Our Global Network
I am quite content to be the next person in line waiting to officially welcome you to the International Legal Studies Program’s 30th Anniversary Conference and Alumni Reunion. For me, the Alumni Coordinator who has only known you via e-mail, it is especially gratifying to welcome you back to Washington for this exciting celebration. E-mail and all our wonderful telecommunication devices simply are not the same as speaking with you here, tonight, face-to-face.
In addition to welcoming you, I want to take this opportunity to re-introduce you to this publication: Global Network. Since I began editing this magazine four years ago, I have worked to ensure that it not only showcases our diverse and interconnected network of ILSP alumni, but that it also serves as a forum for continuing dialogue on trending legal issues in the international arena.
This special, 30th anniversary edition of Global Network does both of those things. It showcases the diverse and interconnected global network of ILSP alumni: one alumna or alumnus for each of ILSP’s 30 years is featured. But when you read the experiences of each person featured in this magazine side-by-side, you gain an understanding of how the ILSP experience – your experience – transcends the years, the continents, the languages.
So, I said I wanted to re-introduce you to this magazine – Global Network – but really, what I mean by that is: I want to re-introduce you to each other.
Lucy Kagwanja (2003) is building roads in East Africa – not with cement and bulldozers – but with negotiation skills Professor Bradlow taught her – the negotiation skills that enabled her to secure a loan from the World Bank to fund the project. Ruxandra Burdescu (2002) is working from inside the World Bank, ensuring the institution’s policies and transparent and just, and that its resources are open and accessible.
As the CEO of Febelfin, the Belgian Financial Sector Federation, Michel Vermaerke (1985) works daily to impact the future of the European economy. And Juliane Kokott (1983), as the German Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, is working to positively shape the future of the European justice system and European integration.
In Korea, Byungsik Jung (2006) is negotiating free trade agreements from within the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. Ricardo Ramirez Hernandez (1994) is one of the seven appellate body members of the WTO, answering trade-related legal questions that impact the future of development on a global scale.
Sumanto Basu (1993) is working on oil and gas investments in India. Agustin Etcheverry (1998) and his business partner Juan Carlos Blanco (1999) represent oil and gas companies and agribusiness clients that are impacting the economy and development of Uruguay. Gustavo Alanis-Ortega (1992) is championing the environment, improving and enforcing Mexico’s compliance with environmental laws.
And let’s not forget the human rights advocates among us: Jean Yaovi Degli (2007) served as the defense attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Tamar Morag (1988) is defending the rights of the child in Israel. Claudia Martin (1999) and Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon (1994) are educating future generations of human rights lawyers back at American University Washington College of Law.
So, you see, when you look at these experiences – your experiences – together, side-by-side, in this magazine, you see the dialogue that begins to emerge. You see how all of your experiences intersect and overlap, all working to make a difference in this world.
This idea -- I want to change the world – is one I have grown up with as an American. It’s something that I would consider idealistic; I might even call it naïve or cliché. Wanting to change the world, to me, seems wrapped up in some concept of the American dream.
To me, changing the world seems unattainable, near impossible, or at least very, very hard.
But, through my work on this special edition of Global Network, I have seen you do just this. You, the alumni of the International Legal Studies Program, change the world through the work you do every day.
Now, at this point in my speech, I want to pause for a moment to tell you a secret. And that is: ILSP isn’t the only one turning 30 this year. This fall, I too will be celebrating my 30th birthday.
I bring it up because as I’ve been working on this magazine, studying the work you have accomplished in my lifetime, I couldn’t help but make the connection between the world that I know – the world that I live in – and the world you, collectively, have been creating over the past 30 years.
As ILSP Director and Professor David Hunter says in his introduction to the 30th Anniversary edition of Global Network,
Thirty years is a long time. The year we began, the Law of the Sea Convention entered into force; the Soviet Union still controlled much of eastern Europe and central Asia, and Ronald Reagan was President of the United States. ILSP was founded a decade before the first Earth Summit was held or the World Trade Organization was created. The world’s economy was not yet globalized, media was not yet “social,” and mail was not yet “e-mail.”
What you have accomplished in the past 30 years has shaped my experience in this world, and for that I am grateful to you – not as an Alumni Coordinator and Magazine Editor who has the pleasure of working with such an inspiring group of people, but as a human who has recognized the incredible significance and global impact of what you do, and how that also impacts my life.
I hope as you read through this edition of the magazine you will feel as inspired as I have throughout its creation. And I use that word – inspired – intentionally. It’s not an overstatement. I think it accurately describes the alumni who are profiled in this magazine and their work.
So, with my gratitude, I invite you to truly celebrate your accomplishments this evening, and this week, along with the accomplishments of the International Legal Studies Program.
Thirty years is a long time. And tonight we should all feel proud of what we have accomplished.
Thank you.
