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- VLS Symposium to Explore National Security In Relationship to Other National Priorities
Library of Congress Constitutional Expert Louis Fisher to Deliver Keynote
SOUTH ROYALTON, VT –Louis Fisher, constitutional law specialist with the Library of Congress, will be the keynote speaker at the Vermont Law Review’s 2008 symposium, “Examining Our Priorities: The Relationship between National Security and Other Fundamental Values.” The symposium will be held on Friday, October 17, 2008, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Chase Community Center. The keynote address will take place at 12:30 p.m.
The program, which is free and open to the public, will also feature panels on immigration policy, Vermont’s library confidentiality, the competitive balance between environmental and security policies, and the constitutional issues that arise under domestic anti-terrorism program.
Mr. Fisher will be discussing political and legal themes noted in his recent book, 9/11 and the Constitution: Recurring Threats to America’s Freedom. He is the author of many books examining the balance of power and the role of the presidency, and he has frequently testified before Congress on such issues. For additional information about the speaker or his recent book, visit www.kansaspress.ku.edu.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits will be offered. For more information about the symposium and panel speakers, visit vermontlawreview.com.
CONTACT: Diane Derby, Director of Media Relations
802-831-1106, dderby@vermontlaw.edu - Jerome Cohen, Noted Expert on Chinese Legal System, To Deliver 2008 Sterry R. Waterman Lecture at VLS
SOUTH ROYALTON – Jerome A. Cohen, adjunct senior fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and internationally renowned expert on China’s legal system, will deliver Vermont Law School’s 2008 Sterry R. Waterman Lecture on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 5 p.m.
The lecture, “Lost in Translation: Is a Chinese ‘Judge’ a Judge?” will be held in the Chase Community Center. It is free and open to the public.
Cohen is also a professor of law at New York University School of Law and counsel to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. At NYU, he teaches courses that include “Legal Problems of Doing Business with China and East Asia” and “International Law – East and West.”
He has published several books and articles on Chinese law, including Contract Laws of the People’s Republic of China and China’s Legal Tradition. He co-authored China Today and Her Ancient Treasures with his wife, Joan Lebold Cohen.
“We are honored and privileged to have Jerome Cohen as our Waterman Lecturer this year,” said VLS President and Dean Jeff Shields. “Given the work that our faculty and students are now involved in through our VLS-China partnership program, the topic of his lecture is most timely.”
The Sterry R. Waterman lecture is named in honor of the late senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Judge Waterman was a resident of St. Johnsbury and a former president of the VLS Board of Trustees. The lecture has been given annually since 1975, and in May 2006, VLS dedicated a faculty office building in his honor.
CONTACT: Diane Derby, Director of Media Relations
802-831-1106
dderby@vermontlaw.edu - Vermont Law School Awarded $300,000 Federal Grant To Expand VLS-China Environmental Law Partnership
SOUTH ROYALTON – Vermont Law School has been awarded a $300,000 federal grant that will allow the law school to expand its legal training program for China’s environmental leaders and government officials, VLS President and Dean Jeff Shields announced today.
The grant builds on a three-year, $1.8 million grant that U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy secured for VLS in 2006, funded through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As a result of that grant, VLS has trained hundreds of lawyers, judges, government officials, legal scholars and students through a partnershipwith Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China.
The expanded scholars-in-residence program at VLS will introduce Chinese scholars and lawyers to the U.S. environmental regulatory system, providing a full year of coursework, faculty-guided research and a three-month internship in the environmental practice of a law firm or agency.
“We are grateful to Senator Leahy and USAID for their continued support of what has clearly become a highly successful program,” Dean Shields said. “This grant is a confirmation of the great work being done by our faculty, as well as our partners in China, to strengthen China’s environmental regulatory system.”
The partnership aims at advancing the development of environmental and energy law in China, and creating an environmental bar to enforce the rule of law. During a recent trip to Beijing, VLS Professor Michael Dworkin led a workshop on energy and the environment for State Electric Regulatory Commission officials, while another workshop led by VLS professors in Guangzhou focused on provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. During the course of that two-week trip, VLS professors worked with nearly 200 Chinese participants.
Throughout the year, visiting scholars will be immersed in the environmental and public interest culture of the VLS campus and return to China with that experience, according to Professor Tseming Yang, the director of the Partnership for Environmental Law in China.
“The participants will enhance the understanding of environmental and energy law principles of the students and lawyers they work with,” he said. “This program will position them for further leadership within China and internationally.”
For more on the Partnership for Environmental Law in China, visit the partnership's website.
Contact: Diane Derby, Director of Media Relations
802-831-1106 dderby@vermontlaw.edu - Former U.N. Official to Address VLS Conference on Genocide
SOUTH ROYALTON, VT — Juan E. Méndez, the former United Nations’ Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, will be the keynote speaker when Vermont Law School hosts the 2008 annual conference of the International Law Students Association on Oct. 2–4, 2008.
The conference, “Understanding Genocide: Prevention, Prosecution and Progress,” will draw top scholars and human rights advocates from around the country to the VLS campus to explore what constitutes genocide and what can be done about such atrocities.
Panel discussions will address topics such as environmental conflict and genocide, gender issues and the genocide of Native Americans. The roles of the International Court of Justice and special international tribunals will also be explored. On Oct. 3, an afternoon panel will include survivors of genocide who will offer their personal perspectives.
“This conference will give us the opportunity to better understand why genocide occurs, especially through the eyes of survivors and those who represent them,” said Ashley Santner, co-chair of the law school’s chapter of the International Law Society, which is organizing the event.
The keynote address, “The United Nations and the Prevention of Genocide,” will be delivered in the Chase Center at noon on Oct. 4. The public is invited and no registration is necessary to attend the keynote address.
Mr. Méndez, a native of Argentina, knows firsthand the brutality of human rights abuse. As a lawyer representing political prisoners in his homeland, he was arrested by the military dictatorship in the 1970s and tortured by his captors for more than a year.
Mr. Méndez spent the next three decades working tirelessly as a human rights advocate with groups such as Human Rights Watch and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights before being named president of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). As U.N. special advisor from 2004 to 2007, he visited Darfur and Sudan, and also addressed atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other regions.
For a detailed listing of the conference’s panels and registration, please visit the conference website.
Contact: Diane Derby, Director of Media Relations
802-831-1106
dderby@vermontlaw.edu - Food, Fuel, & the Future of Farming
Conference At Vermont Law School July 24–25
SOUTH ROYALTON, VT – Against the backdrop of soaring food and gas prices, Vermont Law School will host "Food, Fuel, & the Future of Farming," a two-day conference on sustainable agriculture to be held July 24–25, 2008 in the law school's Chase Community Center.
The keynote speaker for the conference will be Anna Lappé, national best-selling author who with her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, leads the Small Planet Institute based in Cambr