UN DECADE NEWSLETTER - Issue #15: August, 1997 ||| ASIL

Issue #15: August, 1997

In This Issue:

Message from Chair	Annual Section Meeting	UN Decade Objectives
	Your Turn

Message From the Chair

This issue features the Hague Academy's response to the summer International Law course proposal, a renewed call for suggested speakers for the ASIL's 1998 Annual Meeting, an op-ed piece regarding the Pope's perspectives on the United States and the World Court, and my request for your review of the UNDIG Mission Statement.

I would also appreciate receiving any suggestions for my formulating and then publishing a proposed agenda for our 1998 business meeting--which would be in addition to the possible UNDIG panel presentation. See "Letters from the Editor" to the Annual Meeting Co-ordinators (Newsletter #14). I need to hear your thoughts regarding the direction of our group at the turn of the century, when the UnitedNations Decade is officially completed.

Please take the time to visit our new website, where Cornell Law School has posted our UN Decade Newsletters--thanks to the presenters at our 1997 annual business meeting (see Newsletter #13 of June 1997 for related details). By the time that you receive this Newsletter, both issues #14 and #15 should be posted to our permanent web site. New members may thus learn what we have been doing, almost since our inception!

Annual Section Meeting

At the 1997 annual business meeting of our UNDIG section of the ASIL, the Chair called for input regarding who might speak, and on what topics, should the ASIL accept our section's request for a panel at the April 1998 Annual Meeting of the ASIL.

In Newsletter #14, June 1997, I also requested input from our members for speaker suggestions. I received one response from former Chair Judge McDonald. I previously advised you of my initial proposal to the Annual Planning Committee (APC), on page 11 of the June Newsletter. The deadline for submitting a proposed panel for the 1998 Annual Meeting of the ASIL is in August. (See response from APC, below on page 4 of this Newsletter. Thus, please see the proposal I have submitted (which appears just after the APC letter to me). My draft proposal can be supplemented before the August deadline, so I would appreciate your input ASAP.

UN Decade Objectives

At our Group's 1995 business meeting in New York, our informal steering committee suggested that our Newsletter carry a restatement of the essential goals of the United Nations Decade of International Law in each issue. Thus, new members (and seasoned ones as well) can readily recall the reason for our existence. The Decade has four essential objectives:

promoting acceptance of the substantive principles of International Law;

encouraging progressive development of International Law and its codification;
encouraging the teaching, study, dissemination, and wider acceptance of International Law.

Interest Group Mission Statement [Editor's Note: As part of my reporting responsibilities to the ASIL, I recently drafted the following blurb to briefly identify the mission of our ASIL section. Please review it and advise me if this mission statement appropriately describes our mission. You may use the "Your Turn" feature on the final page of the Newsletter for providing any input that you may have. I will thus include our Mission Statement (as revised) in this portion of each UNDIG Newsletter:]

The U.N. General Assembly proclaimed the United Nations Decade of International Law for the period 1990-1999. Members of the American Society of International Law formed the Society's United Nations Decade of International Law Interest Group (UNDIG) near the outset of the UN Decade. Various ASIL members, representing a broad spectrum of individual interests, thus assisted the Society in aligning itself with, and advancing the essential objectives of, this U.N. program--particularly the encouragement of the teaching, study, dissemination, and wider acceptance of International Law by the global community. The UNDIG meets on an annual basis in Washington, DC or New York City, has published several substantive newsletters per year since 1992, and has arranged several UNDIG panels at the ASIL's Annual Meetings.

Your Turn

This final segment of each Newsletter provides the opportunity to comment on any topic of interest to the UN Decade Interest Group (affectionately dubbed "UNDIG"). It has been a very useful source for planning meeting agenda, new issues to be addressed by UNDIG, and the like. Please take a moment to jot down any comments, constructive criticisms, or suggestions.. Send E-Mail toEditor, UN Decade Newsletter