This evening I will be hosting a dinner workshop with Gary Bettman, commissioner of the National Hockey League, and Rob Manfred, Senior VP for HR for Major League Baseball. The topic of the evening is “Human Resource Practices and Industrial Relations in Professional Sports.” The Colloquium Series, held at the Cornell Club in Manhattan, brings together academics, practitioners, students, and policy leaders for dinner and discussion.

In Fall 2009 we had the honor of hosting a colloquium evening with the Cornell Law School featuring Sir Dennis Byron, president of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda.  He spoke on the role of the courts in protecting and preserving human rights.  It was a fascinating evening that touched on both legal and institutional issues, never flinching from the more and social issues.  Of particular note are the ground-breaking precedents of the ICTR with regard to sexual violence and the limits of the freedom of speech. Highlights of Sir Dennis’s presentation are available here.

The next colloquium events will be March 18, 2010, when Professors Jefferson Cowie and Nick Salvatore will debate “The Constraints of History: Obama, the New Deal, and American History,” and April 15, 2010 when Professors Sarosh Kuruvilla and Mary Gallagher will discuss “The Transformation of Labor Relations in China.”

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