Seminars

Sheila D. Collins will discuss her forthcoming book, White Conspiracy in the Mississippi Delta: The Trials and Triumph of Eddie James Carthan to be published by the University Press of Mississippi later this year. It tells the dramatic story of a young Black mayor, among the first to be elected since Reconstruction in a biracial town in the Mississippi Delta, who was railroaded out of office in the early 1980s by white supremacists. Because he refused to be the white power structure’s “good little boy,” he was subjected to a four-year period of harassment designed to make his governing impossible. When he still refused to bow, he was framed on four felony charges, one of which was capital murder. This book relates the gripping tale of prosecutorial misconduct in post-Civil Rights Mississippi and the dramatic multiracial civil and human rights campaign that rallied to Carthan’s defense. Collins takes the readers into the Mississippi Delta, the heart of the Old South, a land of fierce contradictions and dark secrets, where the appearance of racial progress hides widespread political corruption and where America’s “original sin” is dressed up in new clothes.

The panel will briefly explore what is next for the rules and norms associated with the existing “world order”; in particular, whether the current attack on Iran, the earlier one on Venezuela, and the extrajudicial killings of alleged drug traffickers indicate that we are moving toward a new era of “gunboat diplomacy,” with serious implications for the rules governing the use of force, sovereignty and intervention, and the humanitarian enterprise. In addressing these issues, panelists will also explore whether there are elements in these recent developments that might, paradoxically, open up possibilities for the human rights discourse.

This presentation will examine challenges and opportunities presented by emerging technology in the field of international criminal law. Specifically, we will discuss methodological adaptations required for international accountability institutions to survive, and even embrace, the contemporary “deluge” of digital data. Moving beyond surface-level legal debates over admissibility, we will discuss operational and methodological shifts in the field, including the importance of interdisciplinary perspectives and the danger of looking only through the lens of “tech.” By exploring the transition from traditional fact-finding to the management of "archives of archives," the presentation will address theoretical possibilities and pragmatic realities of evidence collection, preservation, analysis, and sharing in our digital age.

Prainha do Canto Verde is a small fishing community located on the Atlantic coast of Brazil’s Northeastern state of Ceará. It is one of 28 traditional communities recognized under the Brazilian constitution. This means, among other things, that its rights to communal land ownership are protected. Brazil’s 1988 constitution is provisional in relation to the rights of traditional communities, however. Its provisions must be affirmed or may be modified by congress if not protected in court. The community of Prainha do Canto Verde is presently under siege. Local and foreign investors are attempting to purchase properties of individual residents to build a resort catering to tourists. The community organization has asked members of the law school of the Federal University of Ceará to prepare a report on the history of land ownership in Brazil and of their specific history, legal and human rights, and struggle for legal protection. The presentation will elaborate on the report and discuss options available requesting input from seminar members.