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From the Directors
During these challenging times, the faculty at McGeorge School of Law is committed to engaging with international law and practice on all fronts, whether through insightful scholarship in international law or meaningful involvement in transnational policymaking and teaching.
With warm regards,
Omar M. Dajani & Jarrod Wong
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International and Comparative Law Scholarship | |
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Carol Olson Professor in International Law Professor Omar M. Dajani's article, Negotiating Pluralism: Dilemmas of Decentralization, 75 UC Law Journal (formerly Hastings L. J.) (2024) (with Aslı Bâli) presents a qualitative comparison of decentralizing initiatives in four Middle Eastern countries, addressing ongoing debates about the merits of decentralization and suggesting institutional design considerations for grappling with the intertwined crises of governance and identity conflict in the region. The article builds on their co-edited volume, Federalism and Decentralization in the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
Dajani’s article, A Two-State Solution That Can Work, Foreign Affairs (Sep. 19, 2024) (with Limor Yehuda), argues for an Israeli-Palestinian confederation and a new paradigm for peace built on equality, partnership, and freedom of movement and residence. It builds on his chapter "Stuck Together? Can a Two-State Confederation End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?" (with Dahlia Schendlin) in Federalism and Decentralization in the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa.
In 2024, Dajani also published four op-eds, including one in the New York Times, addressing the situation in Israel-Palestine.
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Distinguished Professor of Law Jarrod Wong and co-author Jason Yackee draw on political science and public administration scholarship to offer the first interdisciplinary critique of transparency in international investment law in Transparency, Accountability, And Influence In The International Investment Law System, 46 Michigan Journal of International Law 121 (2025).
In Article 12: Compliance with the Code, in The Code of Conduct for Arbitrators in International Investment Dispute Resolution - A Commentary (Giorgetti and Potesta, eds.) (Kluwer) (forthcoming 2025), Wong considers the compliance mechanisms for the Code of Conduct for Arbitrators in International Investment Dispute Resolution Code of Conduct for investment arbitrators spearheaded by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. In The Independence and Impartiality of Adjudicators in the United States of America, in Independence and Impartiality of International Adjudicators (Giuditta Cordero-Moss, ed.) (Intersentia, Cambridge) (2023), Wong considers how the independence and impartiality of adjudicators, including international arbitrators, are safeguarded in the U.S. legal system.
Also, Wong analyzes the best evidence rule as interpreted and applied by international courts and tribunals in Best Evidence Rule, Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law (Oxford University Press) (2023). The best evidence rule provides that a party trying to prove the contents of written, recorded or photographic evidence must ordinarily introduce the original evidence.
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Distinguished Professor of Law Michael P. Malloy assesses the effectiveness of sanctions imposed by the United States in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Russia-Ukraine Economic Sanctions: Legal Responses to a Crisis, Anthology Of Law 15 (David A. Frenkel (ed.), (Athens Inst. for Education & Research)(2023).
West Academic has published Malloy’s new casebook, Contemporary Payment Systems (2d ed. 2023), which includes new developments in crypto-currency and transnational letter of credit transactions.
International publisher Wolters Kluwer issued eight supplements in 2023 and 2024 Malloy’s three-volume treatise Banking Law and Regulation. Spanning thousands of pages, the Supplements provide new and updated legislative, regulatory, and case law developments in financial services regulation, including reorganized rules of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network that affect both domestic and international funds transfers, and continuing developments in U.S. economic sanctions in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Associate Professor of Law Pamela A. Izvǎnariu and co-author Federico Rosenbaum provide a comparative study of legal developments concerning worker classification in the platform economy across Latin America and Europe, using LatCrit as an analytical lens, in a chapter in Critical Legal Theory and Social Justice in the Americas, edited by Hugo Rojas Corral et al., (Tirant Lo Blanch) (2005).
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Distinguished Professor of Law, Franklin Gevurtz's chapter on the extraterritorial application of United States statutes and regulations will appear in Extraterritoriality in Comparative Perspective (Brill Nijhoff) (2025).
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Professor Mike Mireles and Muhammed Altun, LLM 2024, coauthored The Treatment of Immoral, Scandalous, and Disparaging Marks in the Trademark Law of the United States and Turkey, Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law (forthcoming 2025).
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Associate Dean of Faculty Scholarship and Justice Anthony Kennedy Professor, Leslie Gielow Jacobs, as part of a comparative project, provides an overview of the laws addressing the harmful spread of disinformation that exist within the limits imposed by the U.S. Constitution in a chapter in Freedom of Speech and the Regulation of Fake News, O. Pollicino, ed., (Intersentia, Cambridge) (2023). Jacobs participated in a comparative law Remedies Discussion Forum in Paris in 2024 and delivered a paper, A Tale of Two Disclosure Requirements, which will be published in the Louisiana Law Review in 2025.
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Distinguished Professor of Law Michael Vitiello considers the plight of revenge porn victims in Revenge Porn and Other Crime Victims: Is It Right to Blame Them? in Criminalising Intimate Image Abuse (Gian Marco Caletti and Kolis Summerer, eds., Oxford University Press) (2024), a book with contributions from European and US scholars analyzing intimate image abuse from a comparative perspective. In June 2024, the University of Bologna Law School hosted a seminar on Vitiello’s book The Victims’ Rights Movement: What It Gets Right, What It Gets Wrong (New York University Press) (2023).
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Professor Mary-Beth Moylan and Professor Stephanie Thompson were honored with the “Recognition of Achievement in Global Legal Skills Education” award at the Global Legal Skills Conference in Bari, Italy, in June 2024 for their work on the third edition of their book, Lawyering and Global Lawyering Skills, Third Edition (West, 2023). The book is used by all first and second year students in McGeorge’s innovative global lawyering skills courses, and includes chapters on challenging implicit bias, research, writing, and revising legal documents. | |
 | | Professor Charles Kaye-Essien, as part of his ongoing work on Collaborative Governance and Citizen co-production, examines how issue salience and prosocial values influence citizen activism decisions in different governance contexts in The Socio‐Political Context of Citizen Activism: An International Comparative Perspective, Public Administration Review (2025). Also, in The Motivational Basis of Citizen-Led Local Interventions: The Case of Road Repairs and Traffic Management in Ghana, International Journal of Public Administration (2024), he and E. Yankson examine the motivational factors behind citizens’ initiatives when state and non-state actors fail to deliver public services. He additionally assesses the complementary effects of intergovernmental support, municipal capacity, non‐governmental organization presence and international development assistance on education in The co‐governance of basic education: Assessing the complementary effects of intergovernmental support, municipal capacity, non‐governmental organization presence and international development assistance, 38(1) Governance (2024).
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Professor Francis J. Mootz III examines the work of the Dutch-born philosopher Professor Jan Broekman in his chapter, Jan Broekman and the Multicultural Self, a solicited contribution to a Festschrift honoring Broekman and published by Springer in 2023 as part of a book series devoted to Visual Jurisprudence and edited by Frank Fleerackers and Anne Wagner. Additionally, Mootz examines the Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico in his chapter Giambattista Vico, in a book that Mootz coedits titled Classical Rhetoric and Contemporary Law: A Critical Reader (Francis J. Mootz III, Kirsten Davis, Brian Larson, and Kristen Tiscione, eds., University of Alabama Press) (2024).
Mootz also authored a book chapter At Play in the Fields of the Law, in Philosophy's Arena: Play and Players in a Gamified World (Jeremy Sampson, ed.; Vernon Press) (2024), which includes philosophers across the globe writing on play as being central to human understanding. Additionally, Mootz contributed a chapter, Rhetoric and Law, in The Cambridge History of Rhetoric: Volume V 1900–, (Daniel M. Gross, Steven Mailloux, LuMing Mao, eds, Cambridge University Press) (forthcoming 2025), a volume that promises to be the standard reference for the history of rhetorical studies with its lineup of international scholars from around the world.
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Global Impact
In recognition of Professor Stephen McCaffrey’s leadership and pioneering role in international water law — including his service as a member of the International Law Commission and chair of its 29th session, as well as Special Rapporteur for the Commission's draft articles that formed the foundation for the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses — the McGeorge School of Law has established an endowed professorship in international law and resource sustainability.
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Omar Dajani serves as co-chair of the board for A Land for All (ALFA), a peace movement advocating for “two states, one homeland” with leadership and members drawn from across both societies. Dajani was awarded a £1 million grant from the UK Research and Innovation’s Economic and Social Research Council for the project “The Shared Homeland Paradigm: Reimagining Space, Rights, and Partnership in Palestine-Israel,” which he will pursue in collaboration with Professor Haim Yacobi of University College London and ALFA. During the 2023-2024 academic year, Professor Dajani appeared in the national media 10 times and gave talks regarding the Palestine-Israel conflict and his vision for peace at 20 universities and at the Munich Security Conference. Dajani also serves on the organizing committee for Yale Law School’s Middle East Legal Studies Seminar (MELSS) and is a member of the board of the Palestinian American Bar Association.
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| | | Jarrod Wong serves as the American Society of International Law observer delegate to the United Nations Commission of International Trade Law, Working Group III, which is embarked on a historic multi-year project to address procedural and structural concerns with Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). Wong spoke on the sovereign right to regulate and third-party funding in investor-state dispute settlement on a panel at the 50th session of Working Group III in January 2025. Wong also serves on the Steering Committee of the Academic Forum on ISDS, which was established to reflect on and contribute to the work of UNCITRAL on ISDS. Additionally, Wong serves on the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, an international educational forum in the field of transnational arbitration. Also, Wong served as the moderator and discussant of a panel on Investment Mechanisms at the American Society of International Law Research Forum at the University of Chicago Law School in November 2024.
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Four McGeorge professors have been appointed to serve as U.S. National Rapporteurs at the 2026 International Congress of Comparative Law: Franklin Gevurtz on “Imitation as a tool of legal change”; Pamela A. Izvǎnariu on “The future of work in the digital context: fears and opportunities”; Michael Vitiello on “Criminalization of rape and means of protection and assistance to victims”; and Jarrod Wong on “Private International Law in Investment Arbitration.”
In November 2024, Franklin Gevurtz presented a special report on "Teaching Comparative Law through Integrating Comparative Law into All or Most Law Courses" to the 5th Thematic Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law. This Congress, held at the Sorbonne, marked the Academy’s Centennial by examining the past, future and teaching of comparative law. Gevurtz also chaired one of the panels dealing with teaching at the Congress.
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In the spring of 2024, Michael Vitiello taught a six-week course at the University of Parma that focused on Issues in American Criminal Law, including the death penalty, sex offenses, and drug policy. He also gave a lecture on Globalism and Sustainable Vineyard Practice at the University.
In Spring 2024, Michael P. Malloy participated in planning sessions of the Real Estate Markets Advisory Group of the Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe that considered proposals for innovative financing and for sustainable housing and development, which had been themes of the Policy Framework for Sustainable Real Estate Markets (UNECE, rev. 2019) for which Dr. Malloy was a contributor. In June 2024, at the 17th Annual International Conference on Contracts at the University of Bristol Law School, England, Malloy delivered a paper on Financial Contracts and Community Needs, exploring the interaction between public policy and freedom of contract in the financial services industry. He also moderated a panel on Interpretation and Content of Contracts. Additionally, Malloy was a member of the organizing committee and served as a co-host for the 10th Annual International Conference on Business, Law, and Economics, sponsored by the Athens Institute for Education and Research. The Conference took place in Athens, Greece in May 2023, and for the 20th Annual International Conference on Law, sponsored by the Athens Institute for Education and Research in Athens, Greece in July 2023.
Mike Mireles co-hosted in 2024 a workshop on international and comparative intellectual property for Indian, European, and U.S. students and professors that included lectures at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and the Finnegan Henderson law firm in Munich, Germany. In October of 2024, Mike Mireles also presented on Licensing Patents and Trade Secrets for the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Mary-Beth Moylan presented at the McGeorge International Board of Advisors meeting in Prague in June 2024 on “The Mechanics of Cleaning up Politics: Do Ethics Rules, Impeachment, and Recall Elections Work to Ensure Good Government?,” exploring mechanisms for promoting good governance. Additionally, she presented the same month at the Global Legal Skills Conference in Bari, Italy, delivering a talk on “Engaging Students with Asynchronous Teaching Materials on International Law.”
Charles Kaye-Essien has been awarded a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship to provide professional training to Planning and Policy students at the SD Dombo University in Ghana this summer. Additionally, in collaboration with the Swedish International Center for Local Democracy, he is supporting the City of Stellenbosch in the Western cape Province, South Africa in its voluntary review of various sustainable development goals.
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In April 2024, Professor Emerita Linda Carter hosted a meeting at McGeorge with a contingent of Ukrainian lawyers and judges, sponsored by the Congressional Office for International Leadership and the Woodland Rotary Club. The theme of the visit was prosecuting war crimes, and with Adjunct Professor Lance Blanco and Omar Dajani in attendance. Additionally, in August 2024, Carter hosted a meeting at McGeorge with U.S. Army Reserve Officers working on supporting governmental institutions and the rule of law in Korea, and with Adjunct Professor Lance Blanco in attendance. Carter also hosted in November 2024 a discussion with Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Rwanda. The conversation focused on post-conflict justice and justice sector reforms during the 30 years following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Carter continues to serve as a trustee for the International Bar Association Foundation, supporting the IBA’s rule of law efforts, and as a member of the Advisory Committee for the IBA’s War Crimes Committee. She is also a member of the McGeorge International Board of Advisors. Carter also served as co-leader of an International Bar Association initiative in 2023 to provide advice at the request of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on international criminal law and family law theories to compel the Russian Federation to return the Ukrainian children who have been taken into Russia and not yet returned. | International Law Symposia hosted by McGeorge School of Law | Above: "Emerging Issues in Intellectual Property" Symposium in October 2024 in Salzburg, Austria. | |
Forthcoming in 2025
We are once again hosting our annual McGeorge Global Center Symposium on our campus in the spring. This year, on April 4, 2025, with Mike Mireles as the organizer, the conference titled "Patent and Trademark Law Developments" will feature over 20 speakers from Europe, the United States, China and South Korea and universities such as the University of Salzburg Law School; Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta; University of Copenhagen; Central European University; Georgetown University Law School; Wake Forest University Law School; DePaul College of Law; and Texas A&M University Law School. Learn more.
2024
The University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, VIT University Law School, Chennai, India, and University of Salzburg Law School cohosted a conference titled "Emerging Issues in Intellectual Property" on October 3 and 4, 2024, in Salzburg. The conference featured speakers from China, South Korea, Europe and the United States. Mireles co-organized the conference.
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List of JSD graduates from 2023-2025 | |
McGeorge School of Law is among a small number of law schools in the United States that offer a JSD program in international law. Here are our recent proud JSD graduates and the titles of their respective dissertations: | |
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Ayodeji “Deji” Jayeoba
Breaking the Monopoly: Framing a Coherent Pharmaceutical Policy to Address High Drug Prices in the United States
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Walid Faddoul
Fiduciary Duties of Banks Directors: The Case of Lebanon’s Baking Crisis and Options for Reforms
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Essa Al-Ali
Evaluate the Value-Added Tax Policy in the United Arab Emirates
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Omar Alatawi
The Role of Decentralization in Combatting Corruption in Saudi Arabia
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Sultan Albedwawi
Timeshare Law in the United Arab Emirates (A Comparative Study)
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Dimitrios Dimitrakos
Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution: An Analysis of Articles 207, 213 And Other Selected Provisions of The United Nations Convention on the Law of The Sea 1982 From A Dynamic Interpretation Point of View, and A Critical Analysis and Assessment of The Global and Regional Regulatory Framework, With Emphasis on the Regional Seas Programme
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Ahmad Falamarzi
The Conflict of Federal Legal Principles Caused by a Plurality of Supreme Courts in the UAE
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