Student Staff Fall 2015 Semester Summary

To provide Regent Law students with practical experience in the legal protection of human rights, students volunteer with the center each semester for a minimum of 5 hours/week. Here is an overview of the projects that our 28 student staff members worked on this past semester:

Land and Equity Movement, Uganda

Drafted a legal memorandum that summarized the Ugandan approach to proving customary law in court and argued that Uganda should scrap its approach and adopt the approach used by South Africa. The approach used in South Africa makes customary law much more accessible for those who wish to live under it.

National Center on Sexual Exploitation

Began updating a 100-plus page legal manual that outlines how to constitutionally regulate sexually-oriented business. Once updated, the manual will be distributed free of charge to cities and other local governmental agencies wishing to adopt ordinances that effectively zone and regulate these businesses to help curb their negative secondary effects.

Shared Hope

• Drafted a legal memorandum that summarized all federal and state case law regarding how prosecutors and judges have dealt with “bottom girls.” “Bottom girls,” pimps’ top prostitutes, often engage in trafficking-related activities, but the problem is that they are often trafficking victims themselves. Our memo will assist Shared Hope in deciding how best to advocate for these victims.
• Drafted a legal memorandum that discusses the criminal law doctrine of merger under Hawaii law. The memo will be used as a resource to help pass Hawaii’s first sex trafficking statute, which has been defeated two years in a row, in part because of an improper understanding of the doctrine of merger.   

Alliance Defending Freedom International

• Monitored all new cases before the European Court of Human Rights and sent ADF a weekly update outlining particular cases of interest.
• Drafted summaries of various Resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for ADF’s digital library.

Advocates International

Drafted a legal memorandum that outlines the legal frameworks with respect to adoption and foster care and recommended how Nepal and Bangladesh can improve their child welfare systems. The memo summarized U.S. law, international guidelines, Nepal and Bangladesh law, and then recommended what changes Nepal and Bangladesh need to make to better protect children. Advocates will use this memo at a conference run by World Without Orphans in February.

Universitas Pelitas Harapan

Researched and compiled all Indonesia laws that relate to human trafficking. The research is part of a “legal toolkit,” a document that is intended to be used by judges, police officers, prosecutors, and government officials to combat sex trafficking.

Jerusalem Institute for Justice

Drafted a legal memorandum that detailed how the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees receives funding and argued that the continued funding of the organization likely violates U.S and international law. JIJ intends to send the memo to two United States senators.

International Justice Mission

Drafted a comprehensive legal memorandum that summarized best practices for police accountability. Specifically, the memo looked high profile investigations and prosecutions of police officers in the United States and United Kingdom and discussed why they were or were not successful. The memo also looked at the various ways in which nations hold police officers accountable, whether internal affairs, independent oversight, or a hybrid method, and analyzed which is the best method.

Confidential

The project related to drafting a legal memorandum that will be used to help save unborn children.