Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute Welcomes Distinguished Visiting International Law Professors
Professors Guy Goodwin-Gill, Claus Kress and Guglielmo Verdirame, experts in international law, are visitors to the Law School.
New York, February 9, 2015—Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute announced the arrival of three distinguished international law experts as visitors to the law school during the spring 2015 term.
Claus Kress, a professor at the University of Cologne, is an expert on international criminal law, international humanitarian law, and human rights. Director of the Institute for International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne, Professor Kress has represented Germany in state negotiations regarding the International Criminal Court since 1998, and was an External Adviser to the Turkel Commission in 2011-12. In 2014 he was awarded the M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award for “outstanding academic service to international criminal law.”
Guglielmo Verdirame is a professor of international law at the Department of War Studies and the School of Law at King's College London and a barrister with 20 Essex Street chambers. Professor Verdirame has served as counsel and an adviser to governments and corporations on a wide range of issues of public international law, including human rights and the law of armed conflict, boundary disputes, immunity, and the law of the sea. He will be teaching a course at the law school on contemporary issues in international human rights.
Guy Goodwin-Gill is the world’s leading expert on international refugee law and a barrister with Blackstone Chambers, London. Professor Goodwin-Gill recently stepped down as the Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford Univeristy, and he has written extensively on refugees, migration, international organizations, elections, democratization, and child soldiers. He recently advised the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on statelessness and assisted the UN Division on Legal Affairs in drafting treaties on refugees and stateless persons. During his visit to Columbia Law School, Goodwin-Gill will lecture on human rights and refugee law.
“We are extremely privileged to welcome these internationally renowned experts to the law school this term,” stated Professor Sarah H. Cleveland, the Louis Henkin Professor of Human and Constitutional Rights and Faculty Co-Director of the Human Rights Institute. “They bring deep expertise at the intersection of human rights and refugee law, international criminal law, and the law of armed conflict that will augment our own work in these fields.”
“We look forward to the contributions of these scholars to the public international law dialogue at Columbia Law School,” stated Professor Sarah Knuckey, the Lieff Cabraser Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Human Rights Clinic and Faculty Co-Director of the Human Rights Institute. “Their presence here offers unique opportunities for our students to gain new insights into the role of international law and lawyers in efforts to promote justice and resolve conflicts.”
The international law experts will speak at a number of public events hosted by the Human Rights Institute. Goodwin-Gill will give a public lecture on the current crisis in refugee law on February 16, 2015. Professor Kress will give a public lecture on February 17, 2015 on navigating peace and justice in the Colombian peace negotiations. Professor Verdirame will give a public lecture on the relationship between human rights and international humanitarian law on March 2, 2015.
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