GW Law Contributions to International Law and More News and Updates from the International and Comparative Law Program

Spring of 2025 has been a time of transitions, changes, and unexpected waves. Our community has been watching closely and with concern issues concerning democratic backsliding and the weakening of the rule of law, ongoing wars, mass atrocities, and human rights violations. Our students, professors, and staff have been working arduously to respond to many developments, to find ways to stand firm on our values, and to creatively address current challenges. We continue using our convening role to provide an important reflection space for many national and global actors. Our work continues to be guided by the goals embraced by international law, including human dignity, equality, non-discrimination, and strong democratic governance. We thank you all for your work and collaboration, in a time of crisis and needed resilience.

Rosa Celorio

Burnett Family Associate Dean of International and Comparative Legal Studies and Distinguished Professorial Lecturer in International and Comparative Law and Policy

In March we lost a beloved International and Comparative Law faculty member, Professor Steve Charnovitz. Steve joined our faculty in 2004, after practicing at WilmerHale, serving in a variety of roles in the federal legislative and executive branches, and serving as Director of the Global Environment & Trade Study at Yale University. He will be sorely missed. You can read Dean Matthew's note in memoriam here.

On March 5, Professor Sean D. Murphy addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on the topic of the prevention of genocide. Professor Murphy’s remarks focused on steps that governments should take to adopt national laws and policies that establish domestic awareness of atrocity crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity. Read more about this story here.

On March 17, the George Washington University Law School and its International and Comparative Law Program hosted a hearing of the US Court of International Trade. The hearing was led by Judge Jennifer Chloe-Groves. Our community had the opportunity to observe oral arguments for a case regarding oil country tubular goods (“OCTG”) from Argentina, Mexico, Russia, and South Korea. Read more about this event here.

In collaboration with GWU Global Women’s Institute and the Washington Office on Latin America, Dean Rosa Celorio co-authored an article entitled, Gendered Consequences of U.S. Mass Deportations: How Shifting Migration Policies Endanger Women and Girls, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (May 2025), with Dr. Gabriella Nassif, Dr. Mary Ellsberg, and Dr. Carolina Jiménez Sandoval. Dr. Gabriella Nassif is a Senior Research Associate at the Global Women’s Institute at George Washington University. Dr. Mary Ellsberg is the Founding Director of the Global Women’s Institute at George Washington University, and Dr. Carolina Jiménez Sandoval is the President of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

Professor Alberto M. Benítez has been the Director of GW Law's Immigration Clinic since 1996. Prior to joining GW Law, Professor Benítez was on the faculty of the legal clinics at Chicago Kent College of Law and Northwestern University. Prior to becoming a clinician, he was a Staff Attorney at the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. Professor Benítez has taught Immigration Law I at GW for many years. We will miss him dearly and wish him the best of luck in his next steps.

On February 4th, 2025 GW Law's International and Comparative Law Program met with several representatives of the Judicial Council of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the Judicial Training Center of the Superior Court of Justice of the City of Buenos Aires to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding to engage in future cooperation in the training of judges. The Council's representatives included Genoveva Ferrero, GW Law LLM '23 and current Secretary of Administration and Budget of the Judicial Branch of the CABA.

Leah Calabro, ICL Program Visiting Associate Professor and Fellow - In April, Professor Calabro presented her work in progress entitled "Universal Jurisdiction over the Crime of Persecution as a Pathway to Protection Against Gender-Based Discrimination and Violence" at the GW Law Fellows Workshop with Dean Rosa Celorio offering commentary. Also in April, Professor Calabro presented the same work at the Joined Up Justice Project's Gender in International Criminal Law and Refugee Law Workshop at the University of Tilburg.
Arturo J. Carrillo, Professor of Clinical Law - Professor Arturo J. Carrillo had his law review article on international law, firearm violence, and global public health (co-authored with Jon Lowy of GAGV) accepted for publication by the Emory International Law Review in 2025. The article is entitled, "Two Heads Are Better Than One: Integrating International Law and Global Public Health Approaches to Firearm Violence to Promote Public Safety and Human Rights." In January 2025, Professor Carrillo was appointed to the Lancet Commission on Gun Violence and Global Public Health. The Commission is composed of experts from a range of academic disciplines charged with preparing an interdisciplinary research study on gun violence and public health from an international and comparative perspective. On March 19th, 2025 Professor Carrillo spoke on a panel at Georgetown Law School, entitled Policy and Legal Solutions to the Threat of Gun Violence to National Security. The event was part of the symposium, "The National Security Threats of Gun Violence," organized by Georgetown Law's Journal of National Security Law and Policy (JNSLP).
Rosa Celorio, Burnett Family Associate Dean of International and Comparative Legal Studies and Distinguished Professorial Lecturer in International and Comparative Law and Policy - During this period, Dean Celorio continued serving in the Executive Committee and Executive Council of the American Society of International Law (ASIL). On February 19th, 2025, Dean Celorio presented before the OAS Permanent Council the final report of the OAS Special Mission to supervise the selection of judges in Guatemala. Dean Celorio also published the book Building Bridges: Contemporary Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality, and International Human Rights Law with Professor Alma Luz Beltrán y Puga and the article Putting a Human Face on Climate Change, in the Environmental Forum of the Environmental Law Institute. On February 15th, 2025, Dean Celorio presented her draft article Inter-American Reproductive Autonomy at the Colloquium on Human Rights and Reproductive Justice organized by the Sturm College of Law of the University of Denver and Ned Vanda Center for International and Comparative Law. On February 18th, 2025, she also presented at the seminar Climate Emergency and Human Rights: Differentiated Impacts organized by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the event Weaving Stories from the Margins: Women’s Movements against Violence, during the UN Commission on the Status of Women, organized by the GWU Global Women’s Institute and WEAVE on March 18th, 2025.
Laura Dickinson, Oswald Symister Colclough Research Professor of Law - Professor Dickinson delivered talks discussing her new book, Big Data and Armed Conflict: Legal Issues Above and Below the Armed Conflict Threshold (Laura A. Dickinson and Eward Berg, eds., Oxford University Press 2024), at Case Western School of Law (September, 2024), Wayne State University Law School (September, 2024), and Yale Law School (November, 2024). She also spoke at the University of Chicago Law School (January, 2025) about a new article, forthcoming in the Chicago Journal of International Law, on differing theoretical approaches to the interpretation of international law to address the growing use of big data in armed conflict. In addition, Professor Dickinson discussed her new article on protecting the rule of law within the U.S. national security state, published in the Harvard National Security Journal, at Harvard Law School (October, 2024), the annual conference of the ABA Committee on Law and National Security (November, 2024), and the annual conference of the Association of American Law Schools (January, 2025). The article examines risks to the rule of law in five areas, including the domestic use of the military under the Insurrection Act, emergency powers, military pardons, threats to inspectors general, and state secrets, and argues for steps that each branch of government can take to shore up rule-of-law guardrails. In January, 2025, Professor Dickinson served as a commentator at a strategic roundtable discussion on the rule of law organized by the University of Pennsylvania Law School Center for the Rule of Law and the Brennan Center for Justice.
William S. Dodge, Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence - In January 2025, Professor Dodge spoke at a roundtable on business and human rights at Oxford University. The roundtable discussed chapters of Cambridge Handbook on Business and Human Rights Litigation, which is forthcoming in 2026. In February 2025, Professor Dodge and his co-reporters presented draft sections of the Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law to the project’s advisers at the American Law Institute in Philadelphia.
Sean D. Murphy, Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law - In January 2025, Professor Murphy was interviewed for a podcast on “International Negotiations Around a Possible Convention on Crimes against Humanity,” Episode 51 of American Society of International Law Podcast International Law Behind the Headlines (Jan. 22, 2025). In March 2025, Professor Murphy traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to present at the 58th Session of the Human Rights Council on the topic “Early Warning and Genocide Prevention.” That same month, he chaired a panel at GW Law on “Demystifying Comparative Law.” During the spring of 2025, Professor Murphy’s 2023 book entitled The Law of U.S. Foreign Relations (with Professor Edward T. Swaine) was awarded the American Society of International Law (ASIL)’s Robert E. Dalton Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Foreign Relations Law. Further, at ASIL’s Annual Meeting, Professor Murphy spoke at a panel on “Rulemaking in the Practice of International Law” and moderated a second panel on “International Law in Uncharted Waters,” which addressed the challenge of scientific developments for the law of the sea. Having previously served for ten years as a Member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law, he was elected an Honorary Editor in April 2025. Professor Murphy also has two new publications: Sean D. Murphy, Public International Law In A Nutshell (7th ed. 2025) (West Academic); and “Durability, Flexibility and Plasticity in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” 39 International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 225 (2024).
Paulina Vera, Professorial Lecturer in Law - In January, Professor Vera spoke on a panel about advanced litigation strategies in immigration court during the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Midwinter Conference in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In March, Professor Vera spoke on an immigration law panel for the National Latino/a Law Student Association (NLLSA) Annual Conference at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, Puerto Rico. In April, Professor Vera spoke on a current events in immigration law panel sponsored by the GW Institute of Politics and spoke in a concurrent session about showing up as your authentic self in the classroom during the AALS Conference on Clinic Legal Education in Baltimore.

In February 2025, Caitlin Hyers, JD '25, Jasmyn Montano, JD '25, Hagar Sivan, JD '25, and JoAnne Wicki, JD '25, coached by Visiting Associate Professor and Fellow Leah Calabro, advanced to the Octofinals of the 2025 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition US East Nationals.
Omri Sender, SJD '20, recently published his dissertation entitled International Law-Making by the International Court of Justice and International Law Commission with Cambridge University Press.
Byron Sequeira, LL.M. ’25, published his article entitled "The ICJ’s Ongoing Advisory Opinion on Climate Change: A Turning Point for International Investment Law?" in the GW Point Source: Environmental and Energy Law Blog and will also be published by the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA) Blog Symposium. His article entitled "The Ukraine Mineral Resources Agreement – A Strategic Partnership in Progress?" was published in The National Interest. He will be presenting another paper on A.I. and environmental accountability at the 2025 GETS Conference at Arizona State University in May 2025, moderated several panels and served as a Jessup Moot Court Competition US East Nationals judge.
Özge Karsu, LLM '25, presented her co-authored paper titled "What Leads to the "Crime of Crimes"? A Comparative Analysis of Four Genocides" (co-authored with Professor Kerem Gülay) at the 17th Cornell Law School Inter-University Graduate Conference. An earlier version of this paper will be published in Cornell International Law Journal (CILJ) Online Symposium Issue. She also served as a judge at the 2025 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition US East Nationals.
This spring semester, Enya Stephan, LLM '25, founded the new Comparative Law Association. They hosted their inaugural event on March 26 on "Demystifying Comparative Law."
On April 7th, 2025, GW Law's Civil and Human Rights Law Clinic students filed a joint report with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as part of its Universal Periodic Review of the United States. The submission, entitled "The United States’ Deficient Regulation of Firearms Enables Gun Violence, Fuels Transnational Gun Trafficking, and Disproportionately Impacts Children, Adolescents, and Racial Minorities," was presented jointly with Clinic client and partner, Global Action on Gun Violence. On April 1st, 2025, the CHRL Clinic organized and co-sponsored a webinar entitled, "Understanding the U.S. Supreme Court’s Second Amendment Jurisprudence and its International and Public Health Impacts." This event was part of GW University Seminar Series on Global Gun Violence and Public Health. The webinar is available for viewing here.
At the end of 2012, Rachael Petterson, alum of GW Law's Immigration Clinic, then a practicing attorney, represented S-G-G- in her asylum hearing in the Baltimore Immigration Court. Asylum denied. Since then, S-G-G- was finally granted asylum in 2019 after which the Clinic filed the application to bring her son to the U.S. as a derivative asylee. After many setbacks, the case was eventually administratively closed. The Immigration Clinic then filed its first ever writ of mandamus which brings us to February 23rd, 2025 when S-G-G-'s now 17-year-old son E-G- touched down in the U.S. as an asylee. We congratulate the student-attorneys who have worked on S-G-G- and E-G-'s cases over the years, including Julia Navarro, Solangel Gonzalez, Chen Liang, Sam Li, Abril Constanza Lara, London Sneden, Julia Yang, Trisha Kondabala, Kelly Zhang, Xintong Zhao, Amana Seaton, and Kimberly Medina.

On Friday, January 17th, GW Law's International and Comparative Law Program hosted the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee Meeting on Public International Law.

On Tuesday, January 28th, GW Law Professor Robert Cottrol moderated a brown bag lunch discussion entitled "Echoes from a Troubled Past: Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Argentina" with Professor Santiago Aversa from La Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires. This was organized under our cooperation agreement with the La Universidad del Salvador in which professors come to visit and engage in different academic activities at our law school.

On Thursday, February 20th, the ICL Program co-sponsored a Know Your Rights presentation with GW Law's Immigration Clinic. Professor Alberto Benitez, Professor Paulina Vera, and Dean Rosa Celorio presented on key rights for individuals to know related to immigration in the United States.

On Tuesday, March 11th and Tuesday, March 25th the ICL Program hosted two installments of its Careers in International Law Brown Bag Lunch Series. On March 11th, Daniel Tovar, Program Officer, Department of Public Security, Secretariat for Multidimensional Security, Organization of American States spoke about his career and on March 25th we heard from Ricardo Chirinos, Special Legal Consultant, Covington & Burling LLP.

On Wednesday, March 19th GW Law's International and Comparative Law Program, led by Professor Leah Calabro, co-sponsored the Human Rights Foundation's College Freedom Forum. Human rights activists Genesis Davila, Georges Azzi, Lobsang Sangay, and Zhala Bayramova each spoke about their work and then convened for a panel on international law and human rights activism moderated by Dean Rosa Celorio.