04 Apr Alvarez ASIL Speech Now On-Line
Jose Alvarez’s ASIL presidential address is now up on the Society’s website here, along with the companion 50 Ways IL Harms Us. I’d missed that the “smug levels” observation was part of a South Park allusion (see page 5), which may have sent some members running to their teenage grandchildren for guidance (though I have to admit that coming from a cable-less household, I was a little wobbly on it myself). Justifying the handout, Jose explained:
[t]hose of us at this meeting probably can benefit most from the 50 Ways. We need them not only in the way Christians need original sin – because it builds character – and because humility is good for the soul. We need to avoid smugness because our society – and here I mean the broader U.S. and global societies of which the ASIL is only a very small and parochial part – needs, more than ever, critical, self-reflecting international lawyers. As the Society starts its second century, our fundamental tenets as international lawyers are under serious contestation.
Everything’s up for grabs, so we’d better be doubters than cheerleaders.
Peter,
Other than the South Park allusion, I’m particularly fond of the tongue-in-cheek defense that the greater number of benefits means that international law does more good than harm (or does so “at least 50% of the time”). I think there may be an undiscovered constant in here somewhere.
You may be too modest to note your cited inclusion in the “fuzzy liberal middle”; I also seem to recall Opinio Juris being referred to as “our competition” or something to that effect, though that’s not in the text. Pretty entertaining speech, I thought.