Center for Human Rights and Genocide Studies welcomes Visiting Fellow Margaret E. McGuinness The Center for Human Rights and Genocide Studies (CHRGS) will host Visiting Fellow Margaret E. McGuinness, a leading international law and human rights scholar and former special assistant to Warren Christopher, Secretary of State during former President Bill Clinton’s first term. On Sept. 10-11, McGuinness will speak to the community on the globalization of human rights and answer questions on international human rights law. McGuinness, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, teaches international law, international human rights, international dispute resolution, foreign affairs, and federal courts. “As a founder of international law's most influential Web site, Opinio Juris, and a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, Professor McGuinness is one of the rising stars in her field,” said UND law professor Gregory Gordon, director of the UND Center for Human Rights and Genocide Studies. “We are extremely fortunate to have her as a Visiting Fellow.” On Thursday, Sept. 10, 7 p.m., McGuinness will deliver a lecture in the East Asian Room of the Chester Fritz Library on “The Globalization of Human Rights and the End of American Exceptionalism.” The event is free and open to the public. She will discuss the paradoxical role of the United States as a leader and architect of the modern international human rights system and a lone wolf refusing to embrace and fully participate in the system it created. McGuinness will grapple with the question of whether, in a post-9/11 world, it is possible for the U.S. to partake of international trade regimes and engage in conflicts and law enforcement operations around the globe without fully embracing international human rights institutional oversight. She will also consider what role, in light of the maturing of the international human rights system, foreign and international law should play in interpreting rights under the U.S. Constitution. On Friday, Sept. 11, at 12:10 p.m. in the UND School of Law's Baker Court Room, McGuinness and Gordon will conduct a question-and-answer session on international human rights law. In addition to U.S. human rights exceptionalism, the session may cover front-page topics such as possible solutions to Guantanamo detainee issues, the Iranian post-election crisis, widespread sexual violence in Congo, and genocide in Darfur. The event is co-sponsored by the UND student International Human Rights Organization and Physicians for Human Rights. McGuinness will also be guest-lecturing that day to an International Human Rights Law class at the UND School of Law. On Monday, Sept. 14 at 12:15 p.m., McGuinness will participate in a workshop with other UND faculty to discuss her scholarship. McGuinness’ work addresses the subjects of international human rights, international law in U.S. courts, the resolution of international disputes, multilateralism, and war. It has been published in a variety of edited books and journals, including the American Journal of International Law, Yale Law Journal Online, and the Notre Dame Law Review. McGuinness is co-editor with John Barton and Melanie Greenberg of the book “Words Over War: Arbitration and Mediation to End Deadly Conflict” (Rowman & Littlefield 2000). McGuinness graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School, where she received awards for her work in dispute resolution and international law, served as an articles editor for the Stanford Law Review, and was selected as a graduate fellow at the Center for Conflict and Negotiation. She joined the Missouri law faculty in 2003 after clerking for Judge Colleen McMahon on the Federal District Court for the Southern District New York and practicing law in the litigation department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York City. Prior to law school, McGuinness was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. Her overseas postings included vice consul at the U.S. Consulate in Montreal, Canada; staff assistant to Ambassador Robert Oakley and political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan; and political-military officer at the U.S. Embassy Office in Berlin, Germany. In Washington, D.C., she worked in the State Department’s Operations Center and served as a special assistant to Clinton-era Secretary of State Warren Christopher. “With her high level work at the State Department and her brilliant scholarship in the legal academy, she brings here a rich human rights perspective that will enhance intellectual vibrancy both on campus and in the wider community,” Gordon said. McGuinness co-founded and is a regular contributor to Opinio Juris, the leading international law blog. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Georgia and Temple University, and a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. -- Juan Pedraza, Writer/Editor, University Relations, Juanpedraza@mail.und.edu, 777-6571