field of environmental law. Ms. Cahier’s paper was titled “Environmental Justice in the United Nations Human Rights System: Challenges and Opportunities for the Protection of Indigenous Women Against Environmental Violence.” She is the first international law student to win the Grodsky Prize. Learn more about Ms. Cahier →

Antonina Mangiola, JD ’21, has been selected as a stagaire for the European Court of Justice during the 2021-22 year. The Dean Acheson Legal Stage Program is designed to foster mutual understanding between the United States and the European Union in the area of law. The graduates selected obtain a unique opportunity to gain exposure to the work of the European Court of Justice and to the European Union.

During spring 2021, four GW Law students and alums supported Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFK Human Rights) in conducting research for an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Bedoya Lima and Other Vs. Colombia. The students were Jilian Timko, Class of '22; Rachel Conrad, Class of '23; Sabrina Rodriguez, Class of '23, and Diana Guevara, LLM '20. The students were supervised in their work by Angelita Baeyens, International Advocacy and Litigation Vice-President; Janina Heller, JD '20, Legal Fellow; and Associate Dean Rosa Celorio. The International and Comparative Law Program greatly thanks RFK Foundation for providing this great opportunity to our students.

Sara Matar and Pooja Majmundar, both 3Ls, won the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition on Saturday, March 27, 2021. Ms. Matar also won the Best Oralist Award. Their classmate Devin Sullivan worked with both students on the memorials. Eighteen schools participated in this North American competition, and the GW Law team argued a total of five times during the two days of preliminary and final rounds. The team will next argue in October in the World Competition to be held in Dubai against teams from Africa, Asia, and Europe. The team was coached by Professor Henry Hertzfeld, renowned expert on space law, Professorial Lecturer in Law at the law school, and Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

The GW Law team of Leah Calabro, John Catalfamo, Claire Connor, and Mary Grupp progressed to the advancement rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Global Rounds. The team will now compete against teams from China, the Philippines, Germany, and Chile. The team is coached by renowned international law expert, Professorial Lecturer in Law, and GW Law alum Trent Buatte. Mr. Buatte also serves as attorney-adviser for the U.S. State Department. Learn more about the competition →

GW Law students Tiange (Tim) Chen and Danni Shannel, both 3Ls, competed in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in preliminary rounds this past spring. They faced various teams from schools around the world, including the University of Silesia, the University of Florence, University of Paris Dauphine, and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The team was coached by Kiran Gore, counsel in the Law Offices of Charles H. Camp and Professorial Lecturer in Law. Read more about the competition→

Nudrat Piracha earned an SJD in May 2020 after successfully defending her dissertation “Toward Uniformly Accepted Principles for Interpreting MFN Clauses: Striking a Better Balance Between State Sovereignty and the Protection of Investors.” The dissertation advances a set of interpretive principles that should guide international courts and tribunals when interpreting most-favored nation (MFN) clauses and provides recommendations for a more balanced regime. The dissertation defense committee was led by Professor Sean Murphy and included Judge Charles Brower, Adjunct Professor Stanimir Alexandrov, and Associate Dean Rosa Celorio. The dissertation has been recently published by Wolters Kluwer in the book Toward Uniformly Accepted Principles for Interpreting MFN Clauses, which provides an overview of the complex ambiguities surrounding interpretation and application of MFN clauses.

Professor Berman edited The Oxford Handbook of Global Legal Pluralism, newly released by Oxford University Press. In the book, Professor Berman helps define the field of global legal pluralism and analyzes how the law operates in a world that includes multiple legal systems and authorities. The book includes contributions from more than 40 authors from different countries and disciplines who cover key areas in legal pluralism research. Professor Berman is one of the leading global theorists on the effects of globalization in the interactions among legal systems. He is the author of nearly 60 scholarly works, including Global Legal Pluralism: A Jurisprudence of Law Beyond Borders, published by Cambridge University Press (2012). Read more about Professor Berman's Scholarship →

Dean Celorio was appointed Chair of the Membership Committee and Next Generation Initiative of the American Society of International Law. She is also serving as Senior Advisor to the CEDAW Committee in the drafting of its new General Recommendation on Indigenous Women and Girls, and she continues to serve as International Human Rights Dispute Resolution Authority between the government of Belize and the Maya Indigenous Peoples. Dean Celorio also served as a Commissioner in a Community Hearing on the Impact of the Colombian Armed Conflict on Afro-Colombian Women organized by CUNY Law School, MADRE, and the Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN) on April 19, 2021 in Bogotá, Colombia. On March 11, 2021, Dean Celorio also addressed the World Bank on “Intersectional Discrimination, Inclusion, Women, and Race: Reflections in Commemoration of International Women’s Day.” Dean Celorio was also a featured speaker in the following events: “Sexual Violence, Reparations, and the Armed Conflict in Colombia,” organized by the Center for Justice and International Law on May 25, 2021; “Discrimination and the Regional Human Rights Protection Systems” organized by the National School of Judges and UNISINOS in Brazil on April 16, 2021; and “International Symposium: Globalization in a Post-COVID World: Retreat or Revival?” organized by the Foundation for Law and International Affairs on February 27, 2021.

In April 2021, Professor Sean D. Murphy appeared before the International Court of Justice on behalf of Uganda in Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda). The same month, he participated in the podcast “Treaty Interpretation and the Updated ICRC Commentaries on the Geneva Conventions” (Jus Cogens: The International Law Podcast, Part 1 [Apr. 21, 2021] & Part 2 [Apr. 27, 2021]). He published a short essay, “Concluding Remarks on The Function of the Commission: How Much Identifying Existing Law, How Much Proposing New Law?,” in Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future 277 (U.N., ed., 2021). In addition, Professor Murphy presented at events on “Democracy Under Threat” at the American Society of International Law Virtual Annual Meeting (Mar. 26, 2021) and “The International Law Commission: Issues of Relevance to the Department of Justice” for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Foreign Litigation (Washington, D.C., .Mar. 2, 2021). As an arbitrator, he served on a panel that issued a final award in Agility Public Warehousing Company v. Iraq, ICSID Case No. ARB/17/7, Award (Feb. 22, 2021).

On February 3, 2021, the International and Comparative Law Program with the co-sponsorship of the International Law Society, held a Zoom event titled “The E.U. and the New U.S. Administration.” Andrej Matić, Legal Adviser at the European Parliament Liaison Office in Washington, D.C., joined a discussion with Professor Francesca Bignami, Leroy Sorenson Merrifield Research Professor of Law. Mr. Matić discussed key issues in the European Union, including climate change, COVID-19, trade, the rule of law, and data protection. The discussion also referred to the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the accession process of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights. 

On Thursday, February 18, 2021, U.S. Department of State officials Richard C. Visek, Acting Legal Adviser; David Huitema, Assistant Legal Adviser, Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Ethics and Financial Disclosure; Jennifer Landsidle, Attorney-Adviser, Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Consular Affairs; Hannah Lobel, Attorney-Adviser, Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs; and Meg Pickering, Attorney-Adviser, Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Human Rights and Refugees discussed their work and experiences with transitions between U.S. administrations. The event, moderated by Associate Dean Rosa Celorio and organized by Ronald Bettauer, was co-sponsored by GW Law, the American Society of International Law, and the ABA Section on International Law. “Live from L” is an annual program featuring members of the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser discussing a topic of current interest.

On February 25, 2021, Eduardo Silva Romero, Partner at Dechert LLP Paris, France; Dr. Claudia Frutos-Peterson, Managing Partner at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, Washington, D.C.; and Natalí Sequeira, Team Leader and Legal Counsel at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes joined a discussion on how investment arbitration has been impacted by COVID-19, specifically in Latin America. The event was moderated by Rafael Cox Alomar, Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. GW Law’s International Arbitration Student Association and the International Law Society co-sponsored the event.

On Thursday, March 18, 2021, the International and Comparative Law Program, the Washington Center of the Institut des Amériques, and the International Law Society hosted a virtual panel discussion about “Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights, and Legal Pluralism.” Walter Echo Hawk, Native American author and attorney, and Rauna Kuokkanen, Sami Research Professor of Arctic Indigenous Studies at the University of Lapland, discussed issues related to human rights, indigenous justice systems, and legal pluralism. The conversation was particularly insightful in a context in which indigenous peoples around the world face key challenges to see their rights to self-determination, territories, consultation, and consent fully respected in the local and global spheres. Dean Celorio moderated the panel discussion, and LLM student Laura Cahier organized the event and offered comments.