International Law Weekend 2025 was held at the New York City Bar Association at 42 West 44th Street, New York City, on October 23, 2025, and at Fordham University School of Law on October 24 to 25, 2025. The theme of the Weekend was “Crisis as Catalyst in International Law.” The American Branch of the International Law Association organized the Weekend. It featured thirty-five panels that explored how crises can serve as transformative moments that challenge and reshape the framework of international law.

2025 Student Ambassadors and ABILA Membership Officer Julia Liston

On Thursday, October 23, 2025, before the Presidential Opening Plenary, the Emerging Voices session was held at the New York City Bar Association. Mark Janis (William F. Starr Professor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law) acted as the discussant, and Christine Carpenter (PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge) moderated the session. The speakers were Kazım Berkay Arslan (Associate, Kabine Law Office LLP), Annika Knauer (Research Fellow and PhD Candidate, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg), Emmanuel U. Osayande (dual JD-PhD Candidate, Columbia Law School and Harvard University), and Naida Softić (PhD Candidate and Teaching Instructor, Loyola University, Chicago).

2025 Emerging Voices

The Presidential Opening Plenary was held on Thursday evening, October 23, 2025. Amity Boye (President-Elect, ABILA), Leila Nadya Sadat (Chair, ABILA), and Muhammad U. Faridi (President, New York City Bar Association) gave welcome remarks. The Presidential Opening Plenary interviewee was Ana Peryó Llopis, Principal Legal Officer at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs. Michael P. Scharf (President, ABILA) interviewed Ms. Peryó Llopis about her career, the United Nations funding crisis, and recently issued Advisory Opinions. An audience question-and-answer session and a drinks reception for all attendees followed her interview.

Ana Peryó Llopis and Michael P. Scharf; Amity Boye

On Friday, October 24, 2025, the day began with a Women’s Networking Breakfast, co-sponsored by ArbitralWomen, the American Society of International Law’s Women in International Law Interest Group, Arnold & Porter LLP, and Low & Kinnear Dispute Resolution. The Friday Keynote was titled ‘The Future of International Arbitration,’ and featured Meg Kinnear (Co-Founder, Low & Kinnear Dispute Resolution), Lucinda Low (Co-Founder, Low & Kinnear Dispute Resolution), and Mélida Hogdson (Partner, Anrold & Porter LLP; President, ASIL). Joseph Landau (Dean and Paul Fuller Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law) gave welcome remarks.

Meg Kinnear, Lucinda Low, and Mélida Hodgson; Joseph Landau

On Friday, October 24, 2025, the panels were:

• Customary International Law: What Role Can It Play in Responding to Contemporary Global Crises? (chaired by Brian D. Lepard)
• UN Roundtable: Leading Diplomats Reflect on the UN at 80 (chaired by Floriane Lavaud; sponsored by Withers LLP)
• The Digital Divide in International Cyber Law (chaired by Christine Carpenter)
• Crisis, Courts, and Sovereigns: Rethinking Immunity and Enforcement in a Shifting Global Order (co-chaired by Alec Albright and Beatrice Walton)
• Planning a Career in International Law (chaired by Taylor Kilpatrick)
• International Tribunals and Cultural Heritage Destruction: War Crimes, Persecution, Genocide & Discrimination (chaired by Anne-Marie Carstens)
• The International Criminal Court: Surviving the Onslaught? (chaired by Patrick J. Keenan)
• The WTO and the Pandemic Agreement: A Simulation of the TRIPS Council During a Pandemic Emergency (chaired by Matthew Carvalho)
• General Counsel Roundtable: Local Practice on a Global Scale (chaired by Randel Young; sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson LLP)
• From Ambition to Action? The Sustainable Development Goals Ten Years On (chaired by Perpétua Chéry)
• A “New” Role for the International Court of Justice? (chaired by Francesco Messineo)
• Negotiating the Future Crimes Against Humanity Treaty: Paradigm Shift or Half-Measure? (chaired by Leila Nadya Sadat)
• Towards “Un-Crisis” Thinking in Global Migration Law (chaired by Monica Iyer)
• Taking Stock of the World Trading System (chaired by Richard H. Steinberg)
• International Organization Secretariats as Crisis Managers and Change-Makers (chaired by Michael J. Moffatt)
• AI and International Humanitarian Law: Emerging Norms (chaired by Duncan Hollis)
• Creative Solutions for Accountability for Gender-Based Violence and Other Crimes in International Law (chaired by Esti Tambay)
• The Second Century of the Federal Arbitration Act (chaired by H. Christopher Boehning)
• Narrative Strategies in International Environmental Law (chaired by Megan Corrarino)

International Tribunals and Cultural Heritage Destruction: War Crimes, Persecution, Genocide & Discrimination; The Second Century of the Federal Arbitration Act

On Friday evening, October 24, 2025, the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations in New York City hosted a Reception at 466 Lexington Avenue. Leila Nadya Sadat, Valerie Oosterveld (Professor and Research Chair in International Criminal Justice, University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law), and Beatrice Maille (Minister-Counsellor and Legal Adviser, Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations in New York City) gave remarks.

Beatrice Maille; the Canadian Mission

Saturday, October 25, 2025, opened with a Member’s Meeting and the ABILA Annual Award Presentations. Brenda Hollis received the ABILA Outstanding Achievement Award, and her colleague, JC Johnson, accepted the award on her behalf. Read her remarks here. Houston Putnam Lowry received the Charles Siegal Distinguished Service Award. The ABILA Book of the Year Award went to José E. Alvarez and Judith Bauder for Women’s Property Rights Under CEDAW (OUP); the ABILA Award for a Book on a Practical or Technical Subject went to Sir Michael Wood and Omri Sender for Identification of Customary International Law (OUP); the ABILA Book Award for a First-time Author went to Erin Pobjie for Prohibited Force: The meaning of “Use of Force” in International Law (CUP); and the ABILA Best Edited Volume Award went to Alejandro Chehtman, Alexandra Huneeus, and Sergio Puig for Latin American International Law in the Twenty-First Century (OUP). Read more about their awards here.

JC Johnson accepting Brenda Hollis’ Outstanding Achievement Award; Erin Pobjie accepting the ABILA Book Award for a First-time Author

Sir Howard Morrison (Former Judge with the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; UK Advisor on war crimes to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General) gave the Saturday lunch keynote over Zoom. William Aceves (Chief Justice Roger Traynor Professor of Law, California Western School of Law).

William Aceves introducing Sir Howard Morrison

On Saturday, October 25, 2025, the panels were:

• Public Health and Human Rights: New Tensions and Synergies (chaired by Warren Binford)
• What Today’s Wars Mean for Tomorrow’s International Legal Order (chaired by Gabor Rona)
• Toward a Regional Human Rights Framework in the Middle East: Aspirations, Realities, and Lessons from Comparative Regionalism (chaired by Harout Ekmanian)
• Global Energy Governance – Strategic Weapon or Tool for Peace? (chaired by Frédéric Sourgens)
• Keeping Sinking States Afloat: The Crisis of Climate Change-Induced Sea-Level Rise and the International Legal Framework (chaired by Claire Robertson)
• Combatting State Hostage-Taking through International Law (chaired by Beatrice Maille)
• Global Business at a Crossroads: Navigating a New Fragmented Reality (chaired by William Burke-White)
• The Role of Civil Society in the Face of the Crisis of the International Legal Order (chaired by Margaret E. McGuinness)
• Does Investor-State Arbitration Impede Responses to Climate Change? (chaired by David L. Attanasio)
• Crimes Against the Environment, Nature, and Biodiversity – Progresses and Gaps in the Law of International and Transnational Crimes (chaired by Milena Sterio)
• Jessup Compromis/Q&A (chaired by Michael Peil)
• State Capture and Kleptocracy: Reimagining International Law On Anti-Corruption in an Age of Kleptocracy (chaired by Belén Aguinaga)
• The Force of Law for Good: Renewing the Global Commitment to Pro Bono (chaired by Amity Boye)
• Charting the Deep: An Oxford-Style Debate on the Future of Seabed Governance (chaired by Konstantine Kopaliani)
• Hot Topic: The Legality of Military Strikes on Drug Traffickers (chaired by Michael P. Scharf)
• Pathways to Employment in International Law (co-chaired by Angela Benson and Michael Peil)

Global Energy Governance – Strategic Weapon or Tool for Peace?; International Law Weekend 2025 audience

The American Branch extends its gratitude to the 2025 ILW Program Committee, composed of: William Aceves (Co-Chair, California Western School of Law), Amity Boye (Co-Chair, ABILA), Jessica Peake (Co-Chair, UCLA Law), Christine Carpenter (University of Cambridge), Perpétua Chéry (ABILA), Megan Corrarino (Just Security), Julia K. Eppard (Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP), M. Imad Khan (Winston & Strawn LLP), Konstantine Kopaliani (White & Case LLP), Brady Mabe (International Committee of the Red Cross), S. Priya Morley (NYU School of Law), Douglas Pivnichny (United Nations), Lisa Reinsberg (International Justice Resource Center), Christine Ryan (Columbia Law School), Alveena Shah (University of Pittsburgh School of Law), Milena Sterio (Cleveland State University College of Law), Peter Tzeng (Foley Hoag LLP), and Elisabeth Wickeri (Fordham University School of Law).

Michael P. Scharf, M. Imad Khan, Jessica Peake, William Aceves, Amity Boye, Leila Nadya Sadat, Lisa Reinsberg, and Freya Doughty-Wagner

The American Branch also gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following sponsors of ILW 2025: American Bar Association International Law Section, the American Society of International Law, ArbitralWomen, University of Baltimore School of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Brill Publishing, California Western School of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Chaffetz Lindsey LLP, University of Chicago Law School, Columbia Law School, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Ford & Paulekas LLP, Fordham University School of Law, Freshfields LLP, Georgetown Law, University of Georgia School of Law Dean Rusk International Law Center, Harvard Law School, the International Law Students Association, Just Security, King & Spalding LLP, New York University School of Law, University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law, University of Pittsburgh Law, Seton Hill Law School, The Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Toppan Merrill, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and Winston & Strawn LLP.