Letter from the 2016-2017 Chair of the International Law Section

• Publication year: 2017

LETTER FROM THE 2016-2017 CHAIR OF THE INTERNATIONAL LAW SECTION

As the Chair of the International Law Section for 2016 through 2017, and on behalf of the Executive Committee of the International Law Section, I have the extreme pleasure of welcoming you to the latest issue of The California International Law Journal and I thank you all for being members of our Section.

Our membership has held steady at 1,200 members in spite of the difficulties that our Section, and others, are experiencing as we separate from the State Bar itself pursuant to legislation recently enacted into law. However, our Section is playing a key role in that separation process in which the State Bar's sections will take over the trade association functions of the State Bar itself as part of a new entity, the California Lawyers Association. And our Section also played a key role in this year's Annual Sections Convention with three of our proposals for sessions being accepted, including one on development of new federal and state approaches on international trade law, one on immigration law in the current political climate, and one on strategies for representing foreign defendants in litigation.

We have continued to forge new relationships, and deepen old ones, with our foreign bar partners. We signed a friendship agreement with the Shenzhen Lawyers' Association in China and hosted lawyers' associations from Vietnam when they came to attend the Annual Sections Convention. Other sections have come to appreciate the friendship agreements of the International Law Section with foreign bar associations: the new mission statement of the California Lawyers Associations includes references to diversity, inclusion, fairness in the administration of justice, and the rule of law. As separation proceeds, the International Law Section will reach out to its sister sections of the State Bar to forge new working relationships and joint programs that will enhance the value of membership in this Section as well as our friendship agreements with our foreign bar partners—all under the leadership of our new Co-Chairs Michael Newman and Alexandra Darraby.

In addition to providing you with informative articles on the leading issues of international law and immigration of...