Tipping Points in International Law: Commitment and Critique (CUP, with Jean d'Aspremont)), 2021
When experts interested in global governance, such as international lawyers, talk about our world... more When experts interested in global governance, such as international lawyers, talk about our world of struggle, it is often framed as facing a shifting set of crises - or 'tipping points'. This essay is an introduction (along with another introduction by co-editor Jean d'Aspremont), which reflects on the rhetorical motif of 'tipping point' and its aesthetic wrappings and what that helps us understand what it means to experience tipping points in international law. For the book, see http://services.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/public-international-law/tipping-points-international-law-commitment-and-critique?format=HB&isbn=9781108845106
Political Theology and International Law offers an account of the intellectual debates surroundin... more Political Theology and International Law offers an account of the intellectual debates surrounding the term 'political theology' in academic literature concerning international law. Beneath these differences is a shared tradition, or genre, within the literature that reinforces particular styles of characterising and engaging predicaments in global politics. The text develops an argument toward another way of thinking about what political theology might offer international law scholarship - a politics of truth.
This paper looks at the ways international law (especially scholarship)s struggles to engage digi... more This paper looks at the ways international law (especially scholarship)s struggles to engage digital technologies.
This essay examines an emerging epistemological conjuncture between what might loosely be identif... more This essay examines an emerging epistemological conjuncture between what might loosely be identified as two (primarily) academic camps: economists subscribing to "modern money theory" (MMT) and international lawyers associated with "critical" traditions within the discipline. For many legal scholars, my sense is that their current experience with MMT varies from "I think I have heard of that before" to "that state theory to money that pushes for a universal job guarantee." And many progressive economists familiar with MMT have not spent a significant time with the insights and sensibility of critical international law scholarship. My aim here is to explore where there might be fruitful collaboration between these communities.
A quantitative/qualitative study of the US law school institutional engagement with 'law and tech... more A quantitative/qualitative study of the US law school institutional engagement with 'law and technology'.
The review essay looks at Yelle's recent work as a prism to reflect more broadly on the rhetorica... more The review essay looks at Yelle's recent work as a prism to reflect more broadly on the rhetorical and sociological life of the law and religion genre.
The paper reflects on how international legal scholarship suppresses the lived political realitie... more The paper reflects on how international legal scholarship suppresses the lived political realities of professional life and practice, with a specific focus on the yearbook medium.
An increasing number of international law scholars over the last few years have started to turn t... more An increasing number of international law scholars over the last few years have started to turn their attention to the study of political economy. To what extent can this trend be considered an indication of an underlying 'disciplinary turn'? How should one understand the phenomenon of disciplinary turns? The answer we propose to this question in this article proceeds from the assumption that not all disciplinary shifts follow the same logic. Unlike the linguistic or the historical turn, the turn to political economy in contemporary international law does not represent an exercise in inter-disciplinary exploration. The concept of political economy used in international law has very little to do with the actual discipline of political economy. It is much more diffuse and unfocused in theoretical terms. What gives it its essential sense of identity is not any form of distinct methodological orientation, but rather its basic usefulness as a potential marker of critical self-distancing vis-`a-vis the mainstream international law tradition and its ideological function as a mediating device for the expression of a deep-seated concern about the structural injustices of modern capitalism.
Part of a collection of articles with Leiden Journal of International Law 2016 concerning Martti ... more Part of a collection of articles with Leiden Journal of International Law 2016 concerning Martti Koskenniemi's monograph, From Apology to Utopia.
Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Jul 2014
Beginning in the early 1990s, Third World Approaches to International Law scholarship (TWAIL) des... more Beginning in the early 1990s, Third World Approaches to International Law scholarship (TWAIL) destabilized the mainstream narrative within international law that its doctrines were constituted by the historic search for order between formally equal state sovereigns. Instead, TWAIL scholars argued that the key constitutive dynamic of the discipline was the colonial experience, which continues to hold powerful sway over the legal architecture of global regulation whereby international law functions to perpetuate inequality and oppression. At the same time, however, TWAIL scholarship regularly posits international law as an emancipatory force that may be mobilized on behalf of former colonized populations and other marginalized social identities. The rise of post-Marxist scholarship, and more generally, the turn to interdisciplinary within the profession in recent years offers an opportunity to analyze this curious paradox and construct alternative modes of analysis for future TWAIL scholarship. In the first section, the paper draws upon a diverse array of TWAIL scholars over the last thirty years to map the argumentative logic within TWAIL literature. In the second section, the paper incorporates debates and insights from complimentary academic disciplines to illuminate some blind spots within TWAIL’s central arguments, and potentially ‘radicalize’ its future possibility of critique against the growing inequality within global governance.
Tipping Points in International Law: Commitment and Critique (CUP, with Jean d'Aspremont)), 2021
When experts interested in global governance, such as international lawyers, talk about our world... more When experts interested in global governance, such as international lawyers, talk about our world of struggle, it is often framed as facing a shifting set of crises - or 'tipping points'. This essay is an introduction (along with another introduction by co-editor Jean d'Aspremont), which reflects on the rhetorical motif of 'tipping point' and its aesthetic wrappings and what that helps us understand what it means to experience tipping points in international law. For the book, see http://services.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/public-international-law/tipping-points-international-law-commitment-and-critique?format=HB&isbn=9781108845106
Political Theology and International Law offers an account of the intellectual debates surroundin... more Political Theology and International Law offers an account of the intellectual debates surrounding the term 'political theology' in academic literature concerning international law. Beneath these differences is a shared tradition, or genre, within the literature that reinforces particular styles of characterising and engaging predicaments in global politics. The text develops an argument toward another way of thinking about what political theology might offer international law scholarship - a politics of truth.
This paper looks at the ways international law (especially scholarship)s struggles to engage digi... more This paper looks at the ways international law (especially scholarship)s struggles to engage digital technologies.
This essay examines an emerging epistemological conjuncture between what might loosely be identif... more This essay examines an emerging epistemological conjuncture between what might loosely be identified as two (primarily) academic camps: economists subscribing to "modern money theory" (MMT) and international lawyers associated with "critical" traditions within the discipline. For many legal scholars, my sense is that their current experience with MMT varies from "I think I have heard of that before" to "that state theory to money that pushes for a universal job guarantee." And many progressive economists familiar with MMT have not spent a significant time with the insights and sensibility of critical international law scholarship. My aim here is to explore where there might be fruitful collaboration between these communities.
A quantitative/qualitative study of the US law school institutional engagement with 'law and tech... more A quantitative/qualitative study of the US law school institutional engagement with 'law and technology'.
The review essay looks at Yelle's recent work as a prism to reflect more broadly on the rhetorica... more The review essay looks at Yelle's recent work as a prism to reflect more broadly on the rhetorical and sociological life of the law and religion genre.
The paper reflects on how international legal scholarship suppresses the lived political realitie... more The paper reflects on how international legal scholarship suppresses the lived political realities of professional life and practice, with a specific focus on the yearbook medium.
An increasing number of international law scholars over the last few years have started to turn t... more An increasing number of international law scholars over the last few years have started to turn their attention to the study of political economy. To what extent can this trend be considered an indication of an underlying 'disciplinary turn'? How should one understand the phenomenon of disciplinary turns? The answer we propose to this question in this article proceeds from the assumption that not all disciplinary shifts follow the same logic. Unlike the linguistic or the historical turn, the turn to political economy in contemporary international law does not represent an exercise in inter-disciplinary exploration. The concept of political economy used in international law has very little to do with the actual discipline of political economy. It is much more diffuse and unfocused in theoretical terms. What gives it its essential sense of identity is not any form of distinct methodological orientation, but rather its basic usefulness as a potential marker of critical self-distancing vis-`a-vis the mainstream international law tradition and its ideological function as a mediating device for the expression of a deep-seated concern about the structural injustices of modern capitalism.
Part of a collection of articles with Leiden Journal of International Law 2016 concerning Martti ... more Part of a collection of articles with Leiden Journal of International Law 2016 concerning Martti Koskenniemi's monograph, From Apology to Utopia.
Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Jul 2014
Beginning in the early 1990s, Third World Approaches to International Law scholarship (TWAIL) des... more Beginning in the early 1990s, Third World Approaches to International Law scholarship (TWAIL) destabilized the mainstream narrative within international law that its doctrines were constituted by the historic search for order between formally equal state sovereigns. Instead, TWAIL scholars argued that the key constitutive dynamic of the discipline was the colonial experience, which continues to hold powerful sway over the legal architecture of global regulation whereby international law functions to perpetuate inequality and oppression. At the same time, however, TWAIL scholarship regularly posits international law as an emancipatory force that may be mobilized on behalf of former colonized populations and other marginalized social identities. The rise of post-Marxist scholarship, and more generally, the turn to interdisciplinary within the profession in recent years offers an opportunity to analyze this curious paradox and construct alternative modes of analysis for future TWAIL scholarship. In the first section, the paper draws upon a diverse array of TWAIL scholars over the last thirty years to map the argumentative logic within TWAIL literature. In the second section, the paper incorporates debates and insights from complimentary academic disciplines to illuminate some blind spots within TWAIL’s central arguments, and potentially ‘radicalize’ its future possibility of critique against the growing inequality within global governance.
European Yearbook of International Economic Law, 2020
The paper reflects on the phenomena of 'political economy' as a research interest in internationa... more The paper reflects on the phenomena of 'political economy' as a research interest in international law scholarship and experiments with a type of engagement that tells a long history of international law's development through largely extra-legal factors.
International Law and Islam: Historical Explorations (Brill, December 2018), https://brill.com/view/title/39499
The chapter addresses methodological challenges for writing scholarship concerning the history of... more The chapter addresses methodological challenges for writing scholarship concerning the history of international law and religion.
Background Practices of Transnational Law (eds. Lianne Boer & Sofia Stolk), https://www.routledge.com/Backstage-Practices-of-Transnational-Law/Boer-Stolk/p/book/9780367086572
The theme running through this analysis is the medium, rather than the content, is the most impor... more The theme running through this analysis is the medium, rather than the content, is the most important aspect of communication and command.
The paper thinks of law through the lens of communication theory and cybernetics.
Law is perceived as a word describing different social instances with specific social rules, and organised into discrete production formats which shape the dynamics of argument and change in the field.
The paper is published as a book chapter in Backstage Practices of Transnational Law, edited by Lianne Boer and Sofia Stolk.
The study here focuses specifically on the tensions between Islam, Christianity, and liberal secu... more The study here focuses specifically on the tensions between Islam, Christianity, and liberal secularism in the context of human rights. On a theoretical level, the paper attempts to map out the contemporary argumentative logic that shapes the available narrative choices, highlight difficulties that arise in whatever direction is privileged, and draw out some potentially questionable assumptions that often seem to guide these scholarly arguments. From a ‘methodology’ standpoint, the paper seeks to foreground a series of difficulties when approaching the topic of law and religion that tend to be ignored and develops a tentative blueprint for potentially fruitful studies in the future. The dominant critique that I will develop is that international legal scholarship, when it seeks to explain or negotiate the apparent conflict between secularism and religion in relation to human rights, ultimately tends to rely on extremely parochial, if not metaphysical, arguments—what we might term, ‘transcendental nonsense’—that reinforces the authority of distinctly Western liberal institutional actors. Of course, to speak explicitly of theory and method in the study of international law and religion requires a certain letting go of immediate preoccupations, but my feeling here is that there is a certain rigidity or predictable rehearsal of rhetorical moves within contemporary debate around this subgenre that may require as a point of pragmatic necessity a certain stepping back and starting over at the beginning to inspect the analytical toolkits we carry with us into the field.
Transitology refers to the economic and socio-political reform efforts by Western governance to t... more Transitology refers to the economic and socio-political reform efforts by Western governance to transform non-democratic states, and particularly the former Soviet Union, into a model premised on free-market principles and the rule of law. As a description and set of policy reforms, transitology is constituted on specific ideas about human behavior, societal characteristics and government functions. Though many of its core tenets continue to be popular within governance, it is widely seen as a policy failure in its historical contexts. This entry briefly introduces transitology literature as it relates to the former Soviet Union concerning economic debates and socio-political theory. The entry concludes with a concise discussion of how recent scholarship engages the legacy of transitology in contemporary governance.
The first in a few papers examining method/theory of writing international legal histories. This ... more The first in a few papers examining method/theory of writing international legal histories. This paper is a book chapter in upcoming volume, International Law as a Profession, and examines how international legal histories tend to organize around different agents moving history, how these varieties are similar and different, and some blind spots with these approaches that might point in different future directions for scholarship.
Book Chapter in 'Concepts of International Law' (edited Jean d'Aspremont & Sahib Singh, EE 2019)
The chapter analyzes the concept of 'identity' within international legal scholarship; particular... more The chapter analyzes the concept of 'identity' within international legal scholarship; particularly with an eye toward understanding how and why identity is constructed as a (often productive) 'crisis' to the discipline. The chapter is divided into three contexts, drawing significantly upon US-oriented critical legal theory (section 1 and 2) and the first and second generations of cybernetic studies (section 3).
An excel based study of 'Law and Technology' @ US Law Schools.
For further visualisation formats... more An excel based study of 'Law and Technology' @ US Law Schools. For further visualisation formats of the data, see: https://app.flourish.studio/visualisation/2736840/
A Blog Essay to Crypto Communities. Reflections on Philosophical Underpinnings of Freedom Underly... more A Blog Essay to Crypto Communities. Reflections on Philosophical Underpinnings of Freedom Underlying Crypto Debates.
Excel study and contact info of deans/heads of law schools in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and ... more Excel study and contact info of deans/heads of law schools in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Co-written with Agathe Marmuse, and published via blog, The Faculty Lounge 2017.
This provides an excel based study of US law school dean positions. In addition, we have included... more This provides an excel based study of US law school dean positions. In addition, we have included an additional document with a summary (and caveats) of the data. The information is organized alphabetically by state, and within each state by university name, and includes profile links, emails and various content related to degree qualifications, pedigree, and gender.
The study provides an excel based study of how the law school industry approaches military vetera... more The study provides an excel based study of how the law school industry approaches military veterans, especially who are students at the school (but also more broadly) - note: you will have to download the document for it to view correctly). The title is, Veteran Emphasis in US Oriented Law Schools: Part 1, as we will be continuing with this study to contact every entry to develop a better understanding of current challenges, developing practices, and new innovations.
The information is organized alphabetically by state, and within each state by law school, and includes website links and contact details.
A number of factors were taking into account, including law reviews, clinics and externships, associations and organizations, classes, and other miscellaneous innovations. The 'classes' data is somewhat fuzzy as we did not develop a clear metric about what counted as a veteran oriented class and instead went for classes that would be specifically of a military nature. The 'miscellaneous' factor includes a number of interesting innovations, which might be better located under a different classification but we've situated together - e.g., Yellow Ribbon Programs, Outreach Centers, Recruitment Innovations.
A surface read of the information reveals some potentially interesting takeaways. First, while there are considerable number of 'military' or 'national security' law school courses (approximately 120), there are less than 10 classes specifically addressing veteran law (and only one LLM). Second, There are approximately 30 Veteran clinics at US law schools, and while about 115 organizations, only a little more than 1/2 that are specifically focused on veterans (e.g., many instead are more generalist, such as Military Justice Society). Third, there is a significant need for law journals specifically dedicated to veteran conditions (this is not to say there are not special issues or articles that come up in other contexts or other non-scholarship networks). Fourth, while many states will have law schools that offer some focus on veterans, often the emphasis is a more generalist class or a student society. In fact, a number of states have no emphasis on veterans in regards to any of the dynamics (e.g., Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon). Other states only offer some class, but do not offer any additional emphasis or support (e.g., Indiana). Other states have very strong innovations at play (e.g., California, Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio).
There is so much more to be studied here, but we hope this provides some useful information for those interested to better address veteran considerations. At the very least, there seems to be considerable energy at the student level to create community, which may be a valuable resource for future innovations. The relative lack of clinics and more over explicit information on law school websites suggests that this may be an area for more institutionalized veteran-oriented support, and which might also be a valuable opportunity for building a niche market for student recruitment and career placement.
This part of the study was completed with Mr. James Russell Dumas, and with helpful input from Prof. Evan Seamone, Prof Richard Meyer, and a number of MC School of Law veterans. Moving forward with the studies will be in collaboration with Prof. Evan Seamone.
I have attached a link to an excel study of every US based law professor that teaches a class rel... more I have attached a link to an excel study of every US based law professor that teaches a class related to international law (broadly conceived), along with every other class they teach, a link to their profile, and their email contact, organized by state and school alphabetically. There are a few omissions, most notably the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, prolific international legal academic such as Larry Cata Backer, and classes by law professors such as Justin Desautels-Stein. The study, however, is by and large complete.
The study is part of a much larger empirical based analysis of the law school industry. The motivation is to provide data and encourage new networks and communication among administrators and scholars within the legal academy, with the hope that these directions contribute towards better understanding of the law school market. In this attached study, certain statistics and trends may be of interest. To a certain extent, international law remains potentially gendered: women make up only about a third of professors teaching classes related to the subject and over-represent the male colleagues when it comes to teaching ‘lawyering’ or courses on ‘gender’ or ‘children’. States average about 8 international law professors, with the highest number of professors per school in Connecticut and Washington, D.C., followed closely by Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin, and at the lower end, states such as Rhode Island, North Dakota and Alabama – all in all, nothing surprising, though more evaluation could look into things like the ratio of ‘private’ / ‘public’ international law oriented classes. A word search of what most popularly shows up as the course title in a curriculum, words topping the list included, human rights (296), comparative (271), constitutional (251), and business (235), followed by words such as environment (121), intellectual property (109), international criminal law (91), and less common terms, such as religion (16) and critical race/legal studies (10). A relatively small percentage of professors teach first year courses (contracts: 161, criminal: 126, civil procedure: 102, property: 93, torts: 91), while certain courses (administrative law: 79) and words (transnational: 52, global: 73) seem to be trending upward. Further analysis could look into how courses are paired or the educational backgrounds and degrees of the community.
This is the first paper in a larger study attempting to map the academic legal industry. The goal... more This is the first paper in a larger study attempting to map the academic legal industry. The goal is to provide administrations and scholars with empirical data concerning the 'state of legal academia'. This paper provides information of every international exchange and study abroad program sponsored by every US law school, organized by state alphabetically. The study provides assessment concerning the type of international exchange and study abroad programs, along with links to the respective websites and summary information. A few trends emerge from studying the information. First, where originally only the remit of upper-tier schools, these programs are becoming staples of US law schools. Second, there is an increasing prevalence for schools to offer study abroad programs based at foreign institutions, rather than simply renting out space to host abroad programs. Third, the move to base study abroad programs at foreign institutions corresponds with an increase in offerings of LLM degrees for foreign students (and sometimes domestic students) and providing opportunities for semester exchanges. The relative lack of activity at International and Comparative Law Centers suggests that these innovations are largely tailored to increase law school revenue as opposed to any significant shift of emphasis to engaging international legal policy and scholarship. A number of factors are not taken into account, including the actual professors running the courses, the classes being taught on these programs, and the numbers for student enrollment.
Dr. John D. Haskell, co-director of the International and Comparative Law Center at Mississippi C... more Dr. John D. Haskell, co-director of the International and Comparative Law Center at Mississippi College School of Law, interviewed me about my research and my recent SJD dissertation, on June 16, 2015, in Jackson, Mississippi.
The tragedy and spectacle of 9/11 is a continuing legacy of the American psyche. Not only does it... more The tragedy and spectacle of 9/11 is a continuing legacy of the American psyche. Not only does it feature in movies and political commentary, its impact is so pervasive that it symbolizes a pivotal moment in history - the post-9/11 world - which can stand for any number of debates or images: security and surveillance, Al-Qaeda and ISIS, smoking buildings and desert landscapes. While America grieved in the wake of the attack for the lives lost, its tragedy is difficult to separate from the resulting invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. And like any war, the lives and everyday realities of the men and women serving in the military - though commonly invoked - often came to be overshadowed by broader policy debates and political standpoints.
This sentiment of our event, Rules of Engagement: At Home and Abroad, is to shift focus to reflect on the challenges that face active service-members and veterans - when deployed, but especially outside of the most dramatic moments of combat. To serve in the military often means entering a silent battle, fought on many levels, invisible to the majority of American culture and institutions. We invite you to join us to explore the terrain of this struggle: what obstacles exist, what people are doing about it, and how we might develop new approaches to the experience of war for those who have served our country.
Participants included Dr. John D. Haskell (Chair), Mr. Ronnie Carbo (2L), Prof. Richard Meyer, and Prof. Evan Seamone.
Please Note: We had some technical difficulties with Claire's talk and it is a bit shortened in length at the beginning and one can only here answers not questions in the Q/A session. Apologies to Claire; awesome talk.
David Gerber, Distinguished Professor at Chicago-Kent School of Law and President of the American... more David Gerber, Distinguished Professor at Chicago-Kent School of Law and President of the American Society of Comparative Law, discussing contemporary challenges in the comparative law field
Conversation Series of the American Society of Comparative Law - Richard S. Kay, https://www.yout... more Conversation Series of the American Society of Comparative Law - Richard S. Kay, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIk1Kp6foKo
Hosted at University of Glasgow School of Law, 8 December 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a... more Hosted at University of Glasgow School of Law, 8 December 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZekSA3s2ug
In the wake of what we tend to call ‘globalization’, the complexity of power challenges the schol... more In the wake of what we tend to call ‘globalization’, the complexity of power challenges the scholar with identifying what dynamics matter and how these dynamics came to be configured as the current arrangement of global governance. Tracing the movement of power seems to increasingly lead contemporary scholarship into interdisciplinary concerns that engage the past. It is no longer the domain of the sufficiently tenured professor in late career reflection on their field or the stuff of short introductions to textbooks - doing history today, we might say, is seriously trending as an important aspect of policy analysis and scholarly merit. The reoccurring question of late, then, is how to do history well, and by extension, what set of methodological tools can help get us there? In this presentation, we will try to trace out some of the background sensibilities that inform the preoccupation with doing history, map out some of the narrative choices available to the scholar, especially in relation to the question of the subject, and identify some potential blind spots that might point us in new directions. Speaking of ‘subjectivities and structures’, in short, we are aspiring to albeit briefly analyze the limits and possibilities of how we are able to explain the conditions and movements of globalization.
Transcript of a talk at Lille Catholic University (Paris) on the 'Law and Technology' series spon... more Transcript of a talk at Lille Catholic University (Paris) on the 'Law and Technology' series sponsored by C3RD and Amsterdam University. The talk reflects on blockchain/crypto, avant garde trends within international legal academia, and broader questions of law's theoretical engagement with digital technologies.
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Papers by John Haskell
The paper may also be downloaded as a pdf at ssrn: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2815943
The paper may also be downloaded as a pdf at ssrn: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2815943
The paper thinks of law through the lens of communication theory and cybernetics.
Law is perceived as a word describing different social instances with specific social rules, and organised into discrete production formats which shape the dynamics of argument and change in the field.
The paper is published as a book chapter in Backstage Practices of Transnational Law, edited by Lianne Boer and Sofia Stolk.
https://www.routledge.com/Backstage-Practices-of-Transnational-Law/Boer-Stolk/p/book/9780367086572
The Extraterritoriality of Law: History, Theory and Politics, edited by Daniel S. Margolies, Umut Özsu, Maïa Pal, & Ntina Tzouvala
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/concepts-for-international-law
For further visualisation formats of the data, see: https://app.flourish.studio/visualisation/2736840/
The information is organized alphabetically by state, and within each state by law school, and includes website links and contact details.
A number of factors were taking into account, including law reviews, clinics and externships, associations and organizations, classes, and other miscellaneous innovations. The 'classes' data is somewhat fuzzy as we did not develop a clear metric about what counted as a veteran oriented class and instead went for classes that would be specifically of a military nature. The 'miscellaneous' factor includes a number of interesting innovations, which might be better located under a different classification but we've situated together - e.g., Yellow Ribbon Programs, Outreach Centers, Recruitment Innovations.
A surface read of the information reveals some potentially interesting takeaways. First, while there are considerable number of 'military' or 'national security' law school courses (approximately 120), there are less than 10 classes specifically addressing veteran law (and only one LLM). Second, There are approximately 30 Veteran clinics at US law schools, and while about 115 organizations, only a little more than 1/2 that are specifically focused on veterans (e.g., many instead are more generalist, such as Military Justice Society). Third, there is a significant need for law journals specifically dedicated to veteran conditions (this is not to say there are not special issues or articles that come up in other contexts or other non-scholarship networks). Fourth, while many states will have law schools that offer some focus on veterans, often the emphasis is a more generalist class or a student society. In fact, a number of states have no emphasis on veterans in regards to any of the dynamics (e.g., Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon). Other states only offer some class, but do not offer any additional emphasis or support (e.g., Indiana). Other states have very strong innovations at play (e.g., California, Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio).
There is so much more to be studied here, but we hope this provides some useful information for those interested to better address veteran considerations. At the very least, there seems to be considerable energy at the student level to create community, which may be a valuable resource for future innovations. The relative lack of clinics and more over explicit information on law school websites suggests that this may be an area for more institutionalized veteran-oriented support, and which might also be a valuable opportunity for building a niche market for student recruitment and career placement.
This part of the study was completed with Mr. James Russell Dumas, and with helpful input from Prof. Evan Seamone, Prof Richard Meyer, and a number of MC School of Law veterans. Moving forward with the studies will be in collaboration with Prof. Evan Seamone.
The study is part of a much larger empirical based analysis of the law school industry. The motivation is to provide data and encourage new networks and communication among administrators and scholars within the legal academy, with the hope that these directions contribute towards better understanding of the law school market. In this attached study, certain statistics and trends may be of interest. To a certain extent, international law remains potentially gendered: women make up only about a third of professors teaching classes related to the subject and over-represent the male colleagues when it comes to teaching ‘lawyering’ or courses on ‘gender’ or ‘children’. States average about 8 international law professors, with the highest number of professors per school in Connecticut and Washington, D.C., followed closely by Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin, and at the lower end, states such as Rhode Island, North Dakota and Alabama – all in all, nothing surprising, though more evaluation could look into things like the ratio of ‘private’ / ‘public’ international law oriented classes. A word search of what most popularly shows up as the course title in a curriculum, words topping the list included, human rights (296), comparative (271), constitutional (251), and business (235), followed by words such as environment (121), intellectual property (109), international criminal law (91), and less common terms, such as religion (16) and critical race/legal studies (10). A relatively small percentage of professors teach first year courses (contracts: 161, criminal: 126, civil procedure: 102, property: 93, torts: 91), while certain courses (administrative law: 79) and words (transnational: 52, global: 73) seem to be trending upward. Further analysis could look into how courses are paired or the educational backgrounds and degrees of the community.
This sentiment of our event, Rules of Engagement: At Home and Abroad, is to shift focus to reflect on the challenges that face active service-members and veterans - when deployed, but especially outside of the most dramatic moments of combat. To serve in the military often means entering a silent battle, fought on many levels, invisible to the majority of American culture and institutions. We invite you to join us to explore the terrain of this struggle: what obstacles exist, what people are doing about it, and how we might develop new approaches to the experience of war for those who have served our country.
Participants included Dr. John D. Haskell (Chair), Mr. Ronnie Carbo (2L), Prof. Richard Meyer, and Prof. Evan Seamone.
Please Note: We had some technical difficulties with Claire's talk and it is a bit shortened in length at the beginning and one can only here answers not questions in the Q/A session. Apologies to Claire; awesome talk.