Reblaw 2013

WORKSHOPS


Faith and Social Justice: A Values-Based Approach

Many of us choose to do public interest and non-profit work because we believe that social justice matters and that people matter. But it's so easy to lose sight of this in the day-to-day grind. Come to this workshop to reflect on the values that led you to the work you're doing, and to discuss concrete ways to put those values into practice at your workplace. Dr. David Anderson will share his experiences putting Christian values into practice at Safe Families, the faith-based children's organization he founded, and discuss how to use values to mobilize volunteers from faith communities. Following that, he will facilitate a workshop about how to design programs and institute practices that reflect your values.


Firmly Refuse: Building a National Movement to Disrupt the Sell-Out Machine (aka Law School)

We’ve all got our own law school struggles. Our own administrative battles and curricular challenges. Our own sell-out funnels and corporate cultures. In 2011, Firmly Refuse was started with the belief that we don't need to fight these battles on our own. That it’s time for law students across the country to begin the national conversation about changing the legal profession, about taking back our law schools, and about bringing justice and dignity to our work.


Come join us for a workshop to discuss efforts students have already taken at their schools and to share ideas about what could work at yours. Learn about successes and setbacks other students have faced in challenging their school cultures and administrations. More than anything, come help us start a national movement to breathe strength, courage, and unity into the battles we’ve been fighting alone, at each of our schools, for far too long.


[Film Screening] Unequal Justice: The Relentless Rise of the 1% Court

Unequal Justice: The Relentless Rise of the 1% Court explores the growing pro-corporate bias in key Court decisions and their real-world impact on ordinary Americans. Steadily and relentlessly, the Court has been transformed into an institution that frequently serves the interests of the wealthiest one percent.

Taking judicial activism to new levels, these justices have rendered a series of pivotal cases to fundamentally change the balance of power in American society, favoring business interests and limiting access to legal remedies for everyone else. These decisions threaten to undermine the core concept of fairness that is embodied in the motto carved into the Supreme Court building, turning Equal Justice Under Law into Unequal Justice Under Law.


Justice for All: Working Within the Latino Community Against Childhood Sexual Abuse

The US constitution is a generous document, affording and guaranteeing rights to both citizens and non-citizens alike.  Despite this fact, many communities remain underserved and victimized with little access to--or even knowledge of--their legal rights.  For justice-seeking practitioners of the law, these chronically-affected communities present special challenges that need to be overcome to be better served.  In the Latino community specifically, questions of immigration status and fear of deportation are often at the forefront of this group’s mindset when attempting to seek the legal protections constitutionally afforded to them.  Additional challenges arise when the crimes committed against members of the Latino community are sexual in nature and involve children, as these fields are often ripe with culturally-reinforced stigma and taboo that too often result in silence and inaction for many victims.  Join California Senator Martha Escutia (ret.) and attorney John C. Manly for a discussion about their work to end childhood sexual abuse within Latino communities and the obstacles such work can present. 




The International Investment Regime and Human Rights



The regime governing international investments is shaped by a number of factors: domestic administrative law regimes, contract, torts and property law regimes, investment agreements between host states and investors, bilateral investment treaties, multilateral treaties, general international law, as well as investor-state arbitration. The panel aims to examine whether and how these different factors are related to one another and to understand how they can be brought to bear on developing a transparent regime that attracts investments and contributes to the progressive development of human rights in host countries. The panel will be conducted in a workshop format. While Peter Rosenblum shall focus on human rights aspects and transparency in the context of investment agreements, Lise Johnson will concentrate on transparency and the relevance of international human rights law in the context of Investor-State arbitration.