James Cavallaro: “Legal Education, International Law and Respect for International Human Rights in the Americas”

Northeastern Law’s Center for Global Law and Justice 2024 Speaker Series, Issues in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Featuring:
James Cavallaro
Professor of the Practice, Wesleyan University: Co-Founder and Executive Director, University Network for Human Rights.

This presentation (and subsequent paper) seeks to address the relationship between legal education, public international law (and in particular, human rights law), and the incorporation of these standards by countries in the Americas in domestic law, practice and in their international relations. First, we consider the extent to which public international law and human rights are taught in the legal academy across the Americas (focusing on the largest nations). To what extent are legal professionals trained to be familiar with international public law and human rights standards? We then consider the degree to which human rights standards are incorporated into domestic legal standards (beginning with the national constitution of states in the Americas). Finally, we seek to draw connections between the study of human rights standards in law school, the incorporation of these standards into domestic law and their application in international relations. We anticipate that low levels of study will lead to lower levels of constitutional incorporation and reference to, and application of, human rights standards in international relations. We also suspect that increased levels of instruction in public international law and human rights may promote greater application of these norms in the Americas

Questions? 
Please contact Professor Zinaida Miller at z.miller@northeastern.edu.

The lecture series is open to the Northeastern University community and the general public

Nov 13, 2024

12:45 pm to 2:00 pm

Register Online