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International policy makers, leading scholars and legal practitioners from both sides of important human rights and armed conflict cases before the International Court of Justice met for a research conference titled "Human Rights and the Law of War: New Roles for the World Court?"

Revolving around the most pressing issues facing the International Court of Justice, the conference took place April 12 at Northwestern University School of Law. It focused on stimulating reflection, dialogue and improved understanding of the Court's place in the international system.

"Although the world increasingly turns to the court for international justice, the role it plays in defending human rights has not been the subject of scholarly debate in the post-Cold-War era," said conference organizer Douglass Cassel, clinical associate professor of law and director of the Center for International Human Rights at the School of Law's Bluhm Legal Clinic.

Established by the United Nations in 1945 to focus mainly on boundary disputes or monetary and commercial disputes between governments, the International Court of Justice is now busier than ever hearing cases that raise important questions of human rights, international humanitarian law and the legality of force used in armed conflicts.

Since the early 1990s the Court has presided over several suits in which nations are accused of launching illegal wars, fomenting genocide and sponsoring war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In addition to Cassel participants included Daniel Bethlehem, deputy director of the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge; John Crook, general counsel of the Multinational Force and Observers headquartered in Rome; Anthony D'Amato, the Judd and Mary Morris Leighton Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law; Donald Francis Donovan, partner in the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York; Paul Reichler, partner in the law firm Foley Hoag & Eliot in Washington D.C.; Bruno Simma, professor of international law and European community law and director of the Institute of International Law at the University of Munich; Abraham Sofaer, the George P. Schultz Distinguished Scholar and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford; and Stefan Trechsel, professor of criminal law and procedure at the University of Zurich Law School.

"Human Rights and the Law of War: New Roles for the World Court?" is the fifth annual conference in the Northwestern Law Faculty Research Conference Series. The series was inaugurated in 1998 to bring together leading authorities in a public forum to present research and to discuss important academic and public policy issues.

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