“A rare and brilliant experience”
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy makes special appearance at Galway Summer Program
You need to activate JavaScript to see this slideshow.
(Boston Revised 10/12/11) New England Law | Boston: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy visited New England Law | Boston’s Galway, Ireland, program on July 7 to teach and interact with students and faculty. Justice Kennedy was a guest-lecturer in the International Responses to Human Trafficking and Slavery course, as part of the annual Summer Program on International and Comparative Human Rights Law.
“Justice Kennedy taught a class by the Socratic method,” says Professor Gary Monserud. “He motivated the students to think carefully and hard about the international human rights issues.
“Mrs. Kennedy also visited and briefly joined the discussion. During a subsequent lunch with faculty and spouses and during interactions with students, they were both engaging, genteel, and extremely courteous to us all.”
“The experience was of very high value to me,” says Seena Pidani ’13. “Certainly many people meet Supreme Court justices in their lifetimes but very few people, or law students for that matter, have the opportunity to be taught by a justice.
“I described this to my family as a rare and brilliant experience. During a discussion, the justice pulled out of his breast pocket his personal copy of the Constitution and handed it to me to thumb through for the particular text. He was jovial, engaging, and his demeanor was marked by humility.”
In recent years, summer program students have had an extraordinary opportunity to learn the law from practitioners at the highest levels. Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justice Antonin G. Scalia taught in 2009 and 2008, respectively, and Chief Justice Ruth V. McGregor of the Arizona Supreme Court (retired) taught in the 2010 Galway program.
Justice Kennedy spoke at the law school’s 2005 Law Day Banquet, when he was awarded a New England Law honorary degree. He also taught several classes and met with students and faculty during that visit. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor have also addressed faculty and students in recent years at the law school in Boston.
The summer program is offered annually by New England Law and other members of the Consortium of Innovative Legal Education, and classes take place at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway.