News and Developments in International Law and Legal Education Published as an information resource for the ASIL membership, the ASIL Academic Bulletin reports on program developments at ASIL 2008 Academic Partner institutions. January 2008
Fordham Law ASIL Links Home Academic Partnership Program Academic Bulletin Archive Career Development Resouces The Leitner Center for International Law and Justice Marks Launch September 2007 marked the launch of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice as well as the 10th anniversary of the Crowley Program in International Human Rights. Professors Martin Flaherty and Tracy Higgins founded the program in 1997, creating what remains a unique fieldwork-centered model of human rights scholarship and education. Since that time, the program has trained scores of students, sponsored well over one hundred events, including many panels, film screenings, conferences, and symposia, and greatly expanding opportunities for students to work in the field of human rights. The new Leitner Center, named in recognition of long-time supporters Jim and Sandra Leitner, who have made possible the extensive expansion of the program, houses the Crowley Program as well as many new initiatives. Jim and Sandra Leitner with Fordham Faculty, Dean Bill Treanor and Daphne Gondwe, President of the Coalition of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi. Ms. Gondwe accepted the first annual Leitner Center Human Rights Prize. The mission of the Leitner Center is to contribute to the promotion of social justice around the world by encouraging knowledge of and respect for international law and international human rights standards in particular. The Center furthers this goal by sponsoring education, scholarship, and human rights advocacy, and facilitating collaboration among law students, scholars, and human rights defenders in the United States and abroad. We Will Still Live: Confronting Stigma and Discrimination Against Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi Crowley Scholars interview members of the Coalition of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi, May 2007. In May 2007, the Leitner Center traveled to Malawi to document stigma and discrimination against HIV+ women, who comprise 58% of those infected with HIV/AIDS in Malawi. The project resulted in a human rights report (We Will Still Live) and 33 minute documentary (The Face of AIDS: The Feminization of HIV/AIDS in Malawi). The documentary screened on national TV in Malawi on World AIDS Day (12/1/07). Copies of both the report and the DVD are available upon request. Please contact Libby Mooers at mooers@law.fordham.edu for more information. Master of Laws in International Law and Justice Fordham Law now offers an LL.M. Program in International Law and Justice, in which lawyers gain an advanced understanding of human rights protection and promotion at the international, regional and domestic levels, from its historical evolution to the forefront of cutting-edge scholarship and debate. The new LL.M. Program seeks to enroll international students, particularly from Asia, Africa and Latin America, in the hopes that the Program may contribute to diversity in the student-body and enrich all students' classroom experiences. In order to facilitate the participation of students from the developing world, the Law School administration waives the tuition of two of the five students admitted annually. The Leitner Center also provides those two students with cost-of-living stipends. Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic The Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic was launched in the fall of 2007. The Clinic aims to train a new generation of human rights lawyers and to inspire results-oriented, practical human rights work throughout the world. For information on past and present projects, please visit the Clinic's webpage. Sustainable Development Legal Initiative Professor Paolo Galizzi has developed a new initiative to serve as a focal point within the Law School for activities in the field of sustainable development. Among other things, the SDLI oversees a Police Training Workshop in Ghana to provide formal legal training to 100 police officers every summer, helps the Law Faculty at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana develop an expanded international human rights and development curriculum, and sponsors forums, conferences and a lecture series on sustainable development. For further information about SDLI, please contact the program's current Levinson Fellow, Alena Herklotz. She can be reached at herklotz@law.fordham.edu or 212.636.7534. For further information on the Leitner Center's programs, you are encouraged to visit to our website or contact our Executive Director, Jeanmarie Fenrich (jfenrich@law.fordham.edu or 212.363.7533).