Ambassador Scheffer will draw on his experience leading the American delegation to the 1998 conference that drafted the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty. He will address the controversial indictment of the President of the Sudan, the prospects for U.S. ratification of the ICC treaty and other questions surrounding the Court.
David Scheffer is a leading authority on international criminal law. From 1997-2001, Scheffer was U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, in which capacity he led the U.S. delegation to the Rome Conference. He also negotiated and coordinated U.S. support for the establishment and operation of other international criminal tribunals. Scheffer formulated the U.S. response to atrocity crimes as head of the Atrocities Prevention Inter-Agency Working Group. From 1993-1996, he was senior adviser and counsel to the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dr. Madeleine Albright, and served on the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council.
Ambassador Scheffer is currently the Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law. Prior to entering the Clinton Administration, he held positions with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, U.S. Institute of Peace, and the United Nations Association of the U.S.A. He has been a visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center and George Washington University Law School. Scheffer has published widely on international legal and political issues.
Ambassador Scheffer's talk is part of the 2009-10 Speaker Series presented by Wayne Law's Program for International Legal Studies which brings prominent experts in the field to law school campus.
About the Program on International Legal Studies
International law cuts across all aspects of a Wayne State legal education. Fully one-third of Wayne Law's tenured and tenure-track faculty teaches and writes on international subjects. Those faculty members enjoy world-wide reputations as innovative and prolific scholars, publishing on the most important issues of the day. Students can take classes on a remarkable range of international topics, from international commercial transactions to international environmental law to the use of military force and the protection of human rights. And study abroad programs give students a first-hand view of other nations' legal systems and their approaches to legal education.
The Program for International Legal Studies is the focal point for all international activity at Wayne Law and a showcase for the faculty's latest scholarship on international issues. The Program sponsors a conference and lecture series that brings scholars, policy-makers and practicing international lawyers to the Law School from across the country and around the world. A series of brown-bag lunches allow students the opportunity to discuss international issues in a more personalized setting with faculty members and attorneys from the community. A blog in which faculty members highlight and discuss current developments in international law will be hosted on our Web site.
Director Gregory Fox writes and teaches on international organizations, human rights and the international administration of territory. He has been a visiting fellow at Cambridge University, the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg and Yale Law School. His many publications include Humanitarian Occupation and Democratic Governance and International Law, both published by Cambridge University Press.
About Wayne Law
Wayne State University Law School has educated and served the Detroit metropolitan area since its inception as Detroit City Law School in 1927. Located at 471 West Palmer Street in Detroit's re-energized historic cultural center, the Law School remains committed to student success and features modern lecture and court facilities, a 250-seat auditorium, and the Arthur Neef Law Library, which houses one of the nation's 40 largest legal collections. Taught by an internationally recognized and expert faculty, Wayne Law students experience a high-quality legal education via a growing array of hands-on curricular offerings, five live-client clinics, and access to well over 100 internships with local and non-profit entities each year. Its 11,000 living alumni, who work in every state of the nation and more than a dozen foreign countries, are experts in their disciplines and include leading members of the local, national and international legal communities. For more information, visit www.law.wayne.edu.