March 11, 2021 12:30PM -
Location: Online
Contact: leitnercenter@law.fordham.edu
Social inequalities have been reproduced – and even intensified – by the Justice systems all over the world. How can we revert this logic and include disadvantaged groups in the Justice system? This presentation will discuss itinerant justice programs as an effective policy to promote access to justice to vulnerable people.
Speaker:
CLE Credit Available. In the waning months of his presidency, Trump banned federal agencies from teaching Critical Race Theory, which he described as “divisive, anti-American propaganda.” And even post-Trump, a group of conservatives has launched a “war” against Critical Race Theory, hoping to “abolish critical race theory programs from American life.” At the same time, however, many law students have been clamoring for more Critical Race Theory, only to face resistance from law schools. As such, it seems worth asking again the question Professor Derrick Bell addressed in a lecture in 1995, “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?” And why? This panel brings together scholars to introduce audience members to CRT, including the controversy surrounding it, and to talk about the role CRT can play in uprooting inequality.
Lam Nguyen Ho is the Executive Director of CALA (Community Activism Law Alliance), which he founded with a Harvard Law School Public Service Venture Fund seed grant. He is currently an Echoing Green Global Fellow and will serve as a 2016-2017 Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow.
Prior to founding CALA, he was a staff attorney at Equip for Equality, where he defended the civil rights of people with disabilities. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 2008, Lam joined Chicago’s Legal Assistance Foundation (LAF) through a Skadden Foundation Public Interest Fellowship. During his time at LAF, he established and ran 10 community-based clinics providing free legal services to youth and their families on the west side of Chicago. He experienced firsthand the challenges of community lawyering and civil legal services, and was inspired to innovatively confront these challenges through the creation of CALA.
In the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matters protests in the United States, the 2021 Fordham International Law Journal Symposium topic will focus on the manifestation of the Black Lives Matter movement and the issue of racial and ethnic discrimination around the globe. Panelists will include judges, scholars, and activists within and outside of the Fordham community well versed in civil and human rights issues in an international context. Conversation will surround an identification of the particular issues in jurisdictions outside of the United States as well as ongoing proposed solutions.