Inaugurating ASIL IDEAS

A few months ago, I mentioned here on Opinio Juris a new feature of the ASIL Annual Meeting that we’re introducing this year:  ASIL IDEAS:  Idea, Direction, Engagement, Action, Solutions. These shorter talks, about 20 minutes long, will feature innovative ideas international lawyers will want to think about from people you might not otherwise hear.  Speakers will be drawn from a broad range of fields – science, technology, entrepreneurship, journalism, philanthropy, as well as law.  The goal is to broaden our understandings of what’s possible.

With this years’ Annual Meeting less than a week away, we’re very excited to announce our first three ASIL IDEAS talks.  Here are the descriptions:

Thursday, March 29, 2012
11:00 am – 11:30 am
Roosevelt

Speaker: Rebecca MacKinnon, Global Voices; New America Foundation
Topic: Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom

“A global struggle for control of the Internet is now underway,” argues Rebecca MacKinnon, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. For MacKinnon, who conducts research, writing and advocacy on global Internet policy, free expression, and the impact of digital technologies on human rights, “it is time to stop arguing over whether the Internet empowers individuals and societies, and address the more fundamental and urgent question of how technology should be structured and governed to support the rights and liberties of all the world’s Internet users.”

Friday, March 30, 2012
10:30 am – 11:00 am
Roosevelt

Speaker: Ted Parson, University of Michigan
Topic: Climate Engineering: Challenges to International Law and Potential Responses

Engineered interventions to limit climate change, particularly high-leverage methods to reduce incoming sunlight, such as placing reflective particles in the upper atmosphere, carry multiple environmental and policy-related risks, and pose challenges to international law governance that are both novel and severe. Uncertainties notwithstanding, certain clear and emerging characteristics of these technologies suggest the outlines of their policy and political risks and their likely requirements for effective governance.

Parson’s articles have appeared in Nature, Science, Climatic Change, Issues in Science and Technology, the Journal of Economic Literature, and the Annual Review of Energy and the Environment. Parson served on the scientific organizing committee for the 2010 Asilomar conference on climate intervention, and led the working group on institutional mechanisms for the 2011 Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, convened by the UK Royal Society, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World (TWAS). He holds degrees in Physics from the University of Toronto and in Management Science from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard, where he spent twelve years on the faculty of the Kennedy School of Government.

Saturday, March 31, 2012
10:30 am – 11:00 am
Roosevelt

Speakers: Zahi Khouri, ICC Palestine & Oren Shachor, ICC Israel
Topic: The Jerusalem Arbitration Center: Focus on Neutrality & Efficiency

Business leaders in Palestine and Israel have realized the need to find a mechanism for resolving commercial disputes between the two countries. In 2010, this initiative came to fruition with the agreement to establish the Jerusalem Arbitration Center (JAC) as an equal and just, apolitical and professional bilateral alternative dispute resolution forum.

Zahi Khouri, Founding and Board Member of ICC Palestine and Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Palestinian National Beverage Company (NBC-Coca-Cola licensee) and (Reserve) Major General Oren Shachor, President of ICC Israel will present JAC and its accomplishments, challenges, and future activities.

We’re very excited about these sessions, which we believe highlight well the themes of this year’s meeting: Confronting Complexity. We also think they capture the wide range of ideas these sessions will feature going forward. Come join us for a cup of coffee and a dose of inspiration!

The full schedule’s online, and registration remains open. We hope to see you next week. …and if you can’t be there, check out the live blogging of the conference’s sessions on ASIL Cables.