Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and legal scholars discuss Professor A.J. Bellia’s book

From left to right: Judge Debra Livingston, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Judge David Barron, Notre Dame Law Professor A.J. Bellia, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, George Washington University Law School Professor Brad Clark, Judge Sri Srinivasan, and Harvard Law Dean John Manning at a recent symposium at Georgetown University Law Center. (Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Law Center)

A.J. Bellia, the O’Toole Professor of Constitutional Law at Notre Dame Law School, recently participated in a symposium at Georgetown University Law Center that explored the role of international law in the U.S. legal system.

Notre Dame Law Professor A.J. Bellia, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, and Notre Dame Law Professor Roger Alford pictured at the Georgetown University Law Center. (Photo courtesy of George Washington University Law School)

Leading constitutional and international law scholars, along with prominent federal judges — including Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito — used a path-breaking book co-authored by Bellia and Bradford R. Clark, the William Cranch Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School, as a framework for the discussion.

Harvard Law Dean John Manning moderated the judges’ discussion of the book and the questions it involves. In addition to Alito, the other judges participating were Judge David Barron, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit; Judge Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Judge Debra Livingston, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Judge Sri Srinivasan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Three academic panels considered various aspects of the role of customary international law in U.S. courts in light of the book. A transcript of the judges’ panel and the academic papers from the conference will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Georgetown Law Journal.

The role of customary international law in U.S. courts has been the subject of one of the most important and high-profile legal debates of the last few decades. The question of when U.S. courts should apply customary international law in deciding cases has long puzzled judges and academics alike. The research collaboration between Bellia and Clark addresses central aspects of this question.

Bellia stands with George Washington University Law School Dean Blake Morant and co-author Clark at the recent symposium. (Photo courtesy of George Washington University Law School)

Their book, The Law of Nations and the United States Constitution, published by Oxford University Press (2017), is the latest work in their years-long research collaboration.

For more information about the symposium, read articles on Georgetown’s website and George Washington’s website.