A Mission of Mercy: Helping Haitians in the Pursuit of Justice
The Haiti Rule of Law Project
Imagine living in an environment where your judges and prosecutors were so poorly trained and have never been to law school, and most arrests are accomplished without a warrant. Women prisoners are not segregated from male prisoners. Sexual abuse is common; tuberculosis, HIV and other diseases are easily transmitted. Imagine a judicial system that lacks rudimentary materials necessary to function - scarce electricity and no phones, no copy machines, no faxes. In short, lawyers and judges - virtually everyone connected to the judicial system - are viewed with skepticism and distrust.
This is present-day Haiti. To help promote respect for and an understanding of the rule of law, several Seton Hall University School of Law faculty and students, along with Dean Patrick E. Hobbs, are traveling to a remote city in eastern Haiti called Jeremie.
From Feb. 28 to March 3, they will help those few Haitian law students who have the determination to reform their country. This excursion, "The Haiti Rule of Law Project," includes lectures on international human rights, American tax, criminal and constitutional law at L'Ecole Superieure Catholique de Droit de Jeremie.
This private Catholic Haitian law school was founded in 1995 to combat government-sponsored lawlessness and violence by fostering respect for the rule of law and justice in Haiti. Classes are held at night, the rooms rented out from the School of Nursing in Jeremie. Electricity is sporadic. They will celebrate 10 years of existence on March 1. Interestingly, in this town of 60,000, there are only four currently practicing attorneys.
The relationship between Seton Hall Law School and L'Ecole Superieure was connected through a Seton Hall Law alumnus, the Rev. Eugene Squeo, J.D. '81, who is a member of the Haiti Solidarity Network of the Northeast, a voluntary membership organization that assists the country through peasant leadership.
In addition to their visit to the law school, these students and professors will meet with local judges and public officials to allow for a better appreciation of the needs of the justice system in Haiti. Seton Hall Law School students are establishing fundraising efforts to go toward improving Internet access and research facilities, and to develop Fellowships so that Haitian law students' educations can be partially or fully funded. Seton Hall Law students are currently reaching out to the New Jersey legal community for financial support.
The only private law school in New Jersey, Seton Hall University School of Law was founded in 1951, and is located in the city of Newark. Seton Hall Law School offers both day and evening programs leading to the Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.) and Master of Science in Jurisprudence (M.S.J.) degrees. For more information on Seton Hall Law School, visit law.shu.edu.
Founded in 1856, Seton Hall University is the nation's oldest diocesan institution of higher education. Today, the University is made up of nine schools and colleges, including the School of Law. One of six private universities in New Jersey and the only Catholic university in the state, Seton Hall currently enrolls nearly 10,000 students. For more information on Seton Hall University School of Law, see law.shu.edu on the World Wide Web. To access Seton Hall's Department of Public Relations and Marketing media database, visit the University's Web site at www.shu.edu and click on News and Events.