CENTER FACULTY/STAFF NEWS
Daniel D. Bradlow, Professor of Law and Director of the Washington College of Law (WCL) International Legal Studies Program (ILSP) is working on two papers for the World Commission on Dams (WCD). He is director of a ten country study on the comparative and international law issues related to dam projects. The study includes contributions by four WCL alumni (Gabriel Eckstein, Rachel Bidermann, Nieves Rodriguez, and Adriana Moreno) and three students (Maria Fernanda Solar Perez, Rodrigo Borquez, and Claudia Mateuz). Professor Bradlow also helped draft a paper on regulation and compliance issues in dam projects for the WCD in March 2000. The WCD will use both papers in preparing its final report, which will be issued in the summer of 2000, and its guidelines, criteria, and standards for sustainable dam projects. Professor Bradlow also conducted a workshop on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for African diplomats at the United Nations in New York in February 2000.
Robert K. Goldman, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Center), began a new four-year term as a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) in January 2000. His presidency of that body ended on the first day of the IACHR's 107th Regular Period of Session, which took place from February 22 to March 10, 2000. On March 15-16, he participated in the workshop "International Training Sessions on Human Rights" in Buenos Aires, Argentina (see below). While in Buenos Aires, he met with high-ranking members of the Argentine government on matters related to the IACHR. On March 20, Professor Goldman spoke at the WCL presentation "Domestic Application of International Law: Guatemala and International Human Rights Protections."
Claudio Grossman, Dean, Co-Director of the Center, and member of the IACHR, successfully presented Awas Tingi v. Nicaragua, the first case on indigenous people brought by the IACHR before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in February 2000. From February 7-9, Dean Grossman participated in the "Experts' Meeting on the Future of the inter-American System on Human Rights" in Costa Rica. On February 18, he presented a lecture entitled "Global Justice from a Human Rights Perspective" at the Humphrey Seminar for American University's Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program. February 22, he was elected the First Vice-President to the IACHR. On March 13, 2000, he lectured at the Institute for International Studies at the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile, on the future of the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights. On March 15-16, he participated in the workshop "International Training Sessions on Human Rights" in Buenos Aires, Argentina (see below). At the conference, he spoke at the "International Seminar on the Subject of Human Rights." Dean Grossman also spoke on two panels, one regarding the application of international human rights law at the domestic level, and a second on the right to freedom of expression. On March 20, Dean Grossman spoke at the WCL presentation "Domestic Application of International Law: Guatemala and International Human Rights Protections." On March 22, he spoke in Washington, D.C. on the issue of foreigners and amnesty at the conference "Amnesty and Impunity in the Latin American Peace Process" sponsored by the U.S. State Department. On April 6, 2000, Dean Grossman spoke at the American Society of International Law's 94th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. as part of a panel entitled "The History of International Law: Universality and Particularity." His presentation focused on the contributions of Latin America to the development of international law.
Beth Lyon, Practitioner-in Residence at the WCL International Human Rights Law Clinic (IHRLC), wrote an article entitled "Efforts and Opportunities to Use International Law to Alleviate Poverty in the United States" for the Center's publication the Human Rights Brief, published in February 2000. On February 22, she acted as moderator for the D.C. Bar Board of Immigration Appeals Update Panel. On March 29, 2000, she was a discussant at a WCL table talk on international law and the U.S. death penalty. On April 4, 2000, she spoke on advanced asylum litigation strategies at an American Society of International Law's conference entitled "International Litigation and Arbitration: New Developments and Strategies," in Washington, D.C. On April 5, she participated as a panelist at the "Poverty Kills" conference hosted by WCL.
Claudia Martin, Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the Center's Inter-American Human Rights Digest Project (Digest Project), co-sponsored the workshop "International Training Sessions on Human Rights" in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from March 13-16, 2000 (see below).
Diane F. Orentlicher, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center, was a panelist at the WCL presentation entitled "Domestic Application of International Law," held on March 20, 2000. She spoke on the subject of accountability for international crimes. From April 5 to 7, 2000, she was a discussant at the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Princeton University. She commented on Michael Ignatieff's Tanner Lecture "Human Rights as Idolatry." Also on April 6, she participated in a meeting at the Ford Foundation in New York to explore strategies relating to transitional justice.
Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the Digest Project, is also Director of the Human Rights Legal Education Partnership in Colombia, in partnership with the Colombian universities Universidad de Los Andes and Universidad Nacional de Colombia. On March 11, 2000, he lectured on "Alternative Jurisprudential Approaches" to an audience of legal scholars at the Latin America Legal Scholarship conference hosted by the European Law Research Center of the Harvard Law School. On March 15-16, he participated in the workshop "International Training Sessions on Human Rights" in Buenos Aires, Argentina (see below).
Herman Schwartz, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center, was in Latvia from February 25 to 26, 2000, on behalf of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe's Democratic Institutions in Human Rights and at the request of the Chief Judge of the Constitutional Court of Latvia. He commented on proposed amendments to the Latvian Constitutional Court. During the first week of June 2000, Professor Schwartz, along with several U.S. Department of Justice attorneys, will travel to Russia as representatives of Dean Grossman to launch a sister academy relationship with the Russian Academy of Sciences School of Law (Russian Academy). They will hold a weeklong seminar for Russian law students studying international law. Later in the year, professors from the Russian Academy will come to WCL to teach Russian law. WCL and the Department of Justice are co-sponsors of this trip, and it is expected that during the week, the participants will explore details for developing an annual program.
Richard J. Wilson, Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center, Director of the IHRLC, and Acting Director of the WCL Clinical Program, wrote a chapter called "El Tribunal Penal Internacional Permanente: La Impunidad Pierde Otro Round," in the book Seminario Internacional Sobre la Impunidad y Sus Efectos en los Procesos Democráticos published in 1999 in Santiago, Chile. On February 23, 2000, he participated in a seminar on human rights in Brazil sponsored by the Embassy of Brazil and Georgetown University, acting as moderator for a panel discussion entitled "Participation in International Systems for Safeguarding Human Rights." On March 29, 2000, he spoke at the panel presentation "Legal Scholars' Panel on the Pinochet Case" sponsored by WCL and the Institute for Policy Studies. Professor Wilson co-organized the "Poverty Kills" conference at WCL, which took place April 4-5, 2000, and acted as co-moderator at the event. On April 10, Professor Wilson was a panelist for the American Civil Liberties Union's "Workshop on Indigent Defense Litigation." On April 14, he participated in the panel "Avoiding Vigilante Justice: Strengthening the Right to Defense in International Criminal Tribunals" at the Symposium on Practical Strategies for Human Rights Protection sponsored by the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University.
The ILSP is pleased to welcome two visiting fellows in 2000. Nicoline Ambe received her LL.B. from the University of Yaounde in Cameroon, her LL.M. from the Faculty of Law at Queen's University in Canada, and her D.Jur. from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Canada. During the spring of 2000 semester at WCL, she is teaching "Gender, Cultural Difference, and International Human Rights." Loretta Feris received her B.A. and LL.B. from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, and her LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center in the United States. During the spring of 2000 semester at WCL, she is teaching "International Trade: Third World Perspectives."
News of the Inter-American Human Rights Digest Project
From March 13 to 16, 2000, the Center's Digest Project co-sponsored a workshop entitled "International Training Sessions on Human Rights" in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Representatives from WCL included Dean Claudio Grossman, Professor Robert Goldman, and Co-Directors of the Digest Project, Claudia Martin and Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón. The Center, with the support of the Ministry for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, was joined in Argentina by the organization, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), the Universidad Nacional de Lanús, and the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Organization of American States, in carrying out the training sessions. Professor Leo Zwaak of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights joined the representatives of the Center in presenting topics related to the international protection of human rights.
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Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Professor Herman Schwartz, has authored a book entitled The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe. Professor Schwartz draws on his extensive experience as an advisor to the formerly Communist states to chronicle and analyze the rise of constitutional courts in Eastern Europe. He discusses the new-found power of these courts, examining their decisions in economic, political, and social contexts. The University of Chicago Press will publish the book in June 2000. |
The proper citation for this article in the Human Rights Brief Volume 7, Issue 3, beginning at page 35 is: 7 No. 3 Hum. Rts. Brief 35 (2000).