Jean Monnet Program Grants – EU Law

The European Commission is accepting grant proposals under the Jean Monnet Programme for projects furthering the teaching, research, dispersal of information, and debate on the European integration process. Educational institutions, professors, and researchers from anywhere in the world may apply for a grant. Proposals may include conferences, seminars, roundtables, and meetings, as well as the […]

UN Day 2008 – Celebrating Treaty Actions

Sixty-three years ago on October 24, 1945, the UN Charter entered into force and became legally binding upon 29 countries. The preamble to the UN Charter envisioned the establishment of an international organization “to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be […]

Quotas for Electing Women: Path to Empowerment or Peril? Part 1

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) released a report last month titled, “Progress of the World’s Women 2008/2009: Who Answers to Women? Gender and Accountability.” The report, in part, examined how countries have implemented their obligations under the Millennium Development Goals to increase the number of women in public office. The good news […]

Quotas for Electing Women: Path to Empowerment or Peril? Part 2

Part II continues the discussion on whether legally mandated quotas should be used as affirmative mechanisms to increase women’s political representation in national legislatures. The discussion explores the advantages of legally mandated quotas systems used in 46 countries, the perils of quotas, and whether quota systems could be considered discriminatory under international human rights law.

Georgetown Law Graduation 2008

Oyez, oyez, oyez . . . Over the course of the past three years, learned professors at Georgetown University Law Center have continued the time-honored tradition of prying answers to practical problems, theoretical issues, and increasingly bizarre scenarios from the scrappy crew of students — including me — seated far beneath them in lecture halls. […]