Troubled Waters: Combating Maritime Policy with the Rule of Law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC, March 31, 2010 – American University Washington College of Law will host a conference titled “Troubled Waters: Combating Maritime Piracy with the Rule of Law,” on March 31, 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. The event will include a keynote address from Andrew Shapiro, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.

For centuries the threat of piracy in international and territorial waters has prompted the development of laws to address piracy's economic and human cost. The results can be seen everywhere from Congress' Article I power to define and punish piracy to broader international efforts such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Despite these efforts, there have been hundreds of attacks off the Horn of Africa and throughout the South Pacific in this year alone. This conference will try to determine whether existing laws are the most effective response available, and if the economic and social costs of piracy warrant stronger legal initiatives.

The event is presented by the American University Law Revue.

When: March 31, 2010

            9 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.

Where: American University Washington College of Law

             4801 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20016, Room 603

Full Schedule:

8:30 am            Registration

9:00 am            Welcome Remarks – David Courchaine, Editor-in-Chief, American University Law Review

9:15 am            Modern Approaches to a Historical Problem

Joel Samuels, Professor, South Carolina School of Law

Milena Sterio, Professor, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

James Gathii, Professor, Albany Law School

10:45 am           Break

11:00 am           The Costs of Lawlessness: Commercial & Economic Responses to Piracy

Geoffrey Rapp, Professor, University of Toledo College of Law

Bruce Paulsen, Partner, Seward & Kissel LLP

Jennifer Martin, Professor of Law, University of Oregon School of Law

Moderated by:  Steven Snell, Adjunct Faculty, American University Washington College of Law.

12:30 pm          Lunch with keynote speaker:  Andrew Shapiro, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.  Introduction by Claudio Grossman, Dean, American University Washington College of Law

2:15 pm            Military Responses and Contemporary National Security

Cdr. James Kraska, Professor, Naval War College

Thomas Countryman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs

Ruth Wedgwood, Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at the School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University. 

Moderated by:  Tyler Rauert, Assistant Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies.

3:45 pm            Reception

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