Past News

CILP - Speaker Series

The Center for International Law and Policy sponsors a “Speakers Series” where experts in the field of international law are invited to speak to students in an informal setting on various topics of international law. During these discussions, which place several times a year, students are encouraged to participate with comments and questions. Please see below for descriptions of past Speaker Series events.

Phillip Weiner—Former prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Mr. Weiner spoke with New England School of Law students on the war in Yugoslavia and the formation of the tribunal, and his experience as a prosecutor.

Mr. Weiner served as a prosecutor in the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia from 2001-2007. He was lead prosecutor in the cases of Prosecutor v. Simic, Tadic and Zaric (the Bosanski Samac case) and Prosecutor v Halilovic. He served as the deputy lead prosecutor in the cases of Prosecutor v. Strugar (the shelling of Dubrovnik) and Prosecutor v. Mrksic, Radic and Sljivancanin (the Vukovar Hospital massacre), and was involved in three pleas. Before prosecuting with the ICTY, Mr. Weiner was a Suffolk assistant district attorney, and deputy chief of the special prosecutions unit.

Chief Judge Phillip Rapoza—Chief Judge of the Massachusetts Appeals Court and Former Chief Judge of the Special Panel for Serious Crimes in East Timor

Chief Judge Rapoza spoke with New England School of Law students on April 10, 2007 on his experience in East Timor as the Chief Judge of the Special Panels on Serious Crimes.

Judge Rapoza is currently the Chief Justice on the Massachusetts Appeals Court. In 2003, at the request of the United Nations, he served as the chief judge of the Special Panel for Serious Crimes in East Timor, an international court which was established to conduct trials of criminals responsible for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, murder and torture during a campaign of terror perpetrated by those opposed to East Timor's independence. Judge Rapoza will discuss his experiences in East Timor, including the history of the establishment of the court and the judicial process.

Judge Fatsah Ouguergouz—Justice on the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights

Judge Ouguergouz visited New England School of Law on April 2, 2007 and spoke with students on the development of the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights.

Fatsah Ouguergouz is a Judge at the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights, sitting in Ethiopia, and until very recently was the Secretary of the International Court of Justice (The Hague). Judge Ouguergouz joined the United Nations in 1992, as a legal officer at the Office of Legal Affairs (New York). He is the author of numerous publications, the last monography being "The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights—A Comprehensive Agenda for Human Dignity and Sustainable Democracy in Africa" He is also the Associate Editor of the African Yearbook of International Law and the Executive Director of the African Foundation for International Law.

Gabriele Russo—U.N. Department of Peace Keeping Operations: Gender Affairs Officer

Gabriele Russo spoke on March 27 th as part of the Speaker Series, focusing on the Women's Rights Convention and gender issues in peace operations in Afghanistan.

Gabriele Russo is the Gender Affairs Officer in the Best Practices Section of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at United Nations Headquarters in New York. He participated in a number of OSCE missions in the Republic of Srpska, Slovakia, FYRoM, Montenegro and Serbia where he served with the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission Human Rights department, with the Task Force for Kosovo, and subsequently with UNMIK. More recently, he served as a Human Right Officer for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan working alongside national human rights institutions on the verification of political rights, rights of the family and transitional justice. He holds an LL.M. in international human rights law from the University of Essex, U.K. and an M.Phil from Trinity College in Dublin.

Panel Discussion on the Military Commissions Act

On Tuesday, March 13 th five NESL professors participated in a panel discussion with students regarding the Military Commissions Act and the newly established Military tribunals set to try terror suspects held in Guantanamo Bay.

The Discussion was moderated by Professor George Dargo, giving an overview of the Military Tribunals and the current controversy surrounding them. Professor John Cerone spoke from the International Law perspective of trying non-citizens in a military tribunal. Professor Spahn provided the U.S. Constitutional viewpoint, giving a brief summary of the Supreme Court decisions regarding trying terror suspects. Professors Hogan and Hansen spoke from their backgrounds in the U.S. Military Justice system.

Karen Naimer-Former Deputy Counsel for the U.N. Oil-for-Food Inquiry

Karen Naimer, professor of law at New York University's Center for Global Affairs, spoke on international corruption and the possibility of United Nations reform on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2007. The former deputy counsel with the Volcker Commission, the independent group charged with investigating the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Program, Ms. Naimer shared her experiences in that role and discussed the corruption uncovered by the committee. As deputy counsel, Ms. Naimer looked into allegations of bribery, fraud, and corruption of high-level U.N. officials and state governments, as well as oil companies. After Professor Naimer's presentation, students had the opportunity to give their comments and asked many interesting questions.

At NYU, Ms. Naimer teaches graduate courses in public international law. She was deputy counsel of the Volcker Commission from 2004 to 2006. She previously clerked for the president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and before that was an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

Careers in International Human Rights

On November 9, 2006 a panel of professionals in the field of International Human Rights law spoke with students about their experiences and how to go about beginning a career in human rights law.

The panelists were: Joshua Rubenstein of Amnesty International. He is currently the Northeast Regional Director, supervising Amnesty's grassroots organizing in New England, New York and New Jersey; Jane Rocamora, a Supervising Attorney in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic at Greater Boston Legal Services; Tyler Giannini, the Associate Clinical Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard University. He was the co-director of EarthRights International, spending a decade in Burma working on human rights and environmental litigation; Anita Sharma, an asylum attorney with the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project. She has worked on human rights issues in India and is a member of the Public International Law and Policy Group; Dina Haynes, an Associate Professor of Law at New England School of Law teaching immigration and human rights law. She previously worked for international organizations in Serbia, Croatia and South Africa; and John Cerone, an Associate Professor of Law and the Director of the Center for International Law and Policy at New England School of Law. He has worked for international organizations in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and East Timor.

Sonja Starr—Former Clerk at the ICTR and ICTY

Sonja Starr visited New England School of Law as part of the Center for International Law and Policy's Speaker Series on October 24, 2006.

Currently teaching at Harvard Law School, Attorney Starr served as a law clerk to Judge Mohamed Shahabuddeen of the Appeals Chamber for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia. Attorney Starr has also litigated human rights and international justice cases with Goldstein and Howe, P.C. She is the author of the recently published article entitled "Extraordinary Crimes at Ordinary Times: International Justice Beyond Crisis Situations" in Northwestern University Law Review. The article looks at prosecuting international crimes outside the context of a crisis, focusing on "grand" governmental corruption.

Attorney Starr discussed international criminal law prosecutions, including who can be prosecuted—only those in command positions, those following others orders, military or civilian persons? She also discussed how war crimes are defined, and how that definition changes in the different international courts, both past and present. Students participated throughout the presentation, giving comments and asking questions.