Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T04:28:05.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Remarks by Sean D. Murphy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2021

Sean D. Murphy
Affiliation:
ASIL immediate past President; Manatt/Ahn Professor of Law at George Washington University.
Claudio Grossman
Affiliation:
Raymond I. Geraldson Scholar for International and Humanitarian Law (and Dean Emeritus) at American University's Washington College of Law.

Extract

Our conversation might begin by looking backward a bit. The human rights movement from 1945 onward has been one of the signature accomplishments of the field of international law, one that refocused our attention from a largely interstate system to a system where the individual moved in from the periphery to the center. Human rights champions point to numerous landmark treaties, numerous institutions, and the rise of NGOs as a critical vehicle for developing and monitoring human rights rules. Yet others look at the international human right system and still see the state as overly central, tolerating and paying lip service to human rights, but too easily discarding them when they prove to be inconvenient. The persistence of racism comes to mind. As a general matter, how would you assess the strengths and weaknesses of the system that was built essentially during your lifetime?

Type
Morning Keynote: A Conversation with the 2020 Goler T. Butcher Medal Honoree, Professor Claudio Grossman
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The American Society of International Law.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

At 9:00 a.m., Friday, June 26, 2020, the Society's 2020 Goler T. Butcher Medal was awarded to Professor Claudio Grossman, the Raymond I. Geraldson Scholar for International and Humanitarian Law (and Dean Emeritus) at American University's Washington College of Law. After the conveyance of the medal by ASIL President Catherine Amirfar, Professor Claudio Grossman engaged in a conversation with ASIL immediate past President Sean D. Murphy, the Manatt/Ahn Professor of Law at George Washington University. Professor Grossman and Murphy are both Members of the UN International Law Commission.