Clinics

law 717

International Human Rights Clinic

Clinic students visited New York City in 2018 in support of UN Special Rapporteur on Racism E. Tendayi Achiume’s mandate.

Faculty: E. Tendayi Achiume, Joseph Berra and S. Priya Morley

The International Human Rights Clinic is comprised of clinical projects and a seminar. During the semester, students collaborate with leading human rights organizations in service of real clients and partners, gaining firsthand experience with international human rights lawyering, policy and advocacy work.

Course Details
Law 927

Human Rights in Action Clinic

Students collect testimony from Indigenous Hondurans whose communities have been violently targeted in retaliation for their resistance to environmentally damaging projects.

Faculty: Joseph Berra

An immersive two-week experience, this clinic has students travel to Honduras in support of one of our partner organizations there. Past iterations of the Human Rights in Action Clinic have produced sustained relationships with organizational partners in Honduras and Los Angeles.

Course Details
law 794

Human Rights Litigation Clinic

The Mirhmedi Brothers
Among the clinic’s cases is that of the Mirmehdis: four brothers wrongfully swept up in the post-9/11 hysteria, whose support for democracy in Iran was misrepresented by FBI agents as support for terrorism. Their case is pending before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Faculty: Catherine Sweetser

The Human Rights Litigation Clinic focuses on mechanisms for human rights accountability in domestic courts, including local civil rights litigation of §1983 claims for unhoused people and rights of immigrant detainees, trafficking lawsuits under the Trafficking Victim Protection Act, consumer fraud cases based on false claims of “sustainability” that target corporations selling goods produced with slave labor, and Alien Tort Statute cases.  Students will be given the opportunity to engage in actual litigation together with law firm partners and nonprofit organizations.

Course Details

“Assisting the clinic’s cases, which included an international human rights case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court during our semester, was the defining experience of my law school career. Working alongside litigators to discuss the merits of our arguments and case strategy has been invaluable to my legal thinking, research, and writing.”

Darren Schweitzer, Fall 2020 Clinic

“Working in the Human Rights Litigation Clinic has been an incredible experience. From being part of a team effort prepping for oral arguments in front of the highest court in the land to listening to client stories and strategizing the best way to bring their case, I’ve had a firsthand look at litigation fighting for the types of issues that inspired me to apply to law school.”

Elena Aguirre, Fall 2020 Clinic

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