Yee Mon Htun: Burmese human rights advocates discussed the treatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar at a panel co-sponsored by the Kupferschmidt Holocaust/Human Rights Project and the South Asian Law Student Association. Htun, a Harvard professor, said that the Myanmar government “has zero oversight over key ministries. They lack the ability to tell the military command structure to stop. Those are the real barriers.”
Ilya Shapiro: The Cato Institute’s Ilya Shapiro pondered the future of the Supreme Court at a Federalist Society event. “Too many people will now see the justices themselves in partisan terms,” Shapiro said. “We now have contrasting methods of constitutional, statutory interpretation that map almost exactly onto partisan splits. What happens when Trump realizes the sorts of judges that he’s been advised to appoint would rule against him?”
Henry Lee: Forensic scientist Henry Lee, noted for his work in the O.J. Simpson double murder case and founder of the Institute of Forensic Science at the University of New Haven, addressed the Homicide Forum co-sponsored by the Connell School of Nursing, BC Law, and Northeastern University. Lee and other distinguished speakers explored better ways to deal with homicides, wrongful convictions, and mass shootings.
Gevon Solomon: The environmental justice coordinator for the EPA’s New England office observed that “there were not a lot of people who looked like me in the field,” when she began her career as a civil environmental engineer. Solomon and other panelists at a discussion on environmental racism explained how neglect of the environment and lack of resources to address it disproportionately affect poor and minority communities.
Eric DeBrabandere: BC Law and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile hosted the Reforming International Investment Law Conference in October. Leiden University Professor DeBrabandere pushed for an overhaul of international investing systems during the keynote. His “anarchist perspective on investment regulation” called for more substantive international law, greater transparency, and focus on human rights and the environment.