Monday, February 26, 2001
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Three dimensional
Dean Rusk Center focuses on research, service and instruction in international law
By Beth Roberts
beth@uga.edu

Gabriel Wilner, Charles Kirbo Professor of International Law and associate dean in the law
Gabriel Wilner
school, has this year become director of the Dean Rusk Center, which now serves as the home of the law school’s programs in international law. He spoke with Columns about the center’s future.

Columns: What’s changed at the Rusk Center?
Wilner: By nature, the center has changed since the consolidation, because it is now really the combination of all the international programs at the law school: the graduate program, the international curriculum, and the research and service components.
Since Dean Rusk died, we haven’t had a symbol for international law at the law school. He was an essential element in the creation of the international programs at the law school, and he had a decisive role in creating what we have. I have been going over some of the notes that I took during our many conversations on what he thought was important. He had certain priorities in terms of the kind of work that the center might do, and we’re trying to get to some of that.

Columns: What were his ideas for the center?
Wilner: An emphasis on research and service with respect to the Atlantic relationship--the relationship between the United States and Europe. Professor Rusk thought that it was an indispensable part of our existence as a society.
And then he was also very interested in development--in our relationship with our neighbors to the south and with developing countries in general. María Giménez, our service and outreach programs associate director, has been staking out an area which I think is extremely important--the reform of the judiciary of certain countries, with the help of Richard Reeves, the director of the Institute of Continuing Judicial Education.
So the idea is to do research, to be of service, to work with our students--both our J.D. and LL.M. students, to involve them in the work of the center--and to work very closely with our faculty. My role will be to encourage, to coordinate, to try to help find money.

Columns: What do you mean by “the international dimension of law”?
Wilner: I’ve always thought of law in terms of the national--local--dimension of law on the one hand and the dimension of law beyond our borders on the other. So the international dimension of law includes public international law, international public organizations and non-governmental organizations--in that area, the international dimension now is probably almost as big as the local dimension, and growing. And then of course there is comparative law, comparing institutions and rules in our country with those of other countries. And then there are some unique entities that we study very carefully--the European Union, for example, and international trade and other economic organizations, such as the World Trade Organization.
I also hope that we will be working with the state of Georgia, to see where we can be of help in dealing with the international dimensions of the state’s role in trade. That was done at the very beginning of the Rusk Center, and I think we’ll be returning to that--preparing reports for interested state agencies.
There are also interdisciplinary projects. Dorinda Dallmeyer, our associate director, for example, has been active in dealing with other departments in the university, such as anthropology and ecology. The university should think of the Rusk Center not just as a place where technical law is looked at, but as a place where legal policy is dealt with.

Columns: How about other projects in Latin America?
Wilner: We have an ongoing relationship with a university in Argentina. We will have a couple of conferences on dispute settlement, and there is now a proposal to deal with constitutional issues in Argentina. They essentially adopted our constitution, and they use our Supreme Court case law in their decisions. But the consultation process has not been well organized, and several members of our faculty are interested in that.
We’re now organizing a week’s trip to Cuba, and we’re beginning exchanges with one of the universities in Mexico. There is also the judicial administration project with Brazil.

Columns: And in Europe?
Wilner: In Europe of course there’s the EU project, and we have an exchange with Lyon. And we’re hoping to get more exchanges, both faculty and students. The Brussels Seminar on the Law and Institutions of the European Union will be held for the 29th year in July. Professor Rusk and I established this three-week program for our students and those of other law schools in the United States. Two universities in Brussels cooperate in holding it.
And then we’ve just gotten an AOL grant to work with the universities in Palestine. Of course, we have to wait until the situation stabilizes before going there. We will be bringing Palestinian legal educators here. We will work with the researchers and the faculty at the various universities on the training of lawyers for the future.

Columns: What courses in international law are required for a law degree at UGA?
Wilner: Nothing is required--much to my dismay. I’ve always thought that public international law ought to be required.

Columns: Will globalization mean that all lawyers need an acquaintance with international law?
Wilner: Exactly--both the public and the private side, in public international law, in international transactional law, comparative law, European law.
But it is hard to change people’s views on what the core curriculum is, and the core curriculum at the law school says nothing about any international or foreign law. At other universities there is more emphasis on international law, but it is just a matter of time, of showing the necessity for it. And of course it is absolutely indispensable that every law graduate here be a very good Georgia and U.S. lawyer--that’s the foundation level of knowledge, technique and expertise.
But knowing something about other legal systems--since, after all, the majority of countries in the world are civilian and not common law--and knowing something about the other system of laws, that’s going to be required of everyone in practice. Students and faculty are beginning to see that. Our goal is to offer a sufficient variety of courses in the international dimension of law.
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