Humanities & Society

Attorney General William Barr announced July 15 a new Trump Administration plan, effective the next day, barring Central American immigrants from seeking asylum in the United States unless they seek it first in other Central American countries, a move that a Washington University in St. Louis immigration expert says “violates the clear language of the law.”

Two students in John Inazu’s first-year “Criminal Law” class embodied the lessons taught during the class about theories of punishment, questions of whether criminal justice can remedy injustice and issues of equity in sentencing.

The Supreme Court’s June 27 decision to kill all federal constitutional complaints about partisan gerrymandering is a tremendous loss for our democratic process, says a constitutional law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

The U.S. Justice Department has narrowed its interpretation of the foreign emoluments clause, allowing foreign countries to court President Donald Trump through patronizing his hotels, condos and golf courses and through granting him trademarks, suggests a new article by ethics expert Kathleen Clark of Washington University in St. Louis.

The Trump Administration announced the U.S. will deny or revoke visas for International Criminal Court staff, a move aimed at deterring a potential investigation by the court into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The decision represents a rejection of the international rule of law, said Leila Sadat, director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute.

Stephen Legomsky, an immigration law expert at Washington University in St. Louis, comments on the Feb. 15 announcement of a state of emergency by President Donald Trump. “This much is crystal clear,” he said. “There is no national security emergency at the southern border.”

As part of its work on gun violence and human rights, the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University in St. Louis has submitted comments to the United Nations Human Rights Committee ahead of the group’s periodic review of the United States, urging stronger action on gun violence.

Now, Lidong Pan, LLM ’04, is a managing partner at a Chinese law firm, where he excels at dealing with international clients. He says it’s in part thanks to the education and practical experience he got through Washington University.

The legality, let alone the wisdom, of closing the southern border amid a partial government shutdown is called into question by Stephen Legomsky, an immigration-law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.