Senior Judge Judith M. Barzilay visits University of Florida Levin College of Law

I was pleased to host my friend, Judge Judith Barzilay of the U.S. Court of International Trade on October 18-19, 2011, on behalf of the College of Law. As the story in the link below describes, Judge Barzilay made a presentation on balancing environmental protection against U.S. international obligations in my International Trade and the Environment class, then followed the next day with a law school-wide lecture on the interplay of international treaties and federal U.S. law. Despite 200 years for potential interpretation, courts still cannot seem to understand the relatively simple lesson of The Charming Betsy that U.S. laws should be interpreted if possible consistently with U.S. international obligations, as those obligations are understood in the United States.

The Judge was a hit with students and faculty alike, both knowledgeable of the law, able to present legal points with clarity to laws students, and personable during her dinner with deans and faculty and lunch with students from the College's active International Law Society. We hope she will return soon.
FlaLaw Online October 24, 2011 - University of Florida Levin College of Law

Presentation at University of Miami Rule of Law Symposium 26 Feb 2011

Together with Professor Alejandro Garro of Columbia Law School, Professor David Gantz of The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, and Dean Claudio Grossman of American University's Washington College of Law, I addressed on February 26, 2011, the cogent themes of the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review's Symposium on The Human Element: The Impact of Regional Trade Agreements on Human Rights and the Rule of Law. My remarks noted that Latin American governments recently have enacted effective laws ensuring to civil society transparency and accountability in promulgation of regulations and decision making. In no small part, these laws result from windows opened by dispute settlement systems in dozens of regional trade agreements.

My comments synthesize lessons from my last three research projects and my Just Trade book with Professor Berta Hernandez-Truyol toward specific and viable methods to "splendidly integrate" international trade law and international human rights law. I invite your comments on the speech, which may be found at BestThinking.com