Presenting pre-publication works-in-progress to one’s colleagues at home and away is a central part of academic life. It’s a way to test, engage, and promote scholarly work.
In this tradition, Temple’s International Law Colloquium brings top international legal academics to introduce their work to students and the law school community. The spring 2015 series, convened this year by Institute co-directors Jaya Ramji-Nogales and Peter Spiro, will focus on the growing subfield of global migration law. Speakers will include Fordham’s Jennifer Gordon, Cornell’s Chantal Thomas, and Rutgers’ Linda Bosniak. Discussants will comment on each of the presented papers. The colloquium is offered as a course for credit. Scholars from other area schools also regularly participate in colloquium sessions.
“This is a great way for international law scholars to see our international program up close,” says Spiro. “It’s also a unique opportunity for students to see cutting-edge ideas in the making.” On January 19th, Syracuse University political scientist Elizabeth Cohen led off this year’s line-up with a paper on sovereignty and the borders of time, part of a book project she is undertaking while serving as a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation.
The colloquium is now in its seventh year. Past participants in the colloquium include Oona Hathaway (Yale Law School), Jack Goldsmith (Harvard Law), Karen Knop (University of Toronto), Andre Nollkaemper (University of Amsterdam), and Anthea Roberts (Columbia Law School). A full list of presenters can be found here.
The colloquium helps build the international law community at Temple, in the Philadelphia region, and nationally. It’s among the many reasons that Temple Law consistently ranks among the top 15 international law programs in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report.