Day 6

Today started off well. I am still adjusting to the jet lag, believe it or not, but otherwise I got a good start to the morning. Went down to breakfast where the group made plans for Professor Komori's send-off tonight at a very visible wine bar in town. He has been to the Center 3 times over the length of his career, and he is about to retire soon from the school's of law and policy at Hokkaido University in Japan. I did some more reading from the Sustainable Development Law book, as it is a subject I am fascinated with and may be interested in writing on it. Accompanied David, a public international law professor in Barbados, and his girlfriend Nikolai (who has worked in the Attorney General's Office for Jamaica and is now getting her LLM in international business relations from one of the London Universities) on a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum downtown, a famous museum (I gather) which held some very interesting items (which I may or may not talk more about later). I stayed just a bit, though, because I wanted to get back to do more reading and join in the afternoon lecture for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on international environmental law, a subject I did not take in law school but am interested in learning a little more about. The lecture will be giving by a professor from the London School of Economics.

Later that evening...

Attended the seminar on international environmental law and also learned a bit about refugee law from the British perspective. Talked with a researcher from the commonwealth office from West Africa about his use of NGOs. Also learned during the lecture that James Crawford, the director of this center, was lead counself of three major environmental law cases, two of which went before the ICJ (international court of justice). That's three major cases out of the nine landmark cases that were mentioned!

Also talked with John Barker, a fellow here who was one of the three main people at the heart of the drafting of the South African Constitution) about that experiene. Mentioned Professor Malherbe, a South African professor who came to IU to speak when I was president of the international law society. Had a long discussion with Professor Barker about problems with the South African Constitution and Iraq.