In celebration of Constitution Day, Bert B. Lockwood, Director of the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights at the University of Cincinnati Law School and editor-in-chief of Human Rights Quarterly, delivers a lecture on “U.S. Constitution and International Human Rights Law” on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 4:30 p.m. in Anderson Auditorium, Scripps Hall.
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The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost in conjunction with the Center for Law, Justice & Culture is sponsoring the event, which is free and open to the public. Constitution Day is a federal observance that recognizes the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787.
“For this year’s Constitution Day, the Center for Law, Justice and Culture has planned a full slate of activities which support the study and celebration of the powerful and dynamic document that is our United States Constitution,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit. “We are particularly pleased to welcome our colleague from the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Bert Lockwood, as keynote speaker and guest to some of our classes and learning communities during his visit. Professor Lockwood is not only an internationally renowned scholar, speaker and editor-in-chief of the Human Rights Quarterly, he has also undertaken numerous human rights missions around the globe. His first-hand perspective and keen scholarship will be of great interest to our students and faculty alike.”
The lecture will consider the complex relationship between international human rights law and constitutional legal frameworks in the United States today.
The event is sponsored by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the Center for Law, Justice and Culture. The event is open to all students, faculty, and public.
“The question is to what extent we have accepted international human rights for ourselves, especially on issues relating to national security, immigration policy and racial injustice,” said Dr. Haley Duschinski, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Law, Justice & Culture.
Lockwood is the long-standing editor-in-chief of Human Rights Quarterly, one of the world’s leading human rights journals, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. He also is the founder and editor, for more than 20 years, of the Human Rights book series through the University of Pennsylvania Press.
“Many of the most hotly debated political issues in U.S. society today — issues such as capital punishment, same-sex marriage, racial profiling, immigrant rights and reproductive rights — can and are being considered, not only through the framework of U.S. constitutional law, but also through the lens of international human rights,” said Duschinski. “That’s why we’re so pleased that Professor Lockwood will be addressing this critically important topic in his Constitution Day lecture.”
In addition to his scholarly expertise in the field of human rights, Lockwood maintains active and extensive involvement with human rights organizations and advocates around the world, including serving a three-year term on the board of directors of Amnesty International, USA. He also has served on advisory committees for a number of academic institutions, including the Board of Overseers of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut, and he co-founded the International Human Rights Education Consortium, a project that focused on undergraduate human rights education and curricula.
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