Law, Peace Negotiations & War Crimes Institute

Institute Overview
This Institute is designed for U.S. diplomats, foreign government officials, peace and conflict NGO's, and international lawyers to teach the core skills and strategies necessary to draft peace agreements and to establish effective war crimes tribunals. It will cover two of the most significant issues facing fragile states seeking to transition from conflict. This Institute will provide a comprehensive examination of techniques and lessons learned to enable professionals to better facilitate the transformation to peace and security.

Participants will:

• Receive training on skills such as drafting ceasefires, human rights instruments, refugee return provisions, autonomous arrangements, constitutional structures, and accountability mechanisms.
• Develop a methodology for successfully incorporating legal and policy tools to resolve points of impasse.
• Participate in simulation exercises to review the skills learned.
• Receive templates and materials, which will serve as drafters' handbooks for future negotiations.

Institute Directors and Instructors
Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at the American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and the Washington College of Law. Professor Williams is also Executive Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group which provides pro bono legal assistance to developing states and states in transition. He has advised over a dozen countries on peace negotiations.

Michael Scharf is Professor of Law and Director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Professor Scharf is Managing Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group and also manages its International Justice Practice area where he provides research assistance to five international war crimes tribunals. He has also provided training to the judges of several international tribunals and was recently part of a team of five experts invited to London to train the judges of the Iraqi Special Tribunal. In 1993, he received the State Department’s Meritorious Award "in recognition of superb performance and exemplary leadership" for his work on the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Scott R. Lyons is a the Institute Scholar and Peace Fellow for the Public International Law & Policy Group where he has focused on Iraqi constitutional issues and the modern doctrine of preemption. He is a former Gillett-Mussey Research Fellow at the War Crimes Research Office and has worked on location for the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Past Keynote Speakers
David Scheffer, a current visiting professor at George Washington Law School, is the  former U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues (1997-2001) and led U.S. support for international and hybrid criminal tribunals. Amb. Scheffer headed the U.S. delegation to U.N. talks on the International Criminal Court until 2001. He also led the Atrocities Prevention Inter-Agency Working Group. During the first Clinton Administration, he was senior adviser and counsel to the U.N. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dr. Madeleine Albright, and served on the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council. Amb. Scheffer practiced with the international law firm of Coudert Brothers (1979-1986), served as senior consultant to the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs (1986-88), and was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1989-1992). In recent years he was a Senior Fellow of the U.S. Institute of Peace and Senior Vice President of the U.N. Association of the U.S.A. Amb. Scheffer has written extensively on international law and politics. He is a graduate of Harvard, Oxford (Knox Fellow), and Georgetown Universities.

William L. Nash, a retired U.S. Army major general, is the General John W. Vessey senior fellow for conflict prevention and director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations. Major General William L. Nash, USA (Ret.) has extensive experience in peacekeeping operations, both as a military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina and as a civilian administrator for the United Nations in Kosovo. He served in the Army for 34 years, and is a veteran of Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm where he commanded an armored brigade. He led U.S. troops into Bosnia after the Dayton accords, and later served as regional U.N. administrator in Kosovo.  Since his retirement in 1998, Nash has been a Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Director of Civil-Military Programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. In addition to his duties at the Council, General Nash is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and a military consultant for ABC News. He has been the Director of the Council's Center for Preventive Action since April 2001.

Public International Law & Policy Group
The Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) is a 501(c)(3) organization, which operates as a global pro bono law firm providing free legal assistance to developing states and sub-state entities involved in conflicts. PILPG also provides policy formulation advice and training on matters related to conflict resolution.

PILPG, which has recently been nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, has advised over a dozen countries on the legal aspects of peace negotiations and constitution drafting, and over fifteen countries in Europe, Asia and Africa concerning fundamental questions of public international law and foreign relations. PILPG has also advised four international criminal tribunals.

The four primary practice areas of PILPG are:

• Peacebuilding
• International Justice
• Post-Conflict Political Development
• Public International Law
  

Contact Details:

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For more information on hosting a private session, please email us at institute@pilpg.org,

4928 Battery Lane
Suite 5
Bethesda, MD 20814
USA

Telephone:
+1-202-487-8713