3/03/03--The keynote speaker for the annual Owen M. Kupferschmid Holocaust/Human Rights Project (HHRP) memorial lecture at the law school will be T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Georgetown University law professor and senior associate at the Migration Policy Institute. Professor Aleinikoff's talk, entitled, "Human Rights, Citizenship and Popular Sovereignty: U.S. Commitment and Confusion," will examine the relationship of U.S. concepts of popular sovereignty and citizenship to the acceptance of international human rights norms in the United States. The lecture will take place in the East Wing, room 120, on March 24, 2003, at 4 p.m.

"This event is an important component of our growing emphasis on human rights law at BC Law," said Professor Daniel Kanstroom, faculty advisor to HHRP. "Professor Aleinikoff has long been internationally recognized as one of the most important scholars in the fields of immigration and citizenship law. His recent work on the relationship between U.S. concepts of popular sovereignty and citizenship and international human rights norms is both path-breaking and highly relevant to many contemporary issues, such as the detention of so-called "unlawful combatants," increasingly harsh treatment of many non-citizens within the U.S., and the policies of the new Department of Homeland Security. The lecture should be of great interest not only to scholars but to anyone interested in the constraints that human rights law may place upon U.S. government actions."

Professor Aleinikoff has published numerous articles in the areas of immigration, race, statutory interpretation, and constitutional law. His most recent scholarship includes Semblances of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship (Harvard University Press 2002); Citizenship Policies for An Age of Migration (with Douglas Klusmeyer); Immigration: Process and Policy (with David Martin and Hiroshi Motomura); and Modern Constitutional Theory: A Reader (with John Garvey).

Named for its founder, a 1986 law school graduate, the Owen M. Kupferschmid Holocaust/Human Rights Project helps to ensure that the precedential value of Holocaust-related law is fully realized and applied to state-sponsored human rights violations today. The project also organizes major conferences to address specific legal issues related to the Holocaust and other human rights violations, such as the annual Kupferschmid lecture.