international-and-comparative-law

News and Events

November

The Stead Lecture Featuring Charles F. Bolden Jr.

5 - 7:30 PM

Exploring law globally

Professors Sellers and Tourkochoriti Elected to the International Academy of Comparative Law

April 10, 2026

UBalt Law

UBalt law is thrilled to announce that Professor Mortimer Sellers has been elected a titular member, and Professor Ioanna Tourkochoriti an associate member, of the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL). This prestigious election recognizes the exceptional scholarship and contributions o...

Professor Nienke Grossman’s Scholarship Illuminates the Future of Women and International Law

November 21, 2025

UBalt Law

Celebrating the Publication of the New Oxford Handbook of Women and International Law Professor Nienke Grossman, a leading scholar of feminist approaches to international law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, continues to shape global conversations about gender, justice, and the powe...

Center News

Prof. Mortimer Sellers was elected to serve as honorary president of the International Association of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) at the World Congress in Seoul Korea. Of note, he is only the second American since 1909 to serve in this prestigious role.
In January 2024, Prof. Nienke Grossman was appointed to the Inter-American Juridical Committee, following nomination by the United States. The Committee serves the Organization of American States (OAS) in an advisory capacity to promote the progressive development and codification of international law. Its members are distinguished international law experts from across the Inter-American region. Grossman will attend the next regular session in March.
Exec. Dir. Janet Lord moderated and presented at the American Society of International Law’s ASIL Abroad conference in early June 2024 in Geneva, leading a simulation on disability and armed conflict and framing key principles that ought to inform a disability-cognizant approach to international humanitarian law. She was joined at the conference by UBalt Law student Zoe Kroll, an incoming CICL Fellow. Lord later attended the 17^th Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at UN headquarters, and spoke at a panel on advancing international disability rights in the 21^st century.
In Spring 2024, Prof. Ioanna Tourkochoriti launched a Business and Human Rights Network as part of CICL’s human rights law initiatives. The network is composed of leading business and human rights scholars and practitioners and aims to pursue a research agenda on Environmental, Social, Governance issues and, specifically, to investigate and provide guidance on issues related to human rights due diligence in global supply chains.
At the American Society of International Law’s Annual Meeting in April 2024, CICL was represented by its faculty leadership, Prof. Mortimer Sellers, Prof. Nienke Grossman and Prof. Ioanna Tourkochoriti. Sellers and Grossman participated in numerous ASIL events and panels and were joined at the conference by several students in UBalt Law’s International Law Society.
Prof. Tourkochoriti delivered a Feb. 2, 2024, lecture at American University Washington College of Law based on her Cambridge book volume, Freedom of Expression, the Revolutionary Roots of American and French Legal Thought. The lecture event included commentary by three discussants: Prof. Günter Frankenberg (Max-Planck Institut Frankfurt), Prof. Mark Graber (University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law), and Prof. Fernanda Nicola (American University Washington College of Law). The event was chaired by Prof. Padideh Ala’I (American University Washington College of Law).
CICL provided opportunities for two UBalt Law students to engage in international treaty processes. Prof. Stephen Stec participated in the Plastics Convention treaty negotiation in Ottawa, Canada with UBalt Law student Geena Michaelides. CICL Executive Director Janet Lord led a delegation to UN Headquarters in New York, including law student Ahmad Choudary, to advance efforts before the 6^th Committee of the General Assembly to develop a convention on crimes against humanity.

Elkins Conference on Republicanism

The Wilson H. Elkins Conference on Republicanism took place Oct. 7 through Oct. 9, 2021 at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Regents Professor and Wilson H. Elkins Professor M.N.S. Sellers, co-director of the law school's Center for International and Comparative Law (CICL), and other noted lawyers, philosophers and political scientists, discussed republican law, republican justice, and the republican form of government. The results of the conference were published by Oxford University Press as The Oxford Handbook of Republicanism.
Philip Pettit, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University and Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, delivered the Wilson H. Elkins Lecture, "Freedom in the Republic," at 5:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 7. A reception followed.
Quentin Skinner, the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities and co-director of The Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary University of London, delivered the John Sumner Stead Lecture, "The Nemesis of Republican Liberty," at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 8.
The conference was supported by grants from the Wilson H. Elkins Fund of the University System of Maryland and the John Sumner Stead Fund of the University of Baltimore Center for International and Comparative Law.

25th Annual Stead Lecture in International Law

John Summer Stead Annual Lecture

Each year the Center for International and Comparative Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law welcomes a prominent international lawyer to participate in our John Sumner Stead Annual Lecture on International and Comparative Law. This platform enables a highly distinguished international legal professional to share their expertise and experience in advancing international law and provides a unique opportunity for scholars, students, and legal professionals at UBalt to engage in dialogue and foster a deeper understanding of the major challenges and triumphs associated with the international legal system.

2025 Beth Van Schaack
Distinguished Fellow, Stanford University, Center for Human Rights and International Justice
"The Future of International Justice"
2024 Martti Koskenniemi
Professor Emeritas, University of Helsinki
"Sovereign Statehood and the Limits of Legal Imagination"
2023 Professor Gregory Shaffer
Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of International Law, Georgetown University
"The Rule of Law Under Challenge: The National and International Levels"
2022 Professor Helene Ruiz Fabri
Executive Director, Max Planck Institute Luxembourg
"Women in International Law: Why We Need More Seats at the Table"
2021 Professor Quentin Skinner
Co-director, Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought, Queen Mary University of London
"Republican Liberty and Fundamental Rights"
2020 Professor Gay McDougall
Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, Fordham University Law School
"Cries of BLM Reverberate Worldwide: Even the U.N. Quakes"

John Sumner Stead Lectures Archive

2019 Professor Monica Pinto
President, Administrative Tribunals of the World Bank
"Women's Rights Standards in the Inter-American System"
2018 Ambassador Richard Verma
Vice Chairman and Partner, The Asia Group
"International Law in Practice: A Diplomat's Journey"
2017 Professor Vivian Curran
University of Pittsburgh
"Genocide and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act"
2016 Professor Sean D. Murphy
George Washington University
"International Adjudication"
2015 Senator Benjamin Cardin
United States Senate
"Human Rights Across the Globe"
2014 Professor Yuval Shany
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
"The Relationship Between Legitimacy and Effectiveness"
2013 Professor Anne Peters
University of Basel
"The Role of Transparency in Public International Law"
2012 Scott Shane
The New York Times
"Drones, Kill Lists, and American Values"
2011 Professor Antony Anghie
University of Utah
"Third World Approaches to International Law"
2010 Juan E. Méndez
United Nations
"Justice, Peace and Prevention"
2009 Professor Edith Brown Weiss
Georgetown University
"International Law in a Kaleidoscopic World"
2008 Professor Jan Klabbers
University of Helsinki
"International Law in the European Court of Justice"
2007 Dr. Bisera Turkovic
Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina
"Human Rights in Multi-ethnic Societies"
2006 Professor David Kennedy
Harvard University
"Modern War and Modern Law"
2005 Professor Mark Tushnet
Georgetown University
"The Supreme Court and Non-U.S. Law"
2004 Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter
Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
"A New World Order"
2003 Judge Thomas Buergenthal
International Court of Justice
"The Renaissance of International Legal Institutions"
2002 Dr. Lael Brainard
Brookings Institution
"Smoothing the Rough Edges of Globalization"
2001 Judge S. Sandile Ngcobo
South African Supreme Court
"Truth, Justice and Amnesty in South Africa"
2000 Judge Stephen M. Schwebel
International Court of Justice
"International Courts and Tribunals in the Next Century"
1999 Professor Richard Falk
Princeton University
"Humanitarian Intervention after Kosovo"
1998 Professor Lori Fisler Damrosch
Columbia University
"Economic Sanctions to Enforce International Law"
1997 Senator Paul Sarbanes
United States Senate
"Law and Justice in International Relations"
1996 Conrad Harper
United States Department of State
"Law of Nations and Nation of Laws"