A Conversation Between Jennifer Hillman (Georgetown Law) and Giorgio Sacerdoti (Bocconi University), former members of the World Trade Organization Appelate Body.

Moderators: Gianmaria Ajani (University of Turin) and Madhavi Sunder (Georgetown Law)

Priya Satia is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History and Professor of History at Stanford University. She is the author of three award-winning books: Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East (OUP, 2008); Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution (Duckworth, 2018); Time's Monster: History, Conscience and Britain's Empire (Penguin, 2020). Her work can also be found in the American Historical Review, Past & Present, Technology & Culture, Humanity, and other scholarly journals and edited volumes. Prof. Satia writes frequently for popular media, such as the Washington Post, Time Magazine, The New Republic, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and other outlets.

Jennifer Hillman is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, a co-director of Georgetown’s Institute of International Economic Law and a co-founder of its Center on Inclusive Trade and Development. She is also a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her work has focused on the rules-based trading system and its implications for everything from climate change to Brexit, to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, to critically needed reforms at the World Trade Organization (WTO). She previously served on the WTO's Appellate Body, completing her term in 2012. She has also served as a commissioner at the U.S. International Trade Commission and as both general counsel and chief textiles negotiator (with the rank of Ambassador) at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. She previously served as legislative director for United States Senator Terry Sanford of North Carolina. She is a graduate of Duke University and the Harvard Law School.

This event celebrates the launch of Historical Gloss and Foreign Affairs by Curtis Bradley.

About the Book:
The United States’ constitutional law governing the conduct of foreign affairs has evolved significantly in the more than 230 years since its Constitution took effect. That evolution did not come through formal amendments or Supreme Court rulings. Rather, as Professor Bradley documents in his new book, Historical Gloss and Foreign Affairs: Constitutional Authority in Practice, the law in this area has been developed and defined by the practices of Congress and the executive branch, also known as “historical gloss.” This has meant that to some extent the United States—like the U.K.—has an unwritten constitution. This unwritten constitution has been influenced by the United States’ international relations, and in the early years of the nation these relations were often with the U.K. On issues ranging from executive agreements, to treaty reservations, to extradition, U.S.-U.K. relations helped shape U.S. constitutional law, and sometimes also international law. With a new President in office, attention naturally turns to the scope of presidential power over foreign affairs. Historical gloss, the book explains, has often enhanced such power, but it has also allowed Congress to serve as a check on such power when it has had the institutional will to do so. As Justice Robert Jackson famously observed, presidential power is at its “lowest ebb” when it conflicts with the will of Congress.

This event celebrates the launch of The Entrenchment of Democracy: The Comparative Constitutional Design of Elections, Parties and Voting (Cambridge University Press, 2024), edited by Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Huq, and Tarunabh Khaitan.

About the Book:
This volume of essays brings together a group of leading political scientists, legal scholars, and political theorists to describe and analyze the body of constitutional law and practice within and upon democratic institutions, in particular examining how constitutional law shapes electoral democracy. Constitutional law and practice on this question are complex and varied. This volume therefore takes a thematic and regional approach: it selects a range of key theoretical questions related to democratic constitutional design and offers a series of chapters featuring a diverse range of voices, as well as a blend of theory, qualitative studies, and quantitative methods.

This event celebrates the launch of The Rule of Law Under Pressure: A Transnational Challenge by Gregory Shaffer.

About the Book:
The goal of the rule of law is to protect individuals from the arbitrary exercise of power. Democracy and human rights depend on the rule of law. But today the rule of law is under growing threat in the United States and around the world. Trends regarding rule-of-law protections are transnational in scope. They involve shifting norms, institutions, and practices at the local, national, and international levels. This talk will assess how challenges are taking place at the international and national levels, and how these challenges are linked. It examines the ways in which international law and institutions are important for rule-of-law ends, as well as their pathologies, since power also is exercised beyond the state in an interconnected world. Sustaining the rule of law is a never-ending struggle, one that current challenges make particularly daunting.

This event celebrates the launch of Intellectual Property, Covid-19 and the Next Pandemic: Diagnosing Problems, Developing Cures, edited by Haochen Sun and Madhavi Sunder.

About the Book:
This volume assesses the role of intellectual property in pandemic times through lessons learned from COVID-19. Authored by an international roster of experts, chapters diagnose causes for the inequitable distribution of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines and offer concrete suggestions for reform. From delinking vaccine development from monopoly rights in technology, to enhanced legal requirements under national and international law for sharing publicly funded technologies, to requiring funding from rich nations to former colonies to build local vaccine manufacturing capacity in low and middle-income countries (including those in Africa), this work highlights timely IP reforms that prepare us for the next pandemic.