This publication, International Legal Developments – Year in Review: 2022, presents a survey of important legal and political developments in international law that occurred during 2022 amid a continuing global pandemic. The volume consists of articles from thirty committees of the American Bar Association Section of International Law, whose members live around the world and whose committees report on a diverse range of issues and topics that have arisen in international law over the past year. Not every development in international law can be included in this volume and the omission of a particular development should not be construed as an indication of insignificance. The Section of International Law committees draft their articles under extremely strict guidelines that limit the number of words that each committee has: approximately 7,000 words, including footnotes. Within these guidelines, committee members contribute submissions that describe the most significant developments in their substantive practice area or geographic region. In some cases, non-section members who have particular knowledge or expertise in an area may also be contributing authors.
Committee chairs and committee editors solicited the contributing authors for each committee article. The committee editors, who are identified in each article, had the daunting task of keeping their authors’ collective contributions within the tightly controlled word limit. They made difficult decisions regarding what to include and what to cut. After the committee editors did their work, Professors Jason Palmer and Kimberly Holst, the Co-General Editors, formatted and organized the thirty committee submissions and then transmitted the articles to an amazing team of Deputy Editors who performed substantive and technical reviews on the articles. Once the Deputy Editors completed their work and returned the articles, the Co-General Editors reviewed each article again before sending them to the diligent student editors at the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Jessica Lee, the Editor-in-Chief of The International Lawyer, and Michael Vuong, the Year in Review Managing Editor for this past academic year; and Antonio Partida, the Editor-in-Chief of The International Lawyer, and Victoria Stranczek, the Year in Review Managing Editor for the current academic year, performed superlatively in their respective roles. They supervised an outstanding editorial team whose individual names you can read in the masthead for this volume. These intrepid students checked the sources cited and reviewed each article line by line and word by word. Professor Beverly Caro Duréus, who was invaluable to the publication of this volume, served again this year as the Faculty Executive Editor, and worked closely with the Co-General Editors and with the student editors. We also appreciate the support received from Robin Kaptzan, the Publications Officer for the ABA Section of International Law, the Division Chairs, and the other leaders of the ABA Section of International Law. Because of all the work that goes into producing the Year in Review, the final product is a useful and reliable overview of international law events during 2022. Readers interested in a particular substantive or geographic area are encouraged to read not only this year’s summary, but also those from earlier years.
