The International Law Institute, also known as the ILI, was founded as part of

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 1955. The ILI provides training and technical assistance for the legal, economic and financial problems of

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

and emerging economies. Since 1983, the ILI has been an independent, non-profit educational institution serving government officials, legal and business professionals and scholars from its headquarters in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

To date, the ILI and its global affiliates have trained over 39,400 officials, managers, and practitioners- from 186 countries- since it held its first seminar in 1971. The ILI is headquartered in

, and has regional centers in

Kampala, Uganda Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

Abuja, Nigeria Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a ...

, Cairo, Egypt, Santiago, Chile, and

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. The ILI's training and technical assistance programs are conducted by adjunct faculty and advisors, professionals of all nationalities from government, academia, multilateral organizations, and the private sector. 2

History

The institute was founded in 1955 at the

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

A sister institute, the ''Insitut für Ausländisches und Internationales Wirtschaftsrecht'',Contractual Adaptation and Conflict Resolution By Martin Bartels, Volume 8 in Studies in Transnational Law of Natural Resources, published for the Institut fur Auslandisches und Internationales Wirtschaftsrecht at Frankfurt am Main; translated and edited in English by James E. Silva, Kluwer Law and Taxation Publishers, Deventer, Netherlands, and Alfred Metzner Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1985, pp. 187, DM 120 was founded at the same time at Johannes Goethe University in

Frankfurt, Germany Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

; it continues its work today.
ILF at Goethe University Professor Heinrich Kronstein, the institute's first director, fled Germany in the 1930s and spent more than a decade studying and teaching at the law schools of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and

. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he returned to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to work for the reconstruction of legal education. Professor Kronstein believed that closer ties between European and American legal systems would facilitate business and trade. The institute's early years were marked by scholarly work and academic exchanges. Beginning in the early 1970s—under the leadership of a new director, Professor Don Wallace Jr., of Georgetown
Georgetown Law Center Faculty Webpage - the ILI expanded its focus to include professional training in the legal, economic, and financial problems of developing countries. An early collaborator in this work was Professor Robert Hellawell of Columbia University Law School. The earliest courses offered were Foreign Investment Negotiation and International

Procurement Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agency buys goods or serv ...

. Since then the curriculum has evolved to reflect, and promote, the centrality of the private sector and an enabling role on the part of the public sector in promoting the conditions for economic growth. This direction was heightened in the early 1990s when the institute's work expanded to include the problems facing nations formerly part of the Soviet Union as they began to make the transition to market economies and the rule of law. Today the International Law Institute is an independent,

not-for-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

. It continues to work closely with

, as well as with numerous corporations, international organizations, and governments.
The history of the ILI

Publications

The International Law Institute publishes numerous publications. The most notable is The Digest of United States Practice in International Law, covering developments in U.S. International Law annually, published with the assistance of the US State Department and the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. The Digest is available both in print and on the State Department's website. The posting on the web is the Department of State's Office of the Legal Adviser and the International Law Institute's attempt to make the historical record of U.S. practice of international law accessible. The Digest traces its history back to an 1877 treatise by

John Lambert Cadwalader John Lambert Cadwalader (November 11, 1836 – March 11, 1914) was an American lawyer. Early life John Lambert Cadwalader was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on November 17, 1836. He was the eldest son of General Thomas McCall Cadwalader (1795–1 ...

, which was followed by multi-volume encyclopedias by

Francis Wharton Francis Wharton (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1820 – February 21, 1889) was an American legal writer and educationalist. Life Wharton graduated from Yale in 1839, was admitted to the bar in 1843, became prominent in Pennsylvania poli ...

(1886), John Bassett Moore (1906),

Green Hackworth Green Haywood Hackworth (Prestonsburg, Kentucky, January 23, 1883 – Washington, DC, June 24, 1973) was an American jurist who served as the first U.S. judge on the International Court of Justice, as President of the International Court of Just ...

(1940–1943) and Marjorie Whiteman(1963–1971), and an annual Digest beginning in 1973 under the editorship of Arthur Rovine and later Marion Nash Leich, which concluded with cumulative volumes for 1981–1988. Although publication was temporarily suspended after 1988, the office resumed publication in 2000 and has since produced volumes covering 1989 through 2008. A cumulative index covering 1989-2006 was published in 2007, and an updated edition of that index, covering 1989-2008 will be published in 2010. In addition, the ILI publishes books on international and transnational commercial law, trade, litigation, commercial dispute resolution, and foreign legal systems. Recent and ongoing ILI publications include Introduction to Legal English, by Mark Wojcik, now in its third edition, designed to introduce legal English to law students and lawyers whose first language is not English; and International Judicial Assistance, by Bruno A. Ristau and Michael Abbell, a seven-volume work designed as a practical guide for attorneys engaged in transnational litigation.

Training courses

The International Law Institute offers courses which cover topics relating to national and international business, investment, and

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the gove ...

. These topics include

procurement Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agency buys goods or serv ...

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

, arbitration and mediation, negotiating and implementing

trade agreements A trade agreement (also known as trade pact) is a wide-ranging taxes, tariff and trade treaty that often includes investment guarantees. It exists when two or more countries agree on terms that help them trade with each other. The most common tr ...

, The World Trade Organization(WTO) rights and obligations,

project management Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...

, legislative drafting, judicial administration,

corporate governance Corporate governance is defined, described or delineated in diverse ways, depending on the writer's purpose. Writers focused on a disciplinary interest or context (such as accounting, finance, law, or management) often adopt narrow definitions ...

, bank restructuring, and borrowing & debt management. In addition, for foreign lawyers and law students preparing for graduate legal( L.L.M) study in the U.S, and others whose jobs require an understanding of the U.S. legal system, the ILI runs the longest continually running U.S. legal orientation program. Two courses are offered- introduction to

Legal English Legal English is the type of English as used in legal writing. In general, a legal language is a formalized language based on logic rules which differs from the ordinary natural language in vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and semantics, as well ...

and

Legal Writing Legal writing involves the analysis of fact patterns and presentation of arguments in documents such as legal memoranda and briefs. One form of legal writing involves drafting a balanced analysis of a legal problem or issue. Another form of lega ...

and Orientation to the U.S. Legal System. Participants are introduced to the U.S. legal methods and process, central U.S. judicial doctrines and the basic research skills needed in the study of the U.S. law and for communicating with the U.S. colleagues and clients.

Leadership

Board of Directors

Don Wallace Jr. (Chairman) Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center Stuart Kerr (Board President) Former Counsel, Jones Day Former Legal & Regulatory Director, Millennium Challenge Corporation Spencer S. Griffith (Co-Vice Chairman) Partner - Akin Gump, LLP Former Managing Partner of Akin Gump's Beijing Office Umit Herguner Founding Partner - Herguner Bilgen Ozeke Attorney Partnership, Istanbul Former President of the Turkish Corporate Governance Association Formerly Special Counsel, Reid & Priest, New York Former Asst. Professor of Public International Law, Istanbul University School of Law Charles O. Verrill Jr. (Co-Vice Chairman and Treasurer) Former Partner, Wiley, Rein & Fielding Board of Visitors Duke University Law School Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Mark Walter Executive Director - International Law Institute Robert Sargin Director - International Law Institute; Director of the ILI's Asia Initiatives. Board Member of Friends of the Law Library of Congress; Board Member of United Rule of Law Appeal on-ILI Board Member Kenneth Lazarus Partner - Lazarus & Associates Former Counsel to Present to the United States Marian Hagler (Secretary) Managing Member, Hagler Law LLC, Denver, CO Former General Counsel, BOE Midstream, Denver, CO Former Partner, Dentons, Washington, DC Former of Counsel, Baker & McKenzie, Washington, DC David Mao Assoc. Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, GULC, Washington, DC Former Acting Librarian, Library of Congress, Washington, DC Swithin Munyantwali Vice Chairman
African Centre for Legal Excellence - (ILI Uganda)
Former Chairman - Barclays Bank Uganda Independent Non Executive Director, Absa Group John Niehuss Director, Center for Private Investment in Infrastructure, ILI Faculty, Michigan Law, University of Michigan Eli Whitney Debevoise II Partner - Arnold & Porter LLP Former Executive Director, World Bank Hongxia Liu Associate Vice Chancellor & Chief Operating Officer, New York University, Shanghai Formerly Executive Director at the World Justice Project Director of Legal Research at the US Law Library of Congress Representative and Director, Asia Pacific at International Law Development Organization (IDLO) Elizabeth Anderson Executive Director, World Justice Project Timothy Schnabel Executive Director of the Uniform Law Commission Former Attorney, US State Department Office of Legal Advisors Alberto Mora Director, American Bar Association, Rule of Law Initiative Executive Director of Global Programs, Human Rights Center and UN Relations Dr. Allan Goodman President of the Institute of International Education Former Executive Dean, School of Foreign Service and Professor at Georgetown University Former Consultant to Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the United States Information Agency, and IBM William Alford Vice Dean Graduate Program and International Legal Studies, Harvard University Director, East Asian Legal Studies Chair, Harvard Law School Project on Disability Michael Baxter (Counsel to ILI - Non-Board Member) Partner - Convington & Burling Dr. Borzu Sabahi Partner, Curtis Mallet Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP

References

{{Authority control Georgetown University programs