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1/5/05 Clinic Students and Faculty Report on African Legal Aid Conference

On Nov. 22 through 24, Northwestern Law students Trevor Hayes (JD '05), David Hamsher (JD '06), Alison Shinsato (JD '06), and James Williams (JD '05), along with Professor Tom Geraghty, Amanda Fuchs (JD '02), and Loyola University professor Diane Geraghty (JD '72), participated in a conference on legal aid in criminal justice in Africa.

The conference, attended by 124 delegates from 22 African countries, was held in Lilongwe, Malawi. The Northwestern Law team prepared a presentation, delivered by Tom Geraghty, entitled, "Legal Aid In Criminal Justice Around the World: A Comparative View."

During the conference, the team recorded the proceedings, concentrating on summarizing small group discussions for presentation to the entire conference.

Prior to the conference, the Law School team provided technical support, including the identification of articles and compilation of statistics. This effort was led by Redeatu Kassa (JD '06).

Northwestern Law students also prepared a first draft of the conference declaration ("The Lilongwe Declaration on Accessing Legal Aid In the Criminal Justice System in Africa") a version of which was adopted by the participants at the close of the proceedings after an intensive drafting process at the Conference. The declaration will be presented to the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to be held in Bangkok in April of 2005. Northwestern Law's Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology will publish papers from the Lilongwe Conference.

Read Professor Geraghty's report and students' journal entries

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