Students Contribute to Brazilian Human Rights Case


Learning how to write a brief is a proficiency all students acquire during law school. For UNM law students Lisa Collins and James Dodd, the


opportunity to apply that new skill to a case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights brought their study of law to life. The case involved José Dutra da Costa, a union leader in north-


ern Brazil, known as Dezinho, who called attention to abuses of farm workers by local landowners violently opposed to land reform in their district. Before he was gunned down outside his home in 2000, he had reported death threats for seven years. Although the gunman has confessed to the shooting, pointing to a wealthy landowner who or- dered Dezinho’s murder, the landowner has never been charged and the gunman still has not been brought to trial. Under the direction of Jenny Moore, their professor in a multidis-


ciplinary course entitled Peace and Conflict, Collins and Dodd, along with Flynn Sylvest, drafted an amicus brief that outlines how Brazil has violated numerous provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights to which Brazil is a party. This treaty defines and ensures the protection of various enumerated human rights, including the rights to humane treatment, due process and legal remedy. To date, 25 countries have ratified this agreement, including Brazil. The case is scheduled to be heard by the Inter-American Commission later this year. Moore, who also serves as director of UNM’s Peace Studies program,


had been looking for ways to involve her students in real-world opportu- nities when she met Todd Howland, director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights. He and his staff told her of the Brazil case and encouraged her to enlist the help of students to work with the center’s attorneys on the brief. The center regularly works with law schools on its briefs. “It was a good experience for the students on how to apply interna-


tional law. I think it was very exciting for them to offer an analysis of a complicated area of law comprising both political and economic human rights issues,” says Moore. Each student wrote a different section, which Moore then compiled


into a 40-page brief. Dodd addressed the victim’s right to a remedy, which is intended to ensure that the perpetrators of the crime are brought to


justice. Collins argued that the Brazilian government knew of the threats against Dezinho and failed to protect him, thus robbing him of his right to life, right to be free from cruel and inhuman treatment, and rights to liberty and due process. Sylvest, who helped out with the brief as an in- dependent study, researched Brazil’s failure to carry through with its obligations to implement land reform. “As a signatory to the


treaty, Brazil agreed to create a climate where human rights violations wouldn’t occur,” says Moore. Throughout the fall semester, the students met weekly with Moore


Celebrating completion of an amicus brief are, l-r: James Dodd, Professor Jenny Moore and Lisa Collins.


to discuss the case. After the ruling by the Inter-American Commission, it may recommend the case be heard by the Inter-American Court, the highest tribunal under the convention. Both Collins and Dodd appreciated the chance to work on a real


human rights case, in an area they both would like to pursue after graduation in the spring. “To bring a case like this to worldwide attention and to help the


people working in this area was amazing,” says Collins. “And the knowledge that what I’ve learned in law school will matter in the future, that it does make a difference, was rewarding.” For Dodd, who worked in Bolivia with the Peace Corps, the idea that


his contribution could help ensure human rights are protected in Brazil provided a taste of how he would like to use his legal education. “It was a great opportunity to work on a project with purchase,”


he says.


Joseph Freedman Brings EPA Expertise to Classroom This academic year, Freedman, now a senior attorney with the agency, is visit-


Joseph Freedman always knew he wanted to be a defense lawyer, influenced perhaps by the dra-


Joseph Freedman


matization of Clarence Darrow in “Inherit the Wind” and the television shows of his youth, such as “Perry Mason” and “The Defenders.” This career choice was confirmed by a Constitutional Law course he enjoyed as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. Following graduation from the University


of Michigan Law School, he spent a year at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, where he


studied Continental and European Community Law. For the next two years, he practiced anti-trust and corporate law at the Wall Street firm of Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, discovering that was not the field for him. Reassessing his career, Freedman made a decision to work in an area in which he was genuinely interested and cared about. “I’ve always liked the outdoors, camping and hiking, and have been


interested in environmental issues,” he says. “Environmental law was an emerging field so I joined the general counsel’s office at the Environmental Protection Agency in 1980.”


WINTER 2006


ing the UNM law school, where he is teaching international environmental law, administrative law and international trade law and the environment. At the EPA, he has defended the agency on issues involving hard rock and


coal mining, the inorganic chemical industry and ocean dumping of sewage sludge. His duties have included providing legal advice to EPA program manag- ers, reviewing guidelines and defending the agency in litigation. In the 1980s, he counseled EPA officials in the design of a national con-


tingency plan that governs the cleanup of Superfund sites. Since 1992, he has advised the agency on international environmental issues, which has included representing the EPA in the negotiation and implementation of a number of multilateral environmental treaties. Freedman notes that 25 years after entering a budding field, there is now


widespread recognition of the global nature of most environmental problems. Most recently, he says, countries have recognized the need for environmental protection and international trade rules to be mutually supportive and that free trade agreements generally include provisions regarding the establishment and enforcement of environmental laws. “There are so many different things going on in international negotiations


and it’s rewarding to be doing something about environmental global prob- lems,” he says.


UNMLAW 19


LAW SCHOOL NEWS


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