For an average lawyer, knowledge of international law is no
longer a luxury, it is increasingly becoming a requirement,
according to the School of Law’s newest tenured faculty
member Peter J. Spiro.
As one might imagine from this statement, Spiro specializes
in international law. However, he makes a compelling
case for this statement – the world is becoming more
globalized especially in terms of travel and communication;
the traditional role of only country leaders conversing about
economic, environmental or human rights issues is disappearing;
many corporations are now multinational; organizations such
as Amnesty International and Greenpeace are acting on the
global level without having to answer to any one country;
and sub-national actors, such as the states of Georgia or
California, are increasingly prominent in their own right
as players on the international stage. In the midst
of these developments, Spiro also makes a strong case for
the eroding of national identities.
According to Spiro, one of the country’s leading authorities
on immigration and nationality law, U.S. citizenship has traditionally
been most easily defined in terms of a constitutional faith
- that we were distinguished from the rest of the world by
the fact of our democracy and our constitutional values. “This
no longer distinguishes us in the same way that it has historically,
as much of the rest of the world also comes to enjoy democratic
governance.” Nor can one readily define “being
American” in terms of a distinctive popular culture,
as others adopt American movies, television shows and other
pop icons as their own. “To the extent that everyone
is an American,” Spiro suggests, “no one is an
American.”
Spiro believes this eroding national identity is not unique
to the United States and is affecting other countries throughout
the world, and that it is not a “reversible development.”
This is main premise of his book currently under contract
with Oxford University Press.
When he first entered academe a little over a decade ago,
international law was a “marginal field” of legal
study and research. “This is fast changing,”
he said. “In order to perform as a lawyer, it
is increasingly going to be the case that one has to have
a basic understanding of international law and the distinctive
mechanisms of international legal systems. This will
be true regardless of the field of practice in which our graduates
find themselves.”
Building
the New Learning Environment
The new learning environment is an academic and intellectual
community on the campus of the University of Georgia humming
with the vibrancy of the true college experience—bright
and talented students working with brilliant faculty formally
in the classroom and informally over a cup of coffee or lounging
in the greenspace which stretches from one end of campus to
the other. It is a place which recognizes that new information
technologies are transforming traditional academic disciplines
and embraces those opportunities. |
A
former director for democracy at the National Security Council and
law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, Peter Spiro
is also recognized for his research on the constitutional aspects
of U.S. foreign relations.
