PUBLISHED:March 23, 2012

Bradley's forthcoming book focus of scholarship roundtable, March 24

Saturday, March 24, 2012

On March 24, leading experts on the relationship between international law and U.S. law will gather at Duke Law School for a daylong discussion of Professor Curtis Bradley’s forthcoming book on the subject.

The Center for International and Comparative Law (CICL) is hosting the invitation-only scholarship roundtable devoted to the book manuscript titled International Law in the U.S. Legal System, forthcoming in 2013 from Oxford University Press.

The book, which reflects more than a decade of Bradley’s influential scholarship, provides a comprehensive account of how international law intersects with the U.S. legal system. It also highlights various unresolved issues and areas of controversy, explained Bradley, the Richard A. Horvitz Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy Studies, a top scholar of both international and foreign relations law. His examination of the subject includes treaties, decisions of international courts and organizations, customary international law, and general principles, among others. He also explores other high-profile issues that are implicated by the intersection of U.S. law and international law, such as foreign sovereign immunity, international human rights litigation, extradition, and extraterritoriality and considers both relevant recent decisions and historical materials.

Bradley is looking forward to the input of the scholars gathering at Duke.

“These experts have differing views about the extent to which international law should operate directly in the U.S. legal system, and more generally about the proper relationship between the United States and international law,” he said. “My hope is that the feedback I receive from this diverse group will help ensure that the book is balanced and thorough in its treatment of the subject and that it is useful to a wide range of lawyers, government officials, scholars, and students.”

The weekend event is the latest in CICL’s series of scholarship roundtables on interdisciplinary approaches to international law and cooperation. The roundtables offer an intimate forum for a small group of legal scholars and social scientists to travel to Duke to present their works in progress and receive detailed commentary and feedback from their colleagues.