Fordham Students Collaborating with Legal Heros for Guantanamo Prisoner Rights

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The private Bar's response to Guantanamo has really been fabulous. More than 450 lawyers have joined forces within the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) to represent detainees and their response really gives me hope for the future of the legal profession. 

I know it makes many people gag when I say it, but I am proud of my profession and my colleagues at the bar.  As I see it, a diverse array of lawyers from all across America, with a wide variety of beliefs and political orientations, have invested a significant amount of time and effort in these cases because they share a fundamental belief in the rule of law.

I think these folks are heroes and as one of my intellectual heroes, Howard Gardner has pointed out in his Good Work Project, professions need heroes if they are to remain with the values that make them something more than groups that share technical proficiency.

Of course working with heroes may pose an educational challenge.

I have sometimes worried that students would be overwhelmed by very experienced lawyers and I worried a little about that for our International Justice students with the lawyers involved with CCR. Not to give in to stereotypes, but I have the idea that big firm lawyers can sometimes be quite aggressive and may not have the inclination to give students room to learn. But I think that has not been a problem here and that the students have really been inspired by the work of the lawyers they have met.   

Here is Martha Rayner, Director of the Fordham Clinic for International Justice, making the very important point that no one knows the answers in these cases and that has worked to her students’ advantage.

The International Justice clinic’s representation of clients detained at Guantanamo has also given Martha and her students the opportunity to meet with Representative Jerrold Nadler, some of their clients' family members and human rights activists both here and abroad.

-- Ian Weinstein

Guantanamo in the news: The Wall Street Journal had a front page article on 6/2/06 that mentions some of the work that CCR lawyers are doing on behalf of the Guantanamo detainees (subscription required).

Fordham Law School, Legal Education, International Justice, Guantanamo Bay

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