Rekha is an accomplished legal professional, actively engaged with the international law community. She serves as Executive Director of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC), where she collaborates with stakeholders and thought leaders in the space to advance global scholarship and best practices in addition to operating world-class hearing facilities in Manhattan. She is also a Board Member of ArbitralWomen (AW), Member of the Equal Representation in Arbitration (ERA) Pledge Arbitrator Search Committee, and Co-Chair of Racial Equality for Arbitration Lawyers (REAL). In parallel, Rekha maintains an active connection to academics as an Adjunct Professor at Fordham School of Law and Cardozo School of Law. A native Chicagoan and New York transplant, she enjoys spending her free time exploring the arts, culture & culinary scenes at home and around the globe. Rekha is excited to contribute to ABILA’s growth.

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We are excited to announce the selection of four outstanding young scholars and practitioners for the 2023 Emerging Voices Panel at International Law Weekend (ILW) 2023. This group was selected from a record number of applicants from around the world for this year’s panel. This annual panel provides the opportunity for professionals who have been in the field of international law for five years or less to present their research at ILW stand and receive experience feedback from other participants. Selected individuals receive financial support to cover the costs of their participation.

Read more about our 2023 Emerging Voices below. We encourage all ILW participants to attend the Emerging Voices panel on Saturday, October 21 at 3:30 pm at Fordham International Law School. Find out more about ILW 2023 and register here.

Christine Carpenter is an Associate at Dechert, LLP and will be presenting her paper  Whose [Crime] Is it Anyway?: Adapting the Crime of Aggression to Grapple with AI & the Future of International Crimes. The paper interfaces with one of the countless conundrums created by recent advancements in AI, and seeks to determine how existing texts and interpretations of international criminal law—vis-à-vis the crime of aggression—may need to be adapted in order to fulfill the aims of international justice. The reality of AI’s rapid progress may pose a crisis for international law, as it causes the existing substance of international legal doctrines to be outpaced by the actual form the targeted conduct may take. While this paper focuses on acts of cyber-aggression committed by AI as its chosen example, the process and implications of its findings can and should be replicated for countless other legal regimes, as law is called to adapt and evolve in order to “keep pace” with technological developments.

Sophie Eastwood is an independent scholar and will be presenting her paper Exploitation at Sea: Legal Vulnerability in the Global Fishing Industry. This paper contends that workers in the global fishing industry are especially vulnerable to the crimes of human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, and slavery because of an “enforcement gap” born of Flag States’ failure to prosecute these offenses. It argues that this demands a radical step: the reconsideration of Flag State primacy and the institutionalization of universal jurisdiction. The paper also argues for the need to look beyond legal frameworks and examine the role informal law-making can play in addressing systematic human rights abuses at sea.

Karina Sibilska is a junior arbitration practitioner who will be presenting her paper Third-Party Funding: The Fuel that Ignites a Failing System or the Key to Future of Investment Arbitration? The paper intends to contemplate the persistent criticism of investor-state dispute settlement by examining a particular facet of the debate, primarily third-party funding, and the underutilization of not-for-profit third-party funding. The paper also aims to reflect the changing legal landscape by going beyond the very notion of international law through illustrating how an inherently flawed system intended to exert control over developing states and their public policies, can utilize the existing features to circumvent these barriers to respond to the world’s shifting crises such as public health such as COVID-19, and climate change such as the reforms proposed by the G7 ministers.

Jaideep Singh Lalli recently obtained his LLM at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College) and is now a law lecturer at Jindal Global Law School in India. He will be presenting her paper The (Missing?) Relevance of International Law in Judgments on Same-Sex Marriages. The paper reveals the shortcomings of international human rights law by comparing engagement with it in two kinds of judgments – judgments decriminalizing homosexual coitus and judgments providing legal recognition to queer marriages. The paper’s analysis of international law’s impact on domestic law and the queer justice movement has immense revelatory potential for uncovering the ways in which international law fails and how it can be rectified.

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The American Branch extends its appreciation to the ILW 2023 Organizing Committee members who are running the Emerging Voices program – Carolina Arlota, Emily Behzadi, and Lisa Reinsberg. Special shoutout to Emily, who was one of last year’s Emerging Voices and will serve as the panel moderator this year.

Read about last year’s Emerging Voices panel here.

Register for ILW 2023 here.

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We are excited to announce that the selected representatives are Jaymion Hendricks and Sikelela Ndlazi.

Jaymion Hendricks is a Legal Advisor, International Law, at South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation. An admitted attorney, he holds an LL.M. in International Air, Space and Telecommunications Law from the University of Pretoria. On attending ILW, he says, “I look forward to engaging in thought-provoking discussions with a diverse range of experts and practitioners in the field of international law. As someone from a developing country, attending ABILA ILW 2023 is a significant capacity-building opportunity for me and will strengthen our local chapter.”

Sikelela Ndlazi is a senior lecturer of Human Rights Litigation and a doctoral candidate at the University of South Africa. He has published journal articles in the field of substantive constitutionalism and artisanal and small-scale mining. In his open time, he alternates between reading autobiographies of his favorite people and watching tennis majors. He is most excited to meet American Branch members and contribute as much as he can to making ILW a splendid success.

Following ILW 2023, the representatives will write a report on their experiences that will be published on the American Branch’s website and in its Newsletter. We look forward to continuing our longstanding relationship with the South African Branch.

Read more about SABILA representative Clea Strydom’s reflection on ILW 2022 here: https://www.ila-americanbranch.org/ilw-2022-reflection-by-south-african-branch-representative/

Register and learn more about ILW 2023 here: https://www.ila-americanbranch.org/international-law-weekend/

Note: The early-bird registration rate ends on September 10, 2023.

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Register for the conference here.

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