This year’s annual meeting of the American Society of International Law features a unique trove of speakers and events. The gathering – from April 7 to 12, at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center, on Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks from the White House – will also be the global biennial conference of the International Law Association. That combination promises multiple addresses, panels, debates, and roundtables, as well as committee, working group, and interest group meetings, as detailed in the draft program.

One highlight will be the annual luncheon of ASIL’s Women in International Law Interest Group, at which I was honored to speak last year. This year, at the Thursday, April 10 luncheon, WILIG’s Prominent Women in International Law will go to three especially worthy women – International Court of Justice Judges Joan Donoghue, Julia Sebutinde, and Hanqin Xue.

A notable keynote will be the Grotius Lecture on Wednesday, April 9, by Radhika Coomaraswamy, who’s served as the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General with regard both to Children and Armed Conflict and to Violence against Women.

This year’s other honorees likewise include some very special people:

► International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda (whom I am honored to serve as Special Adviser on Children in and affected by Armed Conflict) will receive the ASIL Honorary Membership awarded each year for “distinguished contributions or service in the field of international law.”

► M. Cherif Bassiouni, whose many titles include Emeritus Distinguished Research Professor of Law and President Emeritus, International Human Rights Law Institute, DePaul University College of Law, Chicago – not to mention dean and mentor to all of us who work in international criminal justice – will receive the Goler T. Butcher Medal, given “for outstanding contributions to the development or effective realization of international human rights.”

► Alain Pellet, Professor of Public International Law at the Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense and a frequent advocate before the International Court of Justice, will receive the Manley O. Hudson Medal “for outstanding contributions to scholarship and achievement in international law.”

Click here for details (including the complete draft program) and registration, which is significantly discounted through February 7, 2014.