The 2010 Denver conference of the American Branch of the International Law Association: sustainable development, corporate governance, and international law.

• Author: Noyes, John E.
• Position: Conference news

The American Branch of the International Law Association (ILA) is grateful to the Denver Journal of International Law and Policy for publishing selected essays from the regional American Branch International Law Weekend held at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law on February 12th-13th, 2010. The Branch also thanks the various hosts of the Weekend: the Journal; the Sturm College of Law; the College of Law's International Law Society and International Legal Studies Program; and the Ved Nanda Center for International Law. Both Katherine Nanda and Professor Ved Nanda were personally involved in planning and running this conference, and their organizational skill, graciousness, and hospitality helped make it a grand success. Professor Nanda is of course known internationally as the Evans University Professor and the Thompson G. Marsh Professor of Law at the University of Denver. (1) He has, for many years, actively supported the American Branch through speaking at its conferences, participating in its Executive Committee meetings, and serving as Honorary Vice President. Professor Nanda was recently named a Patron of the Branch. (2)

The theme of this regional International Law Weekend, "Sustainable Development, Corporate Governance, and International Law," links a major value underlying modem international law to practical governance issues) Speakers addressed both theoretical perspectives and practical questions about improving corporate and international institutional practices. The conference explored values, problems facing attorneys, and law development - all significant emphases of the ILA and its American Branch.

Established in Brussels in 1873 to further international relations and the cause of peace, the ILA has long promoted the development of private as well as public international law. (4) When the ILA was organized, it welcomed as members academics, practicing lawyers, and business people. The ILA's reports concerning a wide range of topics link international legal theory and practice.

When the ILA's American Branch was created in 1922, (5) its founders set out some utopian goals and also sought to help solve concrete private international law problems. Addressing the first meeting of the American Branch, Arthur K. Kuhn, both a scholar and a leading member of the New York bar, stressed the importance of ILA members collaborating "to promote international peace and good will and to lay the foundations for a profitable and...