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maelorin at 10:00pm on 29/02/2004
maelorin at 10:00pm on 29/02/2004some thoughts on the international law conference that i have just been on/to.
the conference ran from friday morning to saturday evening. dozens of high profile international lawyers from around australia and across the world, here in aus to discuss the role of international law in and after armed conflict.
my brain is still digesting stuff. still mashing ideas around. i'm tired as hell, and i love it.
some themes that came out in the conference were:
i think i'm gonna enjoy being a legal educator. i'll get to think about stuff, and get challenged to think about it some more, while desperately trying ot think of ways to get it all across to my students.
the conference ran from friday morning to saturday evening. dozens of high profile international lawyers from around australia and across the world, here in aus to discuss the role of international law in and after armed conflict.
my brain is still digesting stuff. still mashing ideas around. i'm tired as hell, and i love it.
some themes that came out in the conference were:
- lawyers need to bring a multi-disciplinary approach to conflict resolution;
- they need to be open to the realities of the context of conflict;
- they ought to be positive and optomistic about the role of international and domestic law in conflict resolution;
- they are partners in the process - and law is part of the conflict resolution toolkit;
- we are a diverse community ourselves.
i think i'm gonna enjoy being a legal educator. i'll get to think about stuff, and get challenged to think about it some more, while desperately trying ot think of ways to get it all across to my students.
prepositions
I'm jealous of your excellent sounding international law conference. International law has always seemed such a murky subject, and is taught here at UGA by an allegedy brilliant man who is slightly more dull than watching grass grow. I thought I was going to love the subject, since I enjoy trying to keep up with world affairs, but he sucked the life out of it entirely.
Re: prepositions
as for international law - get hold of a decent textbook and fill many hours of quite time reading. [a recent text being a good idea, obviously]
can't offhand, recommend a good book - i have no idea what your library has in stock ;) besides, you might find reading more than one to be a good idea - this is an area of extremely diverse opinion as to practically every idea and point of law you might imagine.
my main interests in international law cluster around human rights, humanitarian law, and the law of armed conflict. but i have been know to wander into trade law, maritime law, and other areas. [certainly not going to be you everyday high school teacher ;)]
[finally, who is your i.l. guy?]
Re: prepositions
and i did read the book in a desperate attempt to learn the material since class was soporific. it was interesting, but confusing. i think i find the theory of international law in general to be an interesting concept - is it the relation of independent states with no real force or is it an actual set of binding rules? if it is binding rules, how can that fit with the modern conception of law as something like a social contract or mutual coercion mutually agreed upon? (have you read john rawls on this subject? i wish i coudl remember the name of his latest book - it was short, to the point and presented a very interesting theory on how to create a more binding international law.)
but all the questions that make international law interesting to me also make it a very slippery concept, which is not something i want to mess around with in my professional life. for me, international law is purely academic.
that's a pretty diverese range of interests. your students ought to be well entertained (oh and i guess educated too!).