Event in Kolkata: The US Death Penalty on the World’s Stage

The National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata will host Susan Karamanian from the George Washington University law school on the 26th of February (from 4 to 6 pm in Room 006 of Ambedkar Bhavan). She is the Associate Dean for International and Comparative Legal Studies.

Her talk titled “The US Death Penalty on the World’s Stage” will examine the effect of legal developments outside of the United States on the US death penalty. Three developments frame her remarks:

1. The decisions of the International Court of Justice concerning US obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations;

2. The application of domestic and international standards in the extradition process when the accused faces a death eligible offense in the United States; and

3. The use of foreign law and international norms to interpret the US Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

She will argue that these developments establish a marked contrast between the United States and nearly the rest of the civilized world on the death penalty. And, remarkably, as she will also establish, these developments have had a profound effect in the United States on critical issues such as the type of individuals eligible for the death penalty and the legal process they are afforded.”

For those interested, here is her profile from the GW website:

“Dean Karamanian joined the Law School in 2000, after a 14-year career at Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, LLP in Dallas, Texas. While in private practice, Dean Karamanian represented foreign and domestic clients in a variety of commercial disputes. She also maintained an active pro bono docket, in which she represented inmates on Texas death row in their post-conviction appeals.

Dean Karamanian was vice-president of the American Society of International Law from 1996 to 1998, and has served in many leadership capacities in the society. She is a member of the board of the Center for American and International Law, the Texas Appleseed Foundation, the Washington Foreign Law Society, and the Friends of the Law Library of Congress.

Dean Karamanian is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Council on Germany and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Texas Bar Foundation.”

All are welcome to attend her talk. The campus of NUJS is located in Salt Lake, Sector III, very close to the Beleghata bypass. Key landmarks are the National Institute of Fashion Technology [NIFT] and the College of Engineering and Leather Technology.

Unfortunately, the current NUJS website is not fully functional. But this wikipedia entry should give you some idea of this institution.

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