The Cornell International Law Journal stands in solidarity with the Black community and the Black Lives Matter movement. As one of the most diverse journals of Cornell Law School, we endeavor every year to preserve the diversity that makes us so unique and strengthens us as a journal. Therefore, it is important for us to make clear, now more than ever, our unwavering commitment to be a platform for the diverse voices that comprise our journal.

It is not enough, however, to simply say that we stand in solidarity. We must act in solidarity as well. We are an academic journal dedicated to educating the legal community and beyond. As such, we are in the unique and privileged position of having a platform through which to help amplify the voices of the Black community — and we intend to do so.

The struggle of the Black community in the United States and other parts of the world is not solely a civil rights struggle, it is a human rights struggle as well.

“[I]t is a battle for full civil, social, political, legal, economic, and cultural rights as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

— Opal Tometi & Gerald Lenoir, TIMES

Therefore, as part of our pledge to stand and act in solidarity with the Black community, we will be focusing our annual symposium on the Black Lives Matter movement as a human rights movement.

We do this for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, Atatiana Jefferson, Renisha McBride, Alton Sterling, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and the countless other victims of police brutality and systemic racism.

We see you, we hear you, we stand with you.

In solidarity,

The Cornell International Law Journal