Texas A&M University School of Law Office of Global Programs, in cooperation with the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA), will host “The Global Future of International Trade, Human Rights, and Development” conference on Mar. 2-3, 2017 in Fort Worth. The conference coincides with the Inaugural International Law Weekend—South (ILW-S), the South regional conference of ABILA. 
Experts from Texas A&M Law, other scholars, practitioners and government officials will gather to consider the global future of international trade, human rights and development. Conference participants will consider the following questions: 

How will the new global order interact with the old international order?
How will the future global order operate?
Who will gain and who will lose?
How are governments and other institutions to respond?
What is the right balance between local, national and global interests? 

Texas A&M Law Dean and Anthony G. Buzbee Dean’s Endowed Chair Andrew Morriss and ABILA President and Georgetown Law Professor David Stewart will lead the opening session.
Plenary speakers are Edward Kwakwa, Senior Director, Global Challenges Department and former Legal Counsel, World Intellectual Property Organization; and Dinah Shelton, Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law Emeritus, The George Washington University Law School and former member, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Other panelists include Professor Mohamed AbdelAal of Alexandria University in Egypt; Tiffany Smith, Senior Policy Advisor, Mayer Brown and former Director of Market Access, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; and Robb Voyles, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Halliburton.
The ILW-S 2017 Planning Committee was co-chaired by Texas A&M Law Professors Charlotte Ku and Peter Yu and included Professors Sahar Aziz, Irene Calboli, Gabriel Eckstein, William H. Henning, William Magnuson, Milan Markovic and Elizabeth Trujillo. Professors Nuno Garoupa and Srividhya Ragavan will also speak at the event.
Prof. Peter Yu, ILW-S 2017 Co-Chair
“We are very excited that Texas A&M has been selected to host the inaugural South regional meeting of the American Branch of the International Law Association,” Yu, co-director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University School of Law, said. “The event will provide a wonderful forum to introduce students to various areas of international law practice. It will also showcase the law school's growing strength in this specialized yet pervasive area of law.”
Yu has served on the ABILA board for more than a decade. He currently chairs the branch's Committee on International Intellectual Property and was the co-chair of its 2016 annual meeting.
Ku said ILW-S is “timely as part of the worldwide debate on the durability of the laws and institutions created after World War II to restore international order.”
Prof. Charlotte Ku, ILW-S 2017 Co-Chair
“It also marks the launch of the Texas A&M University School of Law Global Programs, designed to equip students and faculty with the legal skills and knowledge to develop solutions to global problems,” she said. “We are delighted to partner with the American Branch of the International Law Association in the planning and preparation of this program.”
Ku is the former Executive Vice President and Executive Director of the American Society of International Law and an active member of ABILA.
​Learn more about Texas A&M Law Global Programs.