Wayne State University Law School experts will tackle questions related to the application of foreign or international law during the panel discussion “Keeping Foreign Law Out of State Courts: The Movement to Ban Sharia and Other International and Foreign Laws,” at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11, in the Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium at Wayne Law.

Among the questions to be considered:

•    When states pass laws banning the application of foreign or international law, including Sharia, the religious law of Islam, are they infringing on the religious freedom of Muslims?

•    How do such laws affect commercial contracts that are explicitly governed by the laws of another country?

•    Do states passing such laws infringe on the foreign policy-making powers of the federal government?

Speakers include Associate Professor Paul Dubinsky, whose scholarship focuses on the role of domestic courts in transnational dispute resolution, including private international law’s intersection with human rights law and with national security law; Assistant Professor Justin Long, who teaches civil procedure and state constitutionalism; Assistant Professor Christopher Lund, whose academic interest is religious liberty; and Professor Jonathan Weinberg, an expert on immigration and citizenship law.

The event is free, open to the public and includes lunch.  It is the first presentation in the fall lecture series sponsored by the Wayne Law Program for International Legal Studies. Other topics in the lecture series include:

Sept. 20 — “Treaties in American Law: Retreating from International Commitments?”
Oct. 1 — “Chevron vs. Ecuador: American Discovery Goes Global”
Oct. 23 — “Foreign Policy and the Next President: International Relations in the 2012 Election”

Visit law.wayne.edu/internationalstudies for more information on the Program for International Legal Studies.

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