PANELS

All of these panels are subject to change right now, but here's a first look at what we'll be cooking up this year:

Alien Tort Statute Litigation as an International Human Rights Tool

This panel brings together the leading Alien Torts Statute litigators, providing us with an opportunity to reflect on the past, present and future of ATS litigation at a time where the jurisprudence seems to be in flux. The doctrine has global implications. For human rights advocates, ATS is the main remedy for international human rights violations available in domestic courts. Expansions of ATS liability towards an aiding and abetting has made ATS a key tool for corporate responsibility advocates. Recently, Royal Dutch/ Shell settled $15.5 million in compensation to Nigerian Activists in a suit charging company with complicity in the torture, killing, and other abuses in Nigeria. The Second Circuit is hearing cases about a slew of American, European and Canadian corporations dealing with apartheid South Africa, and eleven Indonesian citizens are suing ExxonMobil in the D.C Circuit for kidnapping, torture, and murder and other abuses, allegedly committed by security guards ExxonMobil hired from the ranks of the Indonesian military.

Come and have a conversation with the panelists - all practitioners who have extensive experience in ATS litigation - as they evaluate their strategies and discuss the emerging issues in ATS, particularly in the context of the new administration. Panelists will have a chance to discuss the impact of these suits domestically, on the communities where the violations took place, on the way corporations do business abroad, and on other human rights strategies pursued in and out of courts.

Panelist and moderator info coming soon!

Juvenile Justice From South Africa to the South Side

This panel will examine children’s rights particularly in the criminal
justice system. The focus will be on impact litigation in a
comparative context. The panel will discuss national and international
trends and will look at the efforts of various groups to defend
children’s rights. How do different constitutional rights and
procedural rules facilitate or undermine efforts to advocate for youth
in different jurisdictions? In what ways is the US leading/falling
behind other countries in the field of juvenile rights? What
litigation or non-litigation strategies have been most successful and
how can we learn from each other's experiences to be more effective
advocates in our home jurisdiction?

Panelist and moderator info coming soon!

Locked Up and Locked Out: The Experiences of LGBT Prisoners

The goal of the panel is to examine the issues and struggles faced by LGBT prisoners while incarcerated and upon release.  We will discuss transgender issues, including housing decisions; the denial or neglect of hormone therapy; disciplinary actions taken against prisoners who refuse to conform to their assigned gender; and general harassment of transgender prisoners.  We will also grapple with the question of how homelessness and other challenges that tend to lead to incarceration are informed and shaped by sexuality and gender identity for LGBT people.  Finally, we will discuss legislative, judicial, and other remedies.

• Panelists: Susan Hazeldean, others TBA

• Moderator: Amy Meek

Clinical Legal Education in the Middle East: New Challenges and Opportunities for International Collaboration

Abuses at Detention Centers Along the Border

Mountaintop Removal Mining in Appalachia: Legal Grassroots Battles Through Three Administrations

Communities Left Behind: Mass Incarceration and Those Who Suffer

When Counter-Terrorism Becomes State Terrorism: Case Study of Sri Lanka

Reducing Drug Crime Without Putting People in Prison: The High Point Initiative

Identity Construction and the Law: How Civic, Racial, Gender, and Sexual Identity Operate and Converge in the Legal Arena

Segregation and School Reform after Parents Involved

Muslim Americans and the Legal Profession After September 11

Clinical Legal Education in the Middle East: New Challenges and Opportunities for International Collaboration