Results tagged “Genocide Law”

By Professor Stan Goldman
Director, Center for the Study of Law & Genocide

Recently, I appeared at second chair before an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in yet another installment of what has been an ongoing saga to obtain payment of insurance claims due to descendants of victims of the Armenian Genocide. The case, Movsesian v. Victoria Versicherung, stems from unpaid policies sold in 1915 to ethnic Turkish Armenians in the prelude to what would become the Armenian Genocide. In my role as director of the Center for the Study of Law & Genocide (CSLG), I have worked on an amicus curae on behalf of the plaintiffs represented by attorneys including alumni Mark Geragos '84 and Brian Kabateck '89 against defendant insurance companies Victoria Versicherung AG, Ergo Versicherungsgruppe AG and parent company Munich Re.

First, a little back story: The side for which I was writing and appearing originally lost in the three-judge Ninth Circuit panel that had declared California's law unconstitutional as an interference with the federal government's exclusive control over foreign policy. The court then reversed itself, in significant part because of the historical argument we set forth in the CSLG's amicus I filed requesting a rehearing after the initial loss. The nation of Turkey, somewhat shaken by the court's reversal, then filed an amicus requesting yet another rehearing. In response to this, the court ordered a hearing en banc, at which time we filed an additional amicus, which included a reiteration of my earlier historical argument. That argument was that the United States had in fact recognized the genocidal nature of the Armenian massacres as a result of Congress's passage of various legislation in the 1980s and that hesitancy to reiterate that in recent times was insignificant. In other words, though you may not have chosen to renew your vows in the last few years, as long as you have not divorced in the interim you're still a married couple based on the original ceremony.

The "Remnants of Genocide: Reclaiming Art and other Heirlooms Lost in Atrocities" conference hosted by Loyola Law School's Center for the Study of Law and Genocide was featured in The Art Newspaper story on a case brought against the Getty Museum by the Armenian Apostolic Church. Read the full story.

Loyola Law School's Center for the Study of Law and Genocide will host "Remnants of Genocide: Reclaiming Art and other Heirlooms Lost in Atrocities" from 10 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Friday, March 11 on its downtown L.A. campus. Top international experts in art retrieval will discuss the recovery of art confiscated by Nazis during World War II and the reacquiring of cultural treasures taken during the Armenian Genocide, as well as art restitution in general. Examples of reclaimed art will be on display.

The lunchtime keynote address will be delivered by Mark J. Geragos, Esq., principal, Geragos & Geragos, Los Angeles; and Brian S. Kabateck, Esq., managing partner, Kabateck Brown Kellner LLP, Los Angeles. The two attorneys have been involved in the recovery of artifacts confiscated during the Armenian Genocide.

The first panel, "Nazi Looted Art Recover," will feature speakers Donald S. Burris. Esq., partner, Burris, Schoenberg & Walden, LLP, Los Angeles; Monica Dugot, Esq., senior vice president and international director of restitution, Christie's, New York; and Thomas R. Kline, Esq., partner, Andrews Kurth LLP, Washington D.C. Professor Stan Goldman, director of Loyola's Center for the Study of Law and Genocide, will moderate.

The second panel, "The Armenian Genocide and Recovery of Looted Cultural Objects," will feature Jason Felch, staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and co-author of Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum, which will be released in May by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and Heghnar Watenpaugh, Ph.D., associate professor of art history, University of California, Davis. The panel will be moderated by Michael Bazyler, professor of law and "1939" Club Scholar in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies, Chapman University School of Law and Visiting Professor of Law, Loyola Law School.

The final panel will examine other issues in art restitution. It will feature speakers Sermid Al-Sarraf, Esq., executive director, International Institute for the Rule of Law, Baghdad, Iraq & Los Angeles, CA; Seth M. Gerber, Partner, Bingham McCutchen LLP, Los Angeles; MaryKate Cleary, manager of historic claims and research, Art Loss Register, London, UK; and Lucille A. Roussin, J.D., Ph.D., adjunct professor and director, Holocaust Restitution Claims Practicum, Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law, New York.

The day will end with a reception at the Fine Arts Building, 685 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017.

Co-sponsors of the event include the International Law Society, the Entertainment Law Review, the Jewish Law Students Association and the Armenian Law Students Association.