Issue #7: March 1995

In This Issue

• President's Editorial
• Readers' Corner
• Publishers' Information

Message From the Editor

General Meeting: The staff at Tillar House is busy preparing for April's Annual Meeting, Wednesday, April 5 through Saturday April 8, 1995 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. The arrangements have been even more complicated than usual, given the changed location to New York to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the UN.

Section Panel: Your UN Decade section has also contributed to this effort. Judge Macdonald and Professor Slomanson have arranged a very useful panel on the work of the UN Decade Section of the ASIL. The topic is "The UN Decade on International Law: Progress and Promises." The confirmed speakers are Paul Szasz--of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia; Andres Jacovides--Ambassador of Cyprus to the United States; and Catherine Tinker--University of South Dakota Law School and formerly Senior Advisor to the UN Association of New York. The date and time of the panel presentation is as follows: Thursday, April 6, 1995, 8:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

Dues Increase: At the 1994 annual business meeting of our section, we agreed to increase our annual section dues from $5.00 to $10.00 per year. Not all of the subsequent billings reflected this increase. If you were billed $5.00 (rather than the new rate of $10..00), we would appreciate your sending an additional $5.00 to the ASIL in Washington, and carefully specifying the reason for your check. The dues increase partially defrays the ASIL's costs associated with the work of this section--the "Interest Group on the UN Decade of International Law" (or UNDIG).

Special Thanks: The Editor thanks the following individuals and institutions-- Judge Macdonald, and the University of Toronto Law School, for the fiscal assistance which makes the continued publication of this Newsletter possible.

Our ASIL Section owes much to Sandra Liebel of the ASIL staff, for her typically atypical support with the final preparation and distribution of this Newsletter. It is the dedicated work of such individuals at Tillar House that assures timely publication of our Newsletter.

I would like to thank Edith Brown Weiss, for her encouragement in the form of this issue's op-ed column. This contribution thus follows in the tradition established by UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali, who furnished his thoughts on our work in this section's Inaugural Newsletter. It is easier for all of us to remain committed, when such individuals donate their time for achieving the ideals pursued by the UNDIG on behalf of the ASIL.

A special thanks is also in order for Maureen Scahill, Western State Faculty Secretary--San Diego campus. Her assistance in preparing op-ed's for final copy makes the work of we who volunteer in the work of the ASIL far less painless than having to "go it alone."

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UNDIG Meeting Agenda

• Should the UNDIG continue to act as a clearing house for assisting young scholars? This does not necessitate an Open Forum at the Annual Meeting. If we adopted this objective, I could begin to assign out the requests of young scholars to appropriate UNDIG members so that we all more directly share in the work and the benefits of UNDIG membership.
  
• Should we pursue an added educational goal of the UN Decade by encouraging our IG members to lecture at colleges and other interested groups about the work of the UN, and International Law generally?
  
• Although the ASIL does not take positions, should we as an IG of the ASIL present our own IG position paper to the appropriate UN agency regarding our perspectives about the goals of the UN Decade? How to pursue them? What should be the focus in the Twenty-First Century? Put another way, does our IG vanish into thin air on 1/1/2000? Retain or change its focus? (The end of the Decade does not necessarily signal the end of our efforts.)
  
• Should our IG be pursuing the additional goals? Different goals? Just what should be our agenda for the remainder of the UN Decade? Will we continue as an ASIL interest group with a new name? New objective(s)?
  
  

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  News of Members

  Publications
  
  (1) Howard Meyer, A Realistic Peace Dividend: Return to International Law, 11 International Journal on World Peace 29 (1994) (analyzing end-of-Cold War opportunities to return to global Rule of Law).
  
  

  (2) Howard Meyer, A Global Look at Law and Order: The "World Court" at the UN's Fiftieth, 58 Social Education 417 (1994) (tracing development of the Court).
  
  

  (3) Michael Sharf (with co-author), The Interstellar Relations of the Federation: International Law and "Star Trek: The Next Generation," 25 University of Toledo Law Review 577 (1994).
  
  

  (4) Joseph Wronka, Human Rights and Social Policy in the United States: an Educational Agenda for the 21st Century, 23 Journal of Moral Education 261 (1994) (urging an expanded version of the moral educational agenda to include economic, social, and solidarity rights).
  
  

  (5) William Slomanson, Awaiting Judgment in Bosnia: UN War Crime Tribunal is Beset by Problems, November 18, 1994 issues of Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal legal newspapers.
  
  Other Developments
  
  

  (1) Charlotte Ku has been selected to serve on the Editorial Board for the new faculty-edited journal entitled Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations, sponsored by the Academic Council of the United Nations System and the United Nations University. This publication is currently edited at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers of Bolder, CO.
  
  

  (2) William Slomanson has established a special Certificate in International Legal Process Program at Western State University (11-unit concentration in international legal studies).
  
  

  Note--Please inform the Editor about your publications, lectures, new positions, other developments, etc. We can develop a better sense of collegiality by getting to know one another and thus sharing our ideas on developing interest group activities. Now that our group has grown dramatically since the April 1994 Annual Meeting, we should be sharing more information about each other with each other.
  
  

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  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 to Editor, UN Decade Newsletter
  
  
  

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  Copyright 1997 American Society of International Law