The Catholic University of America

THE PUBLIC POLICY FORUM

The Law and Public Policy Program hosts the Public Policy Forum, a series of seminars on a wide range of public policy issues. Recent forums have addressed these topics:

Advocating for Corporate Responsibility

Creating Policy Change Through Pro Bono Work

Diversity on Higher Education: Michigan, CUA & Beyond

Documentary Film: "Super Chief: The Life and Legacy of Earl Warren"

Expanding the Human Rights Agenda: International Advocacy for People with Mental Disabilities

Human Rights and Police Brutality
Affirmative Action in Higher Education
Sale of Women into Prostitution in Russia
Preventing School Violence: Reflections on Littleton
The D.C. Child Welfare System
Protesting the School of the Americas
Has Labor Law Sold Out the American Worker?
International Law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
D.C. Politics and Government
The History of School Desegregation in America
The President and the Independent Counsel
School Improvement through Federal Aid
The Role of Law in International Development
The Problems of Roma People in Europe

Lawyering for Congress

Lawyers, Conscience and Nonviolence

Legal Strategies to End Homelessness

Representing Suspected Terrorists: A Conversation with Frank Dunham

The Presidential Pardon- What is it and how does it work?

The Trafficking of Persons

Why do Kids become School Shooters?

The forum provides an informal seminar setting in which lawyers and experts in other fields come to the law school to talk about the policy issues that are the focus of their professional work. For example, a D.C. lawyer named Gillian Caldwell came to talk about the sale of women into prostitution in Russia. She worked for a small nonprofit organization called the Global Survival Network (GSN), which had set up an undercover operation in Moscow to investigate the process by which young women were recruited for attractive jobs in other countries and then coerced into prostitution. Caldwell showed a film produced by GSN on the problem and talked about the process of seeking law reform and law enforcement to combat this problem. One student in the Program became a summer intern at GSN that year and later published an article about trafficking in women in Russia.

THE LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY SOCIETY

The Law and Public Policy Society was established in 1994 by the students in the Law and Public Policy Program as a way of bringing together those in the law school community who share an interest in the broad area of public policy. The LPP Society, which is open to the entire law school community, sponsors brown bag discussions and receptions featuring congressional staffers, alumni and other members of the political and legal community in Washington.

STUDENTS FOR PUBLIC INTEREST LAW

Students for Public Interest Law (SPIL), founded in 1989, is an Associate Member of the National Association for Public Interest Law (NAPIL). While the law school and its students have continually demonstrated commitment to providing legal services in the public interest, SPIL was organized to further this commitment.

SPIL has one fundamental goal: to provide funding for those students who choose to spend their summers giving legal assistance to the public. SPIL is an organization open to all students. It welcomes students who not only choose to pursue job opportunities in public interest, but also those who recognize the need for the essential services provided by public interest attorneys. The organization derives its unique character from the diversity of the students involved, all of whom share in the law school's tradition of public service.

LAW JOURNALS
LPP students have held editorial posts on one of the three law journals published at CUA.

Catholic University Law Review

Commlaw Conspectus: Journal of Communications Law and Policy

Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy

MOOT COURT COMPETITIONS