Disability Rights Advocate, S.J.D. Candidate, and 2012 Chayes Fellow

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“Disability rights victories in European Court of Human Rights won by HLS advocate,” a news story just posted on the HLS web site, profiles the work of Hungarian disability rights activist János Fiala-Butora (LL.M. ’10), an S.J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School and an associate of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability.

Jan’s advocacy, and his research, focuses on the idea that “people with disabilities should be able to make decisions about their medical treatment, just like everybody else.” His S.J.D dissertation will explore the institution of guardianship for people with disabilities in countries around the world.

This summer, he continued his work in Hungary and Croatia, traveling there with the support of the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship. Working with the Disability Rights Center in Hungary and the Office of the Ombudswoman for Persons with Disabilities in Croatia, he drafted a proposal to the Croatian government on the implementation of Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and researched international human rights standards and problems relating to the application of legal capacity (guardianship) legislation in Croatia and other Central European countries.

The Chayes Fellowships are dedicated to the memory of Professor Abram Chayes, who taught at Harvard Law School for more than 40 years. Please click here to find detailed information about the program.

A note (and a Note) from a Chayes Fellowship alumnus

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As a Chayes International Public Service Fellow, David Palko (JD ’12) spent the summer of 2010 working at the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, at the end of the Court’s first judicial year. On his return to HLS, he drew on the insights he gained in Kosovo in writing “The Risks of ‘Continuing Situation’ Litigation in Transitional Political Systems: Lessons from the ECtHR for the Constitutional Court of Kosovo,” a Note published this summer in the Harvard Human Rights Journal (Vol. 25).  You can read David’s Note here.

Looking back on the Chayes Program, David wrote “I am so grateful for the significant role it played in making my work possible.”  He is currently clerking for Judge Michael S. Kanne of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. 

 

Information Session: Semester Abroad in France

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The Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (known as “Sciences Po”) was established in 1872 and is one of France’s most selective and highly regarded universities. Sciences Po Law School was created in order to train lawyers with an emphasis on critical thinking and creativity, as well as to equip them to play leadership roles in the worlds of law and business.  The law school’s main areas of academic focus include economic law, the law of globalization, and legal theory.

On Wednesday, October 24, come learn about spending a semester abroad under the HLS exchange program with Sciences Po Law School. Christophe Jamin, Dean of the Sciences Po Law School, Edith Chabre, the school’s Executive Director, students who have studied there, and International Legal Studies Staff will share first-hand experience and answer questions.

This information session will begin at 12 p.m., in the Graduate Program Lounge, Wasserstein 5053.

“You never know where connections will come from.”

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“It wasn’t inevitable that Harvard Law School graduate students Erum Khalid Sattar and Rebecca Zaman would meet so soon, or even at all. Sattar has been at the law school for three years, pursuing a doctorate in juridical science (S.J.D.); Zaman arrived in August to begin a year of study for a master’s in law (LL.M.). Sattar is from Pakistan, and studied law in London; Zaman grew up, earned her law degree and completed a judicial clerkship in Australia. Then again, they’re about the same height, with the same dark brown hair, and that might not be just a coincidence.”

Visit the Harvard Law School web site to read more.

Semester Abroad and the Joint HLS-Cambridge LL.M. Program

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Harvard Law School offers several opportunities for HLS students to earn credit abroad: a joint J.D./LL.M. program in which students are able to earn both a Harvard J.D. and an LL.M. from Cambridge University in England in three-and-a-half years; a semester abroad at one of the ten foreign law schools with which HLS has an exchange program; and an independent semester abroad under the supervision of a Harvard Law School faculty member.

Join us on Monday, October 15, at noon, in Hauser 104, for an information session on these study abroad programs. Come learn more about these programs from HLS students who have studied abroad.