Professor Margaret K. Lewis on BBC Radio and in The Diplomat Regarding Chen Guangcheng

Professor Margaret Lewis appeared on BBC’s World News Today and World News Tonight and in The Diplomat regarding the U.S.-China implications of  activist Chen Guangcheng’s plight as well as commentary on potential outcomes in the matter.

Professor Lewis is a noted expert in Chinese Law. She recently testified before the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China regarding “Current Conditions for Human Rights Defenders and Lawyers in China, and Implications for U.S. Policy” and is a Public Intellectuals Program Fellow with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

The  BBC’s

The World Tonight interview can be found here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01gvtrw (at 13:31)

The World Today interview can be found here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00r3qk8 .

The Diplomat article, “Chen Guancheng mystery deepens,” can be found here http://the-diplomat.com/the-editor/2012/05/03/chen-guangcheng-mystery-deepens/

CLE Credits in Health Law in Geneva

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits on health law in Geneva, Switzerland. Click on the image below for more information.

Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh Featured in Voice of America on African Democracy

Seton Hall Law Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh was featured in Voice of America regarding constitutional and democratic reform in Africa. Prior to coming to Seton Hall Law in 2003, Professor Prempeh served as Director of Legal Policy and Governance at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, a nongovernmental policy forum and research institute he helped found in 1998 to promote and support democratic reform and constitutionalism in Ghana.

During his time in Ghana, Professor Prempeh worked on a wide variety of policy and legal reform issues, including land sector reform, anticorruption policy, review of the country’s constitution, and reform of business-related legislation and corporate governance in Ghana’s public commercial sector. Professor Prempeh continues to serve in Ghana, and returns regularly to assist in democratic and constitutional reform.

The Voice of America article, “African Democrats Look for Ways to Curb ‘Imperial Presidency,’” takes an expansive look at constitutional and democratic reform in Africa and notes that

Professor of law Kwasi Prempeh, who teaches at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, New Jersey, said many African constitutions were amended in the 1990s to reflect multi-party democracy. But he said they left the issue of presidential power unanswered.

“What is executive power? It comes from constitutional tradition,” he explained, “from a litany of laws going back to [the military era of] the 1960s [and even to the colonial era], controlling economy and security - all in legislation. We should step back and look at all laws carried over from one regime to the next [when we re-write our constitutions]. A lot of laws from the past have really cast a dark shadow on our new constitutions.”

In addition, Voice of America notes,

Prempeh argues for a review of all existing laws that focus power in the presidency. Constitutional reforms would make clear the powers of the three branches of government and ensure funding for each does not depend on the president.

Prempeh also called for rules encouraging the democratization of political parties, which he says often revolve around the personalities funding them, rather than ideas. Today, he said, political parties lack internal democracy and can fire members who do not follow the party line. He said parties are therefore hijacked by presidents, who use their control of ’slush funds’ to fund their parties.

“In Ghana,” he explained, “there are provisions in constitution which says the internal governance of parties should conform to democratic principles. The general understanding [even though this has not been tested in court] is that one person cannot hijack the party and turn it into their personal estate.

“You are not going to have an undemocratic party producing democratic politicians. If the party is not democratic, does not hold primaries or allow anyone to contest for president, then that is the beginning of autocracy.”

Read more in Voice of America, “African Democrats Look for Ways to Curb ‘Imperial Presidency.’”

Seton Hall Law Student’s Dispatches From GTMO Published Nationwide in Truthout and The Public Record

Nicholas Stratton ‘12, a Fellow of the Center for Policy and Research, visited the Guantánamo Bay Military Base with official Observer status, as a representative of Seton Hall Law’s Transnational Justice Project and the Center for Policy and Research, to observe military commissions, the tribunals established to try detainees for war crimes. Stratton’s reports from GTMO were published nationwide by Truthout.org and The Public Record.

Click here to read Nicholas Stratton’s article in Truthout,

Military Judge Hears Arguments Over Constitutionality of Charges Against USS Cole Bomber

Click here to read Nicholas Stratton’s article in The Public Record,

“What Am I Doing Here?”: Covering Al-Nashiri’s Guantanamo Trial

European Healthcare Compliance Certification Programme in Paris

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

The pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries are increasingly facing a more challenging regulatory and enforcement landscape throughout Europe. This intensive, multi-day educational and training programme addresses the myriad of legal, regulatory and compliance issues faced by pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device manufacturers doing business in Europe.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Legal, regulatory and compliance professionals and advisors working within the European pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries.

COST & REGISTRATION

Tuition for the Programme: €3,000 for registration by April 2, 2012 and €3,500 after April 2, 2012. To Register, please visit the SciencesPo website at http://www.sciences-po.fr/spf/conferences/certificat_healthcare.php

PROGRAMME DETAILS

1. International faculty include high-level government regulators, health and legal scholars, in-house and outside counsel, consultants and industry compliance professionals.
2. Session topics include anti-corruption laws, third-party risk, European healthcare reimbursement and delivery programmes, anti-trust/competition law, development, advertising and promotion of drugs and devices, fraud investigations and the European enforcement landscape, OECD directives, industry codes, privacy laws and much more.
3. Attendees will receive a joint certificate issued by Seton Hall Law School and SciencesPo upon completion of the Programme.

Study Law in Leuven, Belgium and Geneva, Switzerland

The Seton Hall Law School Program in European and Global Law offers a challenging and rewarding opportunity for students to earn up to five credits in Leuven, Belgium and Geneva, Switzerland. The program is open to law students from all countries, as well as graduate students in related fields such as political science, public health, or public policy.

Students have the option of taking all of the courses, for the full five-week program, or designing their own program of one, two, three, or four weeks.  The program features compressed courses lasting either one or two weeks.

Courses and dates for summer 2012 are as follows:

The Institutional Framework of the European Union (2 credits)
Professor Carl Coleman
Leuven, Belgium
Weeks of May 28 and June 4

Intellectual Property and International Health Policy (1 credit)
Professor David Opderbeck
Geneva, Switzerland
Week of June 11

Individuals and Communities in International Health Research (1 credit)
Professor Carl Coleman
Geneva, Switzerland
Week of June 18

The Right to Health in Comparative Perspective (1 credit)
Professor John Jacobi
Geneva, Switzerland
Week of June 25

Courses will combine classroom lectures and discussion with a series of study visits to European Union institutions and international organizations, where students will have the opportunity to interact with high-level lawyers and organizational representatives.

All classes will be conducted in English. Classes will meet from Monday through Thursday for three hours each day. Enrollment in each course includes housing from the Sunday before the course begins to the Saturday after it ends.

The program is a great opportunity to explore cutting-edge issues in European and global law while enjoying up to five weeks in the heart of Western Europe. Find out more about the Study Law Abroad Program at Seton Hall Law.

International Tribunals Program: The Hague

This year, the Transnational Justice Program (TJP) will lead a delegation of Seton Hall Law students to The Hague to observe the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and other tribunals. The focus will be on learning about transnational adjudication in The Hague and the practice of law in an international setting. Because The Hague is home to so many different tribunals, it presents an ideal setting to observe and study key developments in international law.

Students will spend the week exploring The Hague’s various tribunals and meet and speak with officials from different offices at the tribunals and with non-governmental organizations working on international justice issues. They will also observe court proceedings in the various trials occurring at that time.

Additionally, students may have an opportunity to work on research projects pertaining to the tribunals’ current cases before or after the trip, with blog reports here at Seton Hall Law Abroad planned.

The Transnational Justice Project (TJP) recognizes that significant legal developments often transcend political boundaries. As the use of transnational bodies to adjudicate disputes grow in number and importance, national governments and international authorities are seeking to develop a coherent body of law around these proceedings.

The scope, form and process of these transnational bodies are the subject of continued discussion and debate. International tribunals and other courts, for example, confront an array of questions as they seek to create a framework for justice following periods of widespread or systematic human rights violations, adjudicate war crimes, and address the effects of counter-terrorism policies. What are the sources of transnational legal authority? How can international tribunals resolve disputes between individuals or nations? What are the competing interests in transnational proceedings? What are the different forms these proceedings can take? Is it possible, or even desirable, to attempt to develop a uniform international procedure surrounding issues of transnational justice? The trip will provide a unique opportunity to explore these and other questions first-hand.

Trip Report, Sierra Leone, Tom Johnson, Jr., Africa Surgery, Inc. (ASI)

[Ed. note: I had the honor of meeting Tom Johnson a few years back, here at Seton Hall Law when I was still a student and he held a fundraiser through the school. AfricaSurgery, Inc. does God's work-- and I'm well pleased to publish his updates here on SHLA. With the help of others, he does a lot-- with very little.]

October 27, 2011 - February 15, 2012

When Umu Sesay was brought to us in 2007, she could not stand erect. Her spine was already fractured due to a tuberculosis infection.

Umu Sesay was brought to us by a Catholic missionary priest in 2007.  Her small, seven-year-old spine was so deformed by a tuberculosis infection that I could hardly believe she was still able to stand and to walk around.  We had Umu complete a six-month medical regimen to cure her TB, and we sent her to Ghana in April of 2008 for surgery by a team from the Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine (FOCOS).   Unfortunately, Umu’s chest cavity was so compressed that she was unable to reach the minimum breathing required by the anesthesiologist before she could be cleared for surgery.   But Umu held onto the small plastic device used to measure her inhalation capacity, and she practiced breathing through it after her return to Sierra Leone.  By January, 2010 her persistence had paid off.   She was finally able to make all four of the small plastic balls rise up to the top of a plastic tube, when she inhaled through the testing device.  Umu was one of the four patients ASI sent from Sierra Leone to Ghana for spinal surgery by a FOCOS team in November, 2011.   All four surgeries were successful, and Umu and her three “surgery-mates” are out of pain and the danger of paralysis.  They all can now stand up quite straight.

Umu is finally able to stand straight thanks to surgery done in November, 2011, by the Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine (FOCOS).

Umu, whose parents are both deceased, is staying for one month at the ASI base in Freetown where she is receiving nutrient enriched food.  She is being tutored by an ASI helper who is himself a college student and who is a former school teacher.  Umu surprised us with how knowledgeable she is for an 11 year-old girl from a farming village.  Umu will soon be placed with the Cluny Sisters (Catholic missionaries) where she will live at their boarding school for the hearing impaired.  She will attend a primary school for hearing children, until the school year ends in July.  We expect that her spine will have healed by then so that she can be returned to her aunt in their home village.  Umu will no doubt be required to perform many chores, but hopefully she will be able to continue to attend school.

In November, a friend took me to a small village a couple of miles beyond his own to see a six-year-old boy with a “swelling and a sore in his mouth” which turned out to be a fast-growing tumor.  We took little Alimamy Kamara, along with his father, to be seen by the German orthopedic surgeons who were visiting Sierra Leone at that time and who had a reconstructive-plastic surgeon on their team.  The tumor was determined to be inoperable.  The team supplied us with palliative pain medication in the form of suppositories and a liquid formulation that could still be swallowed by the boy whose throat was closing up.   Alimamy died 13 days later. But our visit to his small village turned out to be a blessing for a young man who was also suffering with a painfully swollen face.

Alusine Kamara, age 20, before treatment for an abscess in his lower left jaw.

Alusine Kamara, age 20, had an abscess in his lower left jaw.  At first reluctant to accept our offer of help, Alusine’s increasing pain eventually forced him to allow us to take him 100 miles down to Freetown.  There the only oral surgeon in the country began what turned out to be a three-month-long process involving admission to the government hospital, heavy doses of intravenous and oral antibiotics and pain meds, and two surgeries.  Two more men completed similar treatments for abscessed jaws while I was in-country, and another man and one woman are to be admitted for oral surgery before the end of this month (Feb. 2012).  This will bring to 18 the number of persons for whom ASI has provided this rather expensive treatment.  The average cost is about $450.  Such abscess can be avoided by simply having decayed teeth pulled in time, saving much pain for the patient, and expense for us.  ASI did have the rotten molars of 55 persons pulled, between March, 2011, and February, 2012, at a cost of about $3.00 each.

Sidu Tarawallie, age 60 plus, sees the world clearly now after surgeries to remove a pterygium growth from each eye.

While I was in-country, one of my helpers, Foday Tarawalie, brought 38 new patients with eye problems and 21 old cases in need of follow-up medications to the Baptist Eye Hospital in Lunsar.  Nine of the new cases received surgeries to regain their eyesight which was being obstructed by cataracts and/or pterygiums.   The 29 other new cases were medically treated for a variety of conditions including glaucoma and potentially-blinding infections.  ASI is continuing to fund Foday who is continuing to bring old and new patients to the hospital for sight-saving treatments.

Rokro Kanu, age seven, recovering from surgery to repair his hernia.

Before I arrived in Sierra Leone, 48 surgeries to treat persons with hernias had already been done with funds provided by ASI since February, 2011.   While I was in country 11 more hernia repair surgeries were arranged and funded by ASI, including one for a seven-year-old boy.   Hernias remain a very prevalent health problem in Sierra Leone preventing thousands of men, boys and women from living productive lives.

New Jersey was well represented in Sierra Leone this year.  Dr. Nina Seigelstein returned to the Holy Spirit Hospital with a team including another gynecological surgeon, a scrub nurse, and a midwife.  They preformed 22 major surgeries on women brought to them by ASI, as well as for others who came on their own.   A detailed account can be found at the website: www.oneworldwomenshealth.org.

Boi Woody, was despondentbefore we moved her to the Holy Spirit Hospital. There visiting teams of reconstructive surgeons from Great Britain will be able to save her from losing her infected foot.

A member of the ASI board of directors, Sergio Burani, made a nine-day visit to Sierra Leone for the purpose of making a photo documentary of our work.  Sergio fell into stride with the ASI team.  At one point Sergio asked a vendor in an open-air market in the capital city, Freetown, if he could photograph him and his produce.  The man refused but was overheard by the market head-man who, after we explained our mission, insisted that Sergio “snap” away with his camera as much as he wanted to.  All the fuss caught the attention of a passerby who told us of his mother who was in the main government hospital.  Her family could not afford to pay for the medications needed to treat her badly-infected foot which had suffered a wound when a large mortis fell on it.  The young man explained that the entire congregation of their church had decided to pray for his mother to be healed as the only solution at hand.  We paid a visit to the hospital where we heard that the foot might have to be amputated.  We ended up transporting the woman and her daughter 100 miles up-country to our base near the Holy Spirit Hospital.  The woman is being treated as an out-patient for the infection and for a low hemoglobin blood count.  She is scheduled to receive a skin graft by the next reconstructive plastic surgery team that will visit the hospital in early March.  She will not have to lose her foot.

While there, Sergio also instructed six disabled students, three with severe hearing loss, and three post-operative spinal surgery secondary school boys, in the principles of photography and the use of six non-automatic, non-digital cameras which he donated.  One of the hearing-impaired students has already set off on his own, photographing students at their graduation ceremony.   He now is trying to scrape together the money to have his film developed in the hope that he will be able to reap a small profit selling his prints.

On behalf of all of the many Sierra Leoneans whom your generosity is allowing ASI to help, I want to thank you for your support and for your prayers.   I wish to extend special thanks to the Knights of Columbus George Washington Council 359, which gave ASI $3,000 last year.  This more than covered my personal travel and living expenses, enabling all of your donations to go directly to providing medical, surgical, and health care.  We at ASI will continue our work in Sierra Leone to the extent that our funds will allow.  If you are able to join us in this effort, checks can be made out to Africa Surgery, Inc., or to ASI, and mailed to:

Tom Johnson

Africa Surgery, Inc.

70 Macculloch Ave.

Morristown, NJ 07960

You can also donate on line at our website:  www.africasurgery.org

Professor Jonathan Hafetz in the ABA’s U.S. Supreme Court Preview on Corporate Liability for International Human Rights Violations

Professor Jonathan Hafetz, Co-Director of Seton Hall Law’s Transnational Justice Project, was selected to prepare the ABA’s U.S. Supreme Court Preview, writing in the area of Corporate Liability for Human Rights Violations and assessing two cases before the Court, one under the Alien Tort Statute and the other under the Torture Victim Protection Act.

Professor Hafetz writes of the cases, “In these cases, the Court must determine whether corporations may be held liable for international human rights violations, under either the Alien Tort Statute (Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.) or the Torture Victim Protection Act (Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority). The two cases will be argued in tandem.”

And notes that,

“While they arise under different statutes, Kiobel and Mohamad both present the question whether corporations may be held civilly liable in U.S. courts for engaging or participating in human rights violations outside the United States.”

Read the full Preview analysis, “Corporate Liability for Human Rights Violations,” here.

Dr. Andrea Bartoli presents ‘The Experience of Peacemaking’ Along with Professor Elizabeth Defeis

The Center for Catholic Studies and the Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations‘ Spring 2012 Lecture, entitled The Experience of Peacemaking: Learning from the Community Sant’Egidio, will be presented April 23 at 4 p.m. in the Bishop Dougherty University Center’s Chancellor’s Suite at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ.  All are welcome to attend, and the event is free of charge.

The lecture will be presented by Dr. Andrea Bartoli, the Dean of the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. The respondent is Elizabeth Defeis, Professor of Law and former Dean of Seton Hall University School of Law, and recently appointed Advisor to the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations.

About the Event:

Reconciliation, peace-making, is at the heart of human need and the Christian message. In this lecture sponsored by the Center for Catholic Studies and the Whitehead School of Diplomacy, Dr. Andrea Bartoli will inquire into recent developments in the study of conflict resolution by focusing on a single case, the experience of peace-making by the community of Sant’Egidio.

The Community of Sant’Egidio is a movement of people dedicated to living out the Gospel through prayer, solidarity with the poor and service to peace. It was born among high school students in Rome in 1968 when they met to pray in the church of Sant’Egidio. Today the Community is present throughout Italy and in seventy other countries throughout the world. Between 1990 and 1992 the community successfully mediated the end of the civil war in Mozambique. After that first experience the community has continued its peace-work in, among others, Guatemala, Algeria, Burundi, Albania, Kosovo, Ivory Coast, DRC, Sudan and Uganda.

For more information »

About the Lecturer:
Andrea Bartoli has been a member of the Community of Sant’Egidio since 1970. He came to the United States in 1992 to follow the Mozambique peace process. Since then, he has been the representative of the community to the United Nations and the US Government. He is the Dean of the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University and works primarily on peacemaking and genocide Prevention. Dr. Bartoli started the Community in the United States in 1993 in New York City. Since then, other communities have begun in the following US cities: Boston, Washington, South Bend and Minneapolis. The communities pray together regularly and serve the poor through outreach to elderly persons, a School of Peace for children, visits and correspondence with prisoners and English classes for foreigners. He is married to Paola Piscitelli, and is the father of Pietro (1995) and Anna (1996).

About the Respondent:
Elizabeth F. Defeis, Professor of Law and former Dean of Seton Hall University School of Law, was recently appointed Advisor to the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations and has lectured internationally on human rights, the rule of law, democracy and constitution building, electoral reform and standards for independence of the judiciary. Her expertise has been requested by governments, intergovernmental institutions and the United Nations.

About the Center for Catholic Studies
Seton Hall University’s Center for Catholic Studies is dedicated to fostering a dialogue between the Catholic intellectual tradition and all areas of study and contemporary culture. To that end, it sponsors an undergraduate degree program for students, focusing on interdisciplinary studies, with opportunities for community, service, scholarship and foreign study. The Center is the home of the G.K. Chesterton Institute, the Bernard J. Lonergan Institute, and the Micah Institute for Business and Economics, and their publications. The Center offers study and research, as well as an ongoing program on faith and culture, social justice, business and the economy, for audiences world-wide. For more information »

About the Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations
The Whitehead School is a leading center for the study of diplomacy and international relations, dedicated to high standards of academic excellence and professional training; extending the frontiers of knowledge; and making a difference in the rapidly changing global environment. Students are given unique opportunities to experience diplomacy and are encouraged to:

• Join a delegation on an international study tour
• Discuss critical global concerns with world leaders
• Complete professional internships, locally or overseas
• Apply classroom knowledge to real world situations
• Assume important leadership roles on campus
• Build the confidence needed to make a difference in the fields of business, communications, diplomacy, government, law or the non-profit sector

The Whitehead School embraces Seton Hall’s longstanding tradition of a values-based education and dedication to developing servant leaders for a global society. For more information »

For more information please contact:
Sarah Adlis
(973) 275-2175
sarah.adlis@student.shu.edu

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