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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Installment One

Guest Post By: Kaitlin Ball, President, Georgia Society of International and Comparative Law        

When one thinks of international law or relations, New York, Washington D.C., or San Francisco pop to mind.  The state of Georgia—and certainly not the small town of Athens—are decidedly absent from this list.  Hidden among Athens’s incredible music scene and the University of Georgia’s 35,000+ students, however, is the Dean Rusk for International Law and Policy, which calls itself home to some of the most palpable presences in international law. 

  The Dean Rusk Center was established in 1977 to expand the scope of research, teaching, and service in international law and policy in order to increase understanding of international issues, provide a sound basis for foreign policy decision-making, and contribute solutions to global problems. Named for Dean Rusk, the United States Secretary of State from 1961-1969 and a member of the UGA Law faculty from 1990-1994, the Center serves as a nucleus for collaboration between University of Georgia School of Law faculty and students, the law school community, and diverse international partners on foreign and transnational legal and policy matters.

  Aside from Secretary Rusk, the Dean Rusk Center has called itself home to such international law greats as Louis Sohn, who helped establish the United Nations and represented the U.S. in the Law of the Sea Convention, and Daniel M. Bondansky.  Currently, one can find former ambassador of trade C. Donald Johnson or Diane Marie Amann, the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law and Special Adviser on Children in Armed Conflict to the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor. 

  Other international law faculty include Harlan G. Cohen, who has recently published one of the seminal pieces on the fragmentation of international law in the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, as well as Timothy Meyer, a former lawyer for the State Department who teaches a course on international business transactions and specializes in international environmental law when he’s not busy giving talks at the United Nations University.  Last but not least is Peter “Bo” Rutledge, who is so renowned for his expertise in international dispute resolution that he spent a year as a Fulbright Professor at the Institut für Zivilverfahrensrecht at the University of Vienna Law School.

  Recently, the Dean Rusk Center hosted a conference commemorating the 50th year of the Cuban embargo, showcasing the who’s-who of Cuban-American relations and policy.  Students truly had the opportunity to be in the thick of it as things literally began to happen.  Ambassadors and lawyers were passing notes reading “the Russians found oil.”  Know who knew before the rest of the world that a Russian oil company found oil off the shore of Cuba?  Anyone who happened to be in a little town called Athens at the Dean Rusk Center’s Cuban Embargo Conference. 

  Some of the biggest shadows in international law are cast from the Dean Rusk Center, and I challenge those dedicated to pursuing a career in international law—any kind of international law—to come scale our tower of learning.  Don’t be fooled by the little town; big things happen here.