Vanderbilt University law professor Ingrid Wuerth has been chosen to contribute to an influential guide to foreign relations law.
Wuerth was selected as a reporter for the Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, published by the American Law Institute. The volumes cover both international law as it applies to the United States and domestic law that has substantial foreign relations or international law consequences.
Work on the Fourth Restatement is beginning only on particular topics, not on the entirety of the two volume’s provisions.
“The American Law Institute picked topics on which there are important new developments, but also ones for which it seems possible to find at least a general consensus on new language,” Wuerth said.
She has been asked to work on the immunities chapters, along with David Stewart, a visiting professor of law at Georgetown Law and former State Department official.
The overall project is being coordinated by Paul Stephan of the University of Virginia and Sarah Cleveland of Columbia University.
Wuerth has written extensively on many aspects of foreign relations law, including immunity. Her most recent article, forthcoming this month in the American Journal of International Law, is “Pinochet’s Legacy Reassessed.” It analyzes the development of the international law of the years since the House of Lords famously denied immunity to Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile in 1999.
“The Restatement is an exciting opportunity to bring my academic expertise to bear on the development of immunity law in U.S. courts by private and government lawyers,” Wuerth said.