Informational Reportto the Aba House of Delegates

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AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

SECTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

INFORMATIONAL REPORTTO THE ABA HOUSE OF DELEGATES

Membership

The Section of International Law (the “Section”) has approximately 18,000members as of August2017 (including lawyer members, associate members, and student members): more than 50% of our lawyer members and non-US lawyer licensed associate members are in private practice; 10% are in-house counsel; and nearly 20% live outside the United States, in more than 100 countries.

Member outreach follow-up activities since the Annual Meeting have included:

• Exhibit booth at the International Bar Association Meeting (IBA) in Sydney, Australia in October 2017, and Section chair speaking on several panels.
• Exhibit table at the 2017 International Law Weekend in New York City, in October 2017.
• Exhibit booths at the Section’s Fall Meeting in Miami, Florida, October 2017.
• A networking dinner cruise around Biscayne, Bay at the Section’s Fall Meeting in Miami, Florida, October 2017.

• Pathways to Employment in International Lawprograms for law students and young lawyers at the Section’s Fall Meeting in Miami, Duke University School of Law, Georgetown Law School, University of Denver School of Law, New York University and Fordham Law.
• The Section had organized a conference in San Juan for October 2017 to engage with local bar leaders, which was canceled due to the storms.

Diversity Fellowship Program

The Section’s Diversity Fellows Program has been a success. The Program provides scholarships to young diverse lawyers to encourage active involvement and participation in Section activities. The goal of the program is to give lawyers with diverse backgrounds as described by ABA Goal III an opportunity to become involved in Section Committees and programs with the potential to be future leaders of the Section. The first group of six Section Diversity Fellows have just concluded their two-year Fellowship and a new group of three Fellows has been selected and will begin orientation into the Section in January 2018. Several of the initial Fellows have remained active in Section activities and leadership.

City Chapters

In July 2011, the Section and the ABA Standing Committee on Membership obtained approval from the Board of Governors to create International City Chapters. International City Chapters serve as “meeting points” for ABAmembers who live and/or practice outside the U.S. The Paris Chapter held a program with ABA President Hilarie Bass in December 2017 and the Tokyo City Chapter held a reception in November 2017 and is organizing two programs in December 2017. A November 27, 2017 “best practices” call moderated by Membership Officer Patrick Del Duca included a review by City Chapter leaders in Buenos Aires, Paris, San Diego-Tijuana, Tokyo and Vienna of current and planned activities.

Providing Opportunities for Our Student Members

We are supporting the ABA membership initiative giving students free membership and continuing with free Section membership for one year after graduation. We also have a volunteer program at our seasonal meetings where we invite local law students in the city of the meeting to volunteer their time in support of the meeting in exchange for free registration where they can network, learn and be mentored by senior Section members.We have an active New Member & Law Student Committee and continue to coordinatea mentorship program within the Section. We have also developed a “boot camp” series to introduce students to international law. The Section chair also spoke at George Washington University following the World Bank Conference in November, and discussed further student opportunities with GW faculty and administrators.

Expanding Our Outreach and Visibility within the ABA

Chair Steven Richman serves on the SOC Committee on ONEABA and Chair-Elect Robert Brown is SOC Chair-Elect class representative. Richman also serves on the ROLI board.

Immediate Past Chair Sara Sandford is a member of the Asia Law Initiative Council and is the ABA Representative to LAWASIA. She is also a member of the Perspectives editorial board (the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession’s publication).

Former Section Chairs Michael Byowitz and Josh Markus are members of the ABA Board of Governors. Michael is also Chair of the Fellows of the American Bar Association.

Deborah Enix-Ross, a former Section Chair, is Chair of the Association House of Delegates.

Former Chairs Gabrielle Buckley, Jeffrey Golden and Glenn Hendrix are Section Delegates to the ABA House of Delegates. Gabrielle is also a member of the ABA Commission on Immigration.

Immediate Past Chair Lisa Savitt is a member of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative MENA Council. Former Chair Jeffrey Golden is a member of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative Africa Council. Diversity Officer Mark Wojcik is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress.

Expanding Our Outreach and Visibilityoutside the ABA

The Section believes that by identifying and engaging organizations and associations of international lawyers with missions, interests, and goals complimentary to the Section’s,it can increase membership and can speak with a more knowledgeable, powerful, and effective voice.

The Section works with manyinternational bar associations and organizations on cross marketing, membership outreach and joint activities. We also have liaisons to more than one hundred outside bar associations and organizations, including:

American Society of International Law (ASIL)

Association Internationale des Jeunes Avocats (AIJA)

Bar Council of England and Wales

Barra Mexicana

Canadian Bar Association, National Section on International Law (CBA-NSIL)

Croatian Bar Association

German Bar Association, International Committee

German Federal Bar Association

Ghana Bar Association

Hispanic National Bar Association

Inter-American Bar Association

International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)

International Bar Association (IBA)

International Law Students Association (ILSA)

Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA)

Israel Bar Association

Italian Bar Association (“Consiglio Nazionale Forense”)

Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA)

Korean Bar Association (KBA)

LAWASIA

Law Society of England and Wales (LSEW)

Law Society of Ireland

Montréal Bar Association

Nigerian Bar Association

Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU)

Paris Bar Association – International Law Section

Québec Bar Association

Shanghai Bar Association

Union International des Avocats (UIA)

Union of Turkish Bar Associations

Every quarter, Section liaisons file a report with the Section Liaison Officer who, in turn, reports to the Section’s Administration Committee. A copy of the Liaison Officer’s most recent report can be found here.

The Section’s Liaison Officer and staff continued to update the database of contacts, leadership, meeting information, and other key dates for those associations with which it has a liaison relationship, as well as many other international legal organizations. The Section has also developed a user-friendly, accessible world map hosted on our website.

Starting in the 2010-2011 ABA year, the Section has been given responsibility for the International Liaison Office, which includes management of the Distinguished Guest Program at the Annual Meeting, and staffing an ABA exhibit booth at the International Bar Association Annual Conference. The Section has helped with planning ABA Presidential trips overseas, and related budget oversight for many years.

Section chair, Steven Richman, not only attended the annual meetings of AIJA, UIA and IBA, but organized and spoke on ABA-sponsored panels on artificial intelligence, privacy law and legal ethics issues.

In addition, as part of an outreach to the Caribbean for membership and visibility, chair, Steven Richman, attended and spoke at the annual CLE conference of the Jamaica Bar Association.

The Section Chair also attended a meeting at ABA Washington headquarters for a visit by the Israeli Attorney General.

Updating Our Strategic Plan

Section leadership spent significant time this year updating the Section’s strategic plan. Through this exercise, Section Leadership reaffirmed the mission of the Section, the means for achieving that mission, and mapped out strategies for addressing specific issues such as membership, overhead, and non-dues revenue.

Our Publications Program Continues toExpand

The Section’s law journal The International Lawyer, is published three times a year and its newsletter, International Law News, is published quarterly.The International Lawyervol. 50 n. 3was published on October 20, 2017. The Year in Review, previously included as an issue of The International Lawyer, is now its own annual publication. The Year in Review, as its name suggests, is an annual survey of the law from around the world.

International Law News (ILN) is the Section’s quarterly magazine. It keeps Section members informed about current international law developments, provides substantive analysis of key international law issues, and offers concrete, how-to advice for practitioners. It is also an important source of Section news and information.

The Section Chair sends a monthly newsletter to all Section members including updates on Section activity, reports from selected Officers and highlights on Section activities.

The Section’s most recentbooks are:

1. an autobiographical monograph, The Deported by Allan Gerson, probing the tensions raised by the author’s governmental prosecutorial role in the deportation of Nazis based on lies told in the immigration process with the author’s family history as holocaust refugees; and
2. Mexico and Its Legal System.: Lawyers’ Essays on the Continuing Evolution, a multi-author work springing from the Section’s Mexico Committee spotlighting fundamental aspects of Mexico’s legal system, with focus on developments that directly confront social demands for enhanced rule of law and access to justice, as well as the continuing challenges of conforming legal institutions to needs of contemporary society.

We Have Continued Our Leadership in Developing International Policy

The Section’s Council met in October in Miami to discuss a range of topics. The Council heard remarks from President A.B. Mahmoud, Nigerian Bar Association, and an update from its Liaison to the ABA Board of Governors, Hon. Eileen Kato.The Council approved a Report with Resolution (R&R) on the adoption of a model provision related to cross-border data flows for trade agreements (Privacy, E-Commerce and Data Security Committee) which is being considered by ABA House of Delegates at the Midyear Meeting.The Council also heard remarks from ABA President Hilarie Bass and from ABA President-Elect Robert Carlson.

The Section’s Council also before the Annual Meeting last August in New York City. It welcomed and received remarks fromHyun Sik Shin and Sungman Kim, Korean Bar. Ajay K. Mehrotra from the American Bar Foundation (ABF) addressed the Council and Judge Sukru provided an update on the Turkish rule of law crisis. The Council also received an update from the Section delegates on the status of the R&Rs which the Council had previously approved to go to the House of Delegates at the Annual Meeting. In addition, the Council voted to support two other R&Rs: R&R State Department War Crimes Office Closure and R&R Immigration Enforcement in Courthouses.

The Section, often with other Sections, submitted a number of blanket authority policy initiatives including: joint comments Regarding CMA Guidance on Penalties comments on September 27, 2017; joint comments on China's draft revisions to its merger review rules on October 6, 2017; comments on NAFTA Negotiations Regarding Modernization of North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, November 2, 2017; joint comments on the Canadian Competition Bureau’s big data paper, November 16, 2017; and joint comments on the French Competition Authority’s consultation dated October 20, 2017, concerning the modernization and simplification of France’s merger control law, November 30, 2017.

The Section has also focused on the fusion of private and public international law, and has promoted corporate social responsibility through various addresses of its chair to outside entities.

Committees Are Our Lifeblood

The Section has more than fifty substantive and special-focus committees, including ten regional committees, covering virtually all aspects of international and transnational law. These committees provide our members with the opportunity to work together on various projects within the Section, including programming, policy, rule of law activities, and publications. To keep their members engaged and to promote communication, committees hold regular business calls and maintain active Listserv lists, which exchange over300 messages per month. The Section is currently in the process of transitioning committees to Higher Logic, the ABA’s new member community platform. Committees have their own individual web pages to post relevant information and links and to allow all members access to their leadership lists. They produce over twenty practice-specific publications and electronic newsletters of various varieties including those focused on “hot topics” and those with a mix of articles and committee updates. They also coordinate programs for Section conferences as well as smaller non-CLE teleconferences and in-person programs. Since August 2017, our committees have organized non-CLE programs on a variety of topics, including:

The Changing Landscape of M&A in India – a teleconference program organized by the India Committee.

The Emerging Arctic Market: New Trends, Key Players, and Why It Matters to Everyone South of the North Pole – a teleconference program organized by the Eurasia/Russia Committee.

The Employment Law World Tour– a series of teleconference programs organized by the International Employment Law Committee, providing an overview of employment law in 13 regions and countries worldwide.

Committees also providemembers with additional opportunities to network and contribute to the work of the Section during Sectionconferences. Committees organize informal committee meetings at designated meals and also formal business meetings in breakout rooms. During the Fall Conference in Miami, forty-fivecommittees met duringtwo committee breakfasts and twenty-two gathered for the committee dinner and Committee Awards ceremony. At the ceremony, we honored committees and members for their outstanding work this year, including presenting the International Arbitration Committee with the 2017 Outstanding Committee Award and announcing Walter Stuber and Steven Hendrix as the winners of the 2017 Outstanding Volunteer Award. The full list of 2017-18 Committee Award winners is below:

2017 Outstanding Committee
International Arbitration Committee

2017 Most Improved Committee
Eurasia/Russia Committee

Outstanding 2016 Fall Meeting Program
Asia/Pacific Committee: "Storms in the South China Sea"

Outstanding 2017 Spring Meeting Program
International Financial Products & Services Committee: "Financial Crisis Reform...or a Financial Crisis/ Missed Opportunity?"
International Life Sciences & Health Law Committee: "The New Borderless State: Epidemic Diseases, Health Security and the Global Response"

2017 Outstanding Program at a Forum
Americas Forum (Bogota) Steering Committee: "The Current Status of the Colombian Peace Process: Will the Peace Process Finally Bring Closure to a 52 Year Conflict?" (Plenary – Americas Forum)

2017 Outstanding Committee Non-CLE Program
International Trade Committee: "Recent Initiatives by the U.S. Government to Combat Forced Labor Practices"

2017 Outstanding Collaborative Effort Between Committees
Immigration & Naturalization Committee and Middle East Committee: R&Rs on Executive Orders on Immigration – Travel Ban

2017 Outstanding Policy
International Human Rights Committee: R&R on Arms Trade Treaty

2017 Outstanding Project
US Lawyers Abroad Committee

2017 Outstanding Committee Newsletter
Latin America & Caribbean Committee: "Latin American Legal Developments (LALD)

2017 Outstanding YIR Contribution
International Courts Committee

2017 Outstanding Committee Website
National Security Committee

2017 Best Use of Social Media
Young Lawyers Interest Network (YIN)

2017 Outstanding Volunteer
Walter Stuber
Steven Hendrix

2017 Unsung Member
Deniz Tamer

Our Programming Is Global

The Section has held two successful conferences since the AnnualMeeting:

2017 ABA Moscow Dispute Resolution Conference - The ABA’s 9th Annual Resolution of International Business Disputes; Moscow, Russia; December 8, 2017

This 9th Annual Conference brought together over 100 lawyers from around the globe for a day of networking and programming. Programs were presented in an interactive round table format with multiple concurrent sessions. Given sustained success for over seven years, this program has made a name for itself as the premier CIS-related disputes conference in the region.

2017 Fall Conference in the Americas

The Fall Conference was held in Miami, FLfrom October 24-27 and had more than 600 attendees. The Fall Conference offered everything our members have come to expect from the Section’s conferences– the programing mentioned above, intense networking with colleagues from over 45 countries in an open and a friendly atmosphere, and opportunities to shape the policy agenda of the Section and broader American Bar Association. Luminaries who joined us included OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, Ana Salas Siegel, and University of Miami Julio Frenk.

The Section jointly sponsored a program with the Judicial Division at the 2018 Midyear Meeting on “View from the Bench: The State of International Law.”

Recognizing the trend in international legal conferences and legal education, the Section continues to refine its specialty programming around the world.

In addition, in Miami at its fall Americas conference, the Section featured a plenary session on women entrepreneurs, and a panel consisting of judges to speak about international law in contemporary judicial decision-making. A comparable program is planned for Vancouver.

Section Awards

Louis B. Sohn Award for Public International Law: Homer Moyer

In honor of Section Chair Louis B. Sohn (1992-93), this award is presented to those persons who have made distinguished, long-standing contributions to the field of public international law. The Section selected Homer Moyer as this year’s recipient of the Louis B. Sohn Award for Public International Law. Mr. Moyer is regarded as one of the country's leading Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) lawyers, and Mr. Moyer is an authority on U.S. and international anti-corruption law. He has represented and advised dozens of clients, written and spoken on the subject extensively, chaired more than thirty national and international conferences, produced a training video, and served as an SEC-appointed Independent Compliance Consultant. Mr. Moyer accepted his award in person at the Friday Annual Meeting Dinner on August 11 during the ABA Annual Meeting in New York.