A New "New Haven School"? Yale Journal of International Law Young Scholars Conference March 10 at YLS

The Yale Journal of International Law will host its Fifth Annual Young Scholars Conference on March 10 at Yale Law School. The conference is titled "The 'New' New Haven School: International Law—Past, Present & Future."

A generation ago, Yale Law School gave birth to the so-called "New Haven School of International Law," which insisted that law is more than formal legal institutions, that international law is best studied by evaluating social practice and that international legal scholars should take a policy-oriented approach to determining what constitutes effective world order.

The March 10 conference will consider whether a "New" New Haven School is emerging, as scholars trained in the New Haven School methodology take the helm at law schools nationwide and begin to chart their own scholarly course.  Topics to be discussed include the impact and legacy of the New Haven School; lessons from the New Haven School for the so-called War on Terror; and the methodological gulfs between international law and international relations. The conference will also give the winners of the Yale Journal of International Law's student scholarship competition an opportunity to share their work.

Dean Harold Hongju Koh, Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, said, "Like most intellectual schools, the New New Haven School embraces scholars who live outside New Haven, and not all international legal scholars in New Haven belong to the School. But during the past fifteen years, the contours of a new intellectual school are clearly emerging, with roots in the past, feet in several academic disciplines, and normative commitments to the relevance of international law to a post-9/11 world. The Yale Journal of International Law has done a marvelous job of attracting back to New Haven both the leading young international law scholars in the country and the budding academics of the future. This should be one of the most exciting events in international legal scholarship this year."