Contents
Description:
In these challenging times fraught with conflict, social injustice, and polarized political discourse, we need leaders who practice civility and foster peace. Civility calls upon us to approach issues with self-awareness, respect, and humaneness. Instead of silencing voices or maintaining the status quo, civility creates the understanding and compassion necessary for an inclusive and diverse dialogue.
Because we rely on our justice system to prevent and resolve disputes, when members of the legal profession lead with civility, ensure a more equitable process that affirmatively enhances the experience of all the parties, results in better outcomes, and builds public confidence in the justice system.
In this session, we will review the ways incivility harms us personally and impedes justice. We will discuss how practicing civility complies with the Washington State Rules of Professional Conduct sections 1.1, 1.2, and 3.5. And because civility, like peace, begins within each of us, we will then focus on strategies for nurturing within ourselves a practice of civility. By practicing civility, lawyers and judges not only promote the interests of justice, but as leaders in their communities, they also model ways to engage in challenging discourse to obtain greater understanding, resolve conflict, and pave the way toward peace within the greater society.
Speaker:
Tim Jaasko-Fisher served as Assistant Attorney General for 11 years, litigating at all levels of the justice system in Washington State, from administrative tribunals to the Supreme Court. For 8 years he was the founding director of the Court Improvement Training Academy at the University of Washington School of Law, and then for four years he was a Senior Director at the Civility Center for the Law, a private, non-profit dedicated to promoting civility in the legal system and based at Seattle University School of Law. He continues to facilitate, present, and consult internationally on leadership, civility, and engaging groups in complex problem-solving.
Description:
This program addresses the history and current status of African refugees in Israel. There are approximately 38,000 refugees from African countries residing in Israel and seeking asylum. Israel has not responded to most applications for asylum and has considered mass deportation. The purpose of this talk is to educate about the sociopolitical evolution of the current situation and recent events. In addition, the program will provide an overview of international law principles that apply to refugees in Israel, as well as domestic law within Israel that has shaped refugee status and rights.
Speakers:
Attorney Tomer Gutman clerked in Southern District of California Federal Court then joined Worden Williams LLP, where he focuses his practice on trust administration, litigation, business and property. Previously he served in the Israeli Defense Forces and also founded the San Diego branch of the youth service organization Friends of Israel Scouts - Tzofim.
His coloquitur Oded Oron was born and raised near Tel-Aviv and worked as an Editor at Ha’aretz and as a Consultant for Israel’s Government Press Office.
Description:
In this CLE, attendees will be taught how war crimes cases are investigated and adjudicated. Learn about:
· Phases of the investigation – field work, exhumations, document analysis
· Challenges parties face in investigating war crimes cases
· Using evidence gathered in the field to litigate cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes at trial and on appeal
· The work of the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia.
Speakers:
Stefanie Frease worked for 15 years on international criminal investigations in the Balkans, Asia and Africa. She was a researcher/investigator and Special Advisor to the Prosecutor for the UN’s Yugoslavia Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands. She was a lead member of the investigation in Srebenica. She initiated the Darfur, Sudan investigation for the International Criminal Court in The Hague and later consulted on matters related to political violence in Kenya and the Ivory Coast.
Attorney Kyle Wood worked as a trial and appellate prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia for 10 years and has helped investigate allegations of mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar. During his time there, Mr. Wood helped litigate six Srebrenica-related cases involving 13 soldiers, political leaders and police officers charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is now an Assistant Washington State Attorney General in the Criminal Justice Division.
Description:
Space law was catalyzed by the 1957 launch of Sputnik I by the former Soviet Union. Faced with an unprecedented technology capable of placing nuclear weapons in space the world’s nations had a choice: law or war? They chose law. This presentation will briefly describe their choices and how they resulted in international and national space law.
Speakers:
Professor Joanne Gabrynowicz has been teaching space law since 1987 at the Univ. of North Dakota and the Univ. of Mississippi. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law for 12 years. Prof. Gabrynowicz is an internationally recognized expert who lectures around the world including at University of Vienna, University of Warsaw, Beijing Institute of Technology School of Law, China University of Political Science and Law, and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Currently, Prof. Gabrynowicz serves on three U.S. Federal advisory committees and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Most recently the International Astronomical Union recognized her work by naming an asteroid after her.
Description:
In this special presentation by Climate Defense Project, this program will focus on the legal defense of climate activists both within and outside Washington state, particularly as it relates to movement lawyering, political trials, and justification defenses. Topics will include professional aspects of representing activist-clients. Finally, the presenters will touch on issues of climate injustice and Indigenous rights, as well as the pursuit of complementary legal strategies by the climate movement.
Speakers:
Alice Cherry and Ted Hamilton are staff attorneys at Climate Defense Project, which they co-founded with Kelsey Skaggs in 2016. CDP is a legal nonprofit that provides advice and support to the climate movement in the United States and internationally. CDP has been active in promoting the climate necessity defense, which climate protesters increasingly use to defend themselves in court. In 2017, CDP helped secure the first two written rulings recognizing a protest defendant's right to present the climate necessity defense at a jury trial.
In 2014, while students at Harvard Law School, Alice and Ted spearheaded the first lawsuit seeking to compel a university to divest its endowment of fossil fuel stocks. Their work has been reported on by the New York Times, ThinkProgress, Forbes, and The New Yorker
Description:
- Brief introduction to the Law of the Sea
- Legal developments in the Law of the Sea
- Challenges and issues currently developing in the Law of the Sea.
Speaker:
Eden Charles, former Ambassador to the United Nations from Trinidad and Tabago, brings almost 20 years of expertise in negotiation, international law and multilateral diplomacy, not only as Ambassador at Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations but also including appointments such as Lead Negotiator for the Member States of the Caribbean Community, Lead Negotiator of the United Nations Diplomatic Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, and Chair of the Preparatory Committee for the conclusion of a new international legally binding agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction. He is on the line with us today from his office in Trinidad.
