Conference OverviewIn 1989, Germans tore down a wall that divided their country and the whole of Europe. Stepping through the hole in the Berlin Wall, they took the first steps towards the reunification of West and East Germany and the end of the Cold War. Today another wall is being torn down - that between purely domestic law and international law. Companies are engaged in international trade at ever increasing rates. Environmental degradation has proved to be a global problem that cannot be solved with uncoordinated local measures. Individuals worldwide are pressing their governments for the recognition of a common set of human rights.
These and other aspects of an increasingly interdependent world each present new challenges and opportunities for national judiciaries. In many cases, purely domestic law has given way to an amalgam of domestic law, foreign law and international law. This conference will consider how globalization has affected the work of judging—from needing to address threats that emanate from beyond one’s borders to the practice of analogizing from the experiences of foreign courts to the growing size and complexity of the international judiciary. Is globalization better understood as a process helping the spread of the rule of law or as an external impediment to local justice?
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Conference DatesWednesday, November 8Queens Campus
Thursday, November 9 Manhattan Campus
Friday, November 10 Queens Campus