NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Constitution building and reconstruction in Iraq
will be the subject of a Vanderbilt University Law School symposium
beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 23. The two speakers, Judge Gilbert
S. Merritt and Kevin Reinhart, each spent time working in Iraq in the
summer of 2003.
Merritt, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth
Circuit, will speak about his experiences in Baghdad last summer in his
speech "Constitution Building in Iraq." Merritt was part of a 13-member
Justice Department delegation that was in Iraq to assess the country’s
legal infrastructure and make recommendations about what sort of system
of justice could be implemented there.
From 1989 to 1996, Merritt was chief judge with the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He is former chairman of the Executive
Committee of Judicial Conference of the United States and former
chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on International Judicial Relations.
He also was United States attorney for the Middle District of
Tennessee. Merritt, who taught law at Vanderbilt and was assistant dean
in the early 1960s, is now an adjunct faculty member.
Reinhart, associate professor of religion at Dartmouth College, will
speak about his experiences aiding reconstruction in southern Iraq. In
his speech "Reconstructing Iraq: What are the Chances?" he will share
his impressions of the work being done by the Coalition Provisional
Authority, the military and the non-governmental organizations, and the
effects of that work on Iraqi society.
In Iraq, Reinhart worked for three months with the International
Rescue Committee directing an International Organization of
Migration-funded grant to set up an internally displaced persons (IDPs)
citizen information and services center in Karbala. His group surveyed
the Karbala area for IDPs, then provided water services, legal services
and protection to about 100,000 displaced people.
A specialist in Islamic religious studies, Reinhart has lived over
11 years in various parts of the Islamic world and has written
extensively on Islamic legal theory and ritual practice.
The presentations by Merritt and Reinhart will be followed by a
question and answer session and a reception with the speakers. The
event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Flynn
Auditorium at the Law School, 131 21st Ave. S. It is sponsored by the
Hyatt Fund, the Foreign Service Legal Society and the American
Constitution Society.
For more information about Vanderbilt, please visit the News Service homepage at www.vanderbilt.edu/News. More information on the Law School can be found at http://law.vanderbilt.edu/.
Media contact: Susanne Loftis, (615) 322-NEWS
Susanne.loftis@vanderbilt.edu