International Law Journal Celebrates 65th Anniversary With Announcement of New ‘World-Class’ Colloquium

The Virginia Journal of International Law celebrated its 65th anniversary at a recent symposium and announced plans to bolster its future with an annual “world-class” colloquium honoring former editor-in-chief Jonathan C. Hamilton ’98.

The current leader of the student-run publication, Kristina Lorch ’25, laid out the vision for the “bold, new initiative” in her introductory remarks at the Feb. 25 symposium, “Foreign Influence: How Companies Shape Global Policy,” co-sponsored by the John Bassett Moore Society of International Law.

“Over the years, we look forward to welcoming leaders of international arbitral institutions, international organizations, government agencies, and distinguished law professors and practitioners,” Lorch said. The Jonathan C. Hamilton Colloquium on Globalization will bring a celebrated speaker to the Law School each fall semester.

Hamilton was the editor-in-chief of VJIL from 1997-98 and is now global co-chair of international arbitration for the law firm Paul Hastings. The journal highlighted that he has provided leadership, support and service on the journal’s board of advisers for over two decades. Hamilton recounted his journey with VJIL and the Law School to UVA Lawyer last year where he was profiled as a “A Vigilante of International Arbitration.”

Hamilton’s leadership over many years “has helped to secure and sustain the future of this journal,” Dean Leslie Kendrick ’06 said in opening remarks at the symposium.

To mark the journal’s anniversary this year, Lorch said, the executive board and a team of volunteers undertook a monthslong archiving project designed to document VJIL’s 65 years of scholarship. They expanded their website, instituted a new Special Act Award program and researched the journal’s history, finding that it had published authors from 37 countries across six continents over the years.

This year’s symposium also featured a conversation with keynote speaker Jon Finer, former deputy national security adviser to President Joe Biden, led by Professor Ashley Deeks, and panel discussions examining topics such as corporate-state attribution, legal limits on regulating foreign companies and corporate influence on human rights.

Hamilton spoke about the changing landscape of international law and why it is important for students and the practice of law.

“Law is politics,” he said, quoting his international law casebook from his student days. “If you as a law student are not globalized, you are neutralized in your capacity to be an exceptional practitioner. … Globalization is in flux. In this context, now more than ever, the Virginial Journal of International Law really matters.”

VJIL is the oldest continuously published, student-edited law review in the United States devoted exclusively to the fields of public and private international law. A 2024 empirical study of the world’s top international law publications ranked VJIL as the top student-run international law specialty journal and the No. 6 publication overall.