Summer 2007 | News Briefs

Yale Law Dean Delivers Gordon Lecture

Harold Hongju Koh, dean of Yale Law School and former US assistant secretary of state for human rights, had two things on his mind when he came to deliver the 14th annual Gordon Human Rights Lecture in April. First, Koh asked his audience of more than 100, “How has the US response to 9/11 affected the US human rights reputation?” Second, he wondered, “What steps can we as US citizens take to restore that reputation?”

“We no longer tell the whole truth. Sadly, the US has put its own human rights practices center stage by promoting double standards in the WOT [War on Terror],” and “has muted its human rights criticism of our allied countries, creating double standards for those who aid us in antiterrorist activities,” Koh said, during his hour-long presentation.

Koh referred to recent human rights failings by the US government, citing the Bush administration’s “total failure in Darfur” and ineffectiveness at dealing with a variety of hostile states, such as North Korea and Iran, as well as undermining United Nations’ efforts.

There has been a “shift from diplomacy backed by force to force backed by diplomacy,” Koh explained, calling for concrete steps, such as targeted sanctions and more peacekeepers in Darfur, shutting down Guantanamo and revising the Military Commissions Act of 2006 to restore habeas corpus to alleged terrorist detainees.

“Our human rights reputation is a critical part of our identity as Americans. Restoring that reputation is simply too important a task to be left to politicians,” Koh concluded.

Law Students Reach Out to Community

Boston public and charter schools will gain new teachers this fall — School of Law students who will teach the Constitution. The student instructors will illustrate the Bill of Rights using Supreme Court cases involving young people. The effort is part of a new university-community partnership, the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, founded in 1999 at American University and replicated at law schools across the country.

“Named in honor of the late Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan, this innovative civics project helps bring the Bill of Rights to life for teens by focusing on issues that affect them directly, from dress codes and school discipline to affirmative action and public education funding,” said Roy Lincoln Karp ’02, who has returned to Northeastern to head the project.

To prepare for their 10-week teaching experience, law students will take a new, three-credit seminar, Teaching the Constitution, offered during the summer and fall quarters. Students will spend several hours a week during their in-school academic quarters at local high schools, where they will teach “We the Students,” a learning module developed by the Marshall-Brennan Project. Law students will also receive three independent study credits for their volunteer work and for completing a research paper.

For more information about this project, contact Roy Karp at karp@civicedproject.org.