Liberty Under Law (The Robert H. Jackson Center)

Audra and Kristan discuss the universal and systemic barriers and challenges that contribute to economic injustice and inequality, how the Shriver Center is working to dismantle these obstacles, and the national cooperative advocacy and effort to provide access to economic equality for all. Special thanks to HumanitiesNY for their sponsorship of RHJC's economic justice programming.

Join Kristan, Sherene Crawford, and Kellsie Sayser as they discuss restorative justice and innovation in the justice system.

Join Kristan as she talks to Navi Pillay, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, discussing human rights during a pandemic. Ms. Pillay has focused on human rights for much of her storied career - defending anti-apartheid activists, acting as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and serving as a judge on the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court - ICC in the Hague.

Kristan McMahon speaks with Rachel L. Braunstein and Naomi Young of Her Justice, an organization dedicated to breaking down systemic barriers that are built into the civil justice system, and barriers that reinforce and exacerbate gender, racial and economic imbalances.

The Robert H. Jackson Center is proud to be the recipient of an Action Grant award by Humanities New York (HNY) for innovative public humanities offerings. RHJC used its grant award to support our April Tea Time with the Jackson Center programs, including this episode of Liberty Under Law.

Join Kristan in this re-broadcast of our August 2020 interview, What is Justice?, while also asking Enumale Agada to give us an update on The Justice Initiative, a pilot project she oversaw between the Systemic Justice Project and the Thurgood Marshall Center for Civil Rights at Howard University School of Law. The original August 2020 Tea Time featured Professor Jon Hanson, the Alan A. Stone Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Systemic Justice Project at Harvard Law School.

Dr. Katelyn Stauffer and Dr. Alex Badas join Kristan to discuss the importance of diversity in the judiciary, including how it impacts public perception of decisions and nominees.

Dr. Stauffer is an Assistant professor in the department of political science and affiliated faculty member with the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on gender and politics, representation, political institutions, and public opinion.

Dr. Badas is an assistant professor in the department of political science at the University of Houston. His research expertise is in the field of judicial politics, which covers judicial decision-making, public attitudes toward judicial institutions, and representation within the judiciary.

Eva Jefferson Paterson has campaigned for civil rights with passion, courage and tenacity for more than four decades. Paterson is the President and a co-founder of the Equal Justice Society, a legal organization transforming the nation’s consciousness on race through law, social science, and the arts.

Prior to taking the helm of the Equal Justice Society in 2003, Paterson worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for twenty-six years, thirteen of them as Executive Director. Paterson led the organization’s work providing free legal services to low-income individuals, litigating class action civil rights cases, and advocating for social justice. Eva and Kristan discussed the work of the Equal Justice Society to further equity and equality.

Equality Now is an organization "that uses the power of the law to dismantle deeply rooted discrimination and inequality and build a just world for women and girls." Antonia Kirkland, Global Lead, Legal Equality and Access to Justice, Tsitsi Matekaire, Global Lead, End Sex Trafficking, and Flavia Mwangovya, Global Lead, End Harmful Practices, joined Kristan for a discussion on a variety of issues impacting women and girls, including legal inequality, sex trafficking, sexual violence & other harmful practices.

We honored the completion of the 75th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials with a special one-hour program: 75 Years Since the Nuremberg Trial: What it Was and Why it Matters, in partnership with the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum and the Truman Library Institute. The discussion features John Q. Barrett, St. John's University School of Law professor and the Jackson Center's Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow, Kristan McMahon, President of the Robert H. Jackson Center, Dr. Kurt Graham, Director of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, and Joseph A. Ross, Teaching Assistant Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he teaches a curriculum on Peace, War and Defense.

In this conversation recorded in June 2020, St. John's University School of Law Professor John Q. Barrett and Kristan McMahon stepped back in time to discuss the June 6, 1945 report Justice Jackson sent President Truman regarding the work to prosecute the major German war criminals. The report helped generate governmental and public support for Jackson’s work during the London negotiations and in Nuremberg during the trial.

Kristan sat down with members of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) to discuss their work on environmental issues in the U.S. and around the globe. We welcomed Sylvia Orduño and Michael Tilchin, Chair and Vice-Chair of NEJAC, and Jan Marie Fritz, Ph.D and Steering Committee member for NEJAC.

Staffan I. Lindberg of the V-Dem Institute joins Kristan again to wrap up the year's theme and discuss their most recent (as of recording) Democracy Report, which analyzes the characteristics of democracy and each country's movement toward democracy or autocracy.Staffan I. Lindberg is a Professor of political science and Director of the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and a founding Principal Investigator of Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem).

Anne Rolfes, Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, began her career in Nigeria, collaborating with local communities to address oil companies’ destruction of the Niger Delta. She returned to Louisiana in 2000 and founded the Louisiana Bucket Brigade to end the petrochemical industry’s destruction of her home state. The organization has prioritized media as a tool to amplify the voices of the leaders along Cancer Alley and has created cutting-edge tools to document and expose the industry’s abuse of the state.

Anne and Kristan discussed the work of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade to advance environmental justice by working with the fenceline communities to document the impacts and advocate for changes, enforcement, and remediation

David Sciarra, Esq., Executive Director of the Education Law Center (ELC), and Kristan discuss the role of the federal and state governments in education, and how ELC uses the law to fight equity gaps in education.

Kristan and Raymond C. Pierce, the President and CEO of Southern Education Foundation (SEF.) discuss the work of the foundation towards educational equality. SEF "engages in a range of partnerships and coalitions designed to attack the root cause of educational inequities by strengthening the capacity of advocates and policymakers. By using research-based practices, SEF’s aim is to help shape local, state, and federal policies and legislation that lead to effective systems change for Black and low-income students in the South."

David Crane joins Kristan to discuss the international humanitarian law implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine including the laws governing armed conflict and the possible paths to hold Russia's leadership accountable and provide justice to Ukraine.

Kristan welcomes back Joshua Edmonds, the Director of Digital Inclusion for the City of Detroit, to discuss the progress the City of Detroit has made in the last year to address its digital divide, including creating a data trust, how partnerships are necessary for these efforts to succeed, and what other cities could and should be considering to address their own needs.

Join Kristan and the women from the Center for Democracy and Technology as they discuss equity issues in technology. Listen as they about technology accessibility and how socioeconomic status, abilities, and race and ethnicity impact tech equity. Panelists include: Avery Gardiner, General Counsel and Senior Fellow for Competition, Data, and Power Lydia X. Z. Brown, Policy Counsel, Privacy and Data Project Hannah Quay-de la Vallee, Senior Technologist

Our first episode features Juan R. Thomas, the Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Civil Rights & Social Justice Section Juan is Of Counsel at Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., the founder and principal of The Thomas Law Group, a member of the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section for State & Local Government, and the General Counsel for the Morehouse College National Alumni Association. Juan and Kristan discussed the equity gap through a race-based lens.

The Robert H. Jackson Center envisions a world where the universal principles of equality, fairness, and justice prevail. To learn more about the Jackson Center, our mission, and our work, please visit us at www.roberthjackson.org. To support our mission and work, please click here: https://bit.ly/2YABefz

Wendy Doyle, President and CEO of United WE joins Kristan to discuss pay equity, paid family leave, child care, and encouraging the civic engagement of women.​

Sarah Ludwig, Founder, and Co-Director of the New Economy Project joins Kristan for our last conversation in our series on economic justice. New Economy Project is a New York City-based organization whose mission is to build an economy that works for all, based on cooperation, equity, social and racial justice, and ecological sustainability. Sarah and Kristan discussed how the New Economy Project achieves its mission by supporting cooperative and community-controlled development, and by challenging corporations that harm communities and perpetuate inequality and poverty.

Special thanks to Humanities New York (HNY) for its grant supporting our economic justice series.

The second episode of the Cold War Secrets Revealed seminar features Eli Rosenbaum. He shared stories from his work as the director for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Investigations, which was primarily responsible for identifying, de-naturalizing, and deporting Nazi war criminals from 1994 to 2010.

Leading experts on Ukraine and international criminal tribunals share their thoughts on how an international tribunal could be established to hold Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities being committed. This episode is drawn from a July 28, 2022 webinar was hosted by the Robert H. Jackson Center and co-sponsored by the Global Accountability Network, the International Section of the New York State Bar Association, and the Public International Law & Policy Group. Panelists are:

• Ambassador Hans Corell, former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and former Legal Counsel of the United Nations

• David Crane, founding Chief Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone and Founder, Global Accountability Network

• Ambassador Anton Korynevych, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

• Inna Liniova, CEO & Executive Director of the Ukrainian Bar Association

• Dr. Paul Williams, the Moderator and co-Founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group

This is the first episode of Season 2 and the theme for this year is Democracy on Trial. Staffan I. Lindberg and Kelly Morrison of the V-Dem Institute join Kristan to discuss democracy and autocracy around the globe. Each year, the V-Dem Institute releases a Democracy Report, which analyzes the characteristics of democracy and each country's movement toward democracy or autocracy.

Staffan I. Lindberg is a Professor of political science and Director of the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and a founding Principal Investigator of Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). Kelly Morrison is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Varieties of Democracy Institute.

Professor Erica Goldberg joins Kristan to discuss free speech and the First Amendment, whether society's understanding of these rights have changed, the role truth (or knowingly making false statements) should play, and limits or guardrails.

Professor Erica Goldberg teaches Torts, Constitutional Law, and Criminal Procedure at the University of Dayton School of Law and her scholarship focuses on the intersection of tort law remedies and First Amendment rights. You can read more of her thoughts on her blog - In a Crowded Theater or on Twitter at GoldbergPrime.

Sharon M. McGowan, Chief Strategy Officer and Legal Director of Lambda Legal, Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, Deputy Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, and Chris Cormier Maggiano, President and Founder of Cormier & Company and Political Advisor with the Q Trust join Kristan for a discussion on issues and equity gaps affecting LGBTQI+ individuals.

Atiba Ellis joins Kristan to discuss voting rights laws, with a focus on how propaganda impacts trust in the system, and the roles politicians and voters need to play.

Atiba Ellis is a professor of law at the Marquette University Law School. His research focuses on voting rights theory, and how ideology affects the scope of the right to vote, as well as critical legal theory and legal history.

Richard Overy, historian and prolific author, shares his thoughts on the interplay of the Nuremberg Trials with the allegations of crimes committed by Soviet soldiers during World War II. Professor Overy was the Robert H. Jackson Center's 2022 Al & Marge Brown Lecturer on World War II.

Richard Overy is an honorary professor at the University of Exeter and the author of more than 30 books on military history, World War II, the Third Reich, the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin, and the Soviet war effort

The third installment of the Cold War Secrets Revealed seminar features Nancy Thorndike Greenspan as the Al & Marge Brown Lecturer. She discusses her book Atomic Spy: The Dark Lives of Klaus Fuchs.

The Robert H. Jackson Center envisions a world where the universal principles of equality, fairness, and justice prevail. All Jackson Center programming is free and open to the public. To learn more about the Jackson Center, our mission, and our work, please visit us at www.roberthjackson.org. To support our mission and work, please click here: https://bit.ly/2YABefz

The final installment of our Cold War Secrets Revealed seminar features Professor Arthur T. Downey. He speaks about his government experience and his book - The Cold War: Law, Lawyers, Spies and Crises.

The Robert H. Jackson Center envisions a world where the universal principles of equality, fairness, and justice prevail. All Jackson Center programming is free and open to the public. To learn more about the Jackson Center, our mission, and our work, please visit us at www.roberthjackson.org. To support our mission and work, please click here: https://bit.ly/2YABefz

The first episode of the Robert H Jackson Center Cold War Special, Counsel General of Germany in New York, David Gill shares his perspective growing up in East Germany, the changes that occurred after the Berlin Wall fell as Germany reunified, and the preservation of evidence related to the Stasi, German Secret State Police.

Nadine Smith, the Executive Director of Equality Florida, joins Kristan for a discussion on the work of her organization. Equality Florida was founded in 1997 and is the state's largest organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.