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A lot of us in the clinical legal education community have been thinking about collaboration since the wonderful Clinical Section Conference on that theme. One very interesting and important current example of collaborative work among law students, public and private sector lawyers and a variety of governmental and non-governmental actors, is the ongoing litigation regarding the men detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. This work is probably the most outstanding current example of the very important role the bar plays in our civil society.
Lawyers from across the political spectrum have stepped forward to work on behalf of the Guantanamo detainees, including my colleague, Martha Rayner, who founded and runs the International Justice clinic at Fordham.
Martha and her students represent a handful of clients detained at Guantanamo. Martha's deep concern for her clients, her readiness to throw herself into those deep and uncharted waters and her passion for the work are so true to character.
Like the many private sector lawyers who have embraced these cases, Martha has already given a tremendous amount of time and energy to this cause, traveling to Bahrain, with students, to meet with clients' family members and down to Guantanamo, where students are not permitted, to see clients.
Litigating these cases is like stepping into a legal twilight zone - right now all the litigation is stayed (a legalism for suspended animation) while the courts are considering the legality of Congressional efforts to prevent or strictly limit judicial review of these cases. The Congressional action was just one of the virtually unprecedented legal twists in this rapidly developing and uncharted area of the law.
Martha was uncertain about how these cases would work in the clinical setting, here she comments on the wonderful opportunities for collaboration.
-- Ian Weinstein
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