Special event: Global Disability Cause Lawyering

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Global Disability Cause Lawyering:  Perspectives from Leading Lawyers in the Movement

Adopted by the United Nations in 2006, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has inspired a new generation of lawyers to assist clients with disabilities seeking remedies for human rights violations before local, national, and international bodies. While many of these lawyers narrowly advocate for their individual clients’ rights, others endeavor more strategically to bring cases that will advance systemic CRPD implementation for the broader disability community.
Strategic litigation, or cause lawyering, to advance the human rights of various groups based on their identities (e.g., race), or on thematic issues cutting across populations (e.g., economic, social and cultural rights), has been extensively studied. However, the complex dynamics and considerations that inform disability-specific cause lawyers remain almost unexplored. This event will present a window into these dynamics by describing the efforts of litigants around the world to advance protections of persons with disabilities’ rights in international and local fora.

 Welcome and Setting the Stage
David B. Wilkins, Faculty Director, Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession
Global Disability Cause Lawyering
Michael Ashley Stein, Co-founder and Executive Director, Harvard Law School Project on Disability
Perspectives from Leading Lawyers in the Movement (and Q&A)
María Soledad Cisternas Reyes, UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Disability and Accessibility
Janos Fiala, Lecturer, Centre for Disability Law and Policy, National University of Ireland Galway
Sanjay Jain, Principal, ILS Law College, Pune, India
Elizabeth Kamundia, Assistant Director, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights

Thursday, March 24 at 10 a.m. | Online; register here
Live closed captioning will be provided throughout the event.
Sponsored by the Center on the Legal Profession, the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and International Legal Studies

 

Ayesha Malik LL.M. ’99 appointed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan

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Pakistan’s Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmad (left) administers the oath of office to Ayesha Malik, the first female justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. (Photo Credit: Press Information Department via AP)

In an event that has been called historic, empowering, and controversial, Ayesha Malik LL.M. ’99 has become the first woman to serve as a justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court in the country’s 75-year history.

Read more on Harvard Law Today

Hilary Charlesworth S.J.D. ’86 elected to the International Court of Justice

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Left to right: Yuji Iwasawa LL.M. ’78, Hilary Charlesworth S.J.D. ’86,
and Nawaf Salam LL.M. ’91

Hilary Charlesworth S.J.D. ’86, an Australian barrister and solicitor, law professor, and renowned scholar of international law, has been elected to serve as a judge on the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, based in The Hague.

Charlesworth, who will fulfill the term of the late Australian judge James Richard Crawford, joins Yuji Iwasawa LL.M. ’78 and Nawaf Salam LL.M. ’91 as the third Harvard Law School graduate currently serving on the 15-member court. Charlesworth is the fifth woman to serve on the ICJ in the 75 years since its founding.

Read more on Harvard Law Today.

Special Event: Six Faces of Globalization

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On November 17, authors Anthea Roberts and Nicolas Lamp joined Professors William Alford ’77 and Ruth Okediji LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’96; Oren Cass ’12, executive director of American Compass; and Anne-Marie Slaughter ’85, a former HLS faculty member and director of International Legal Studies, and the CEO of New America, for a book talk celebrating the recent publication of Six Faces of Globalization:  Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Matters (Harvard University Press, 2021).  The talk was sponsored by International Legal Studies, the Harvard Law School Library, and East Asian Legal Studies.

Read “A kaleidoscope of views on globalization” on Harvard Law Today and view the program on YouTube.