"Experienced lawyers lead the way"

From Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, an interview with Jean Berman, executive director of the International Senior Lawyers Project:

We've done a number of projects involving assisting criminal defense lawyers for the poor. In Eastern Europe we sent lawyers to Bulgaria, Lithuania, Mongolia and Ukraine to help set up the first public defender offices there. We also work with an organization called International Bridges to Justice ("IBJ"), which trains defense lawyers in China. We sent a career public defender from Minnesota to work with IBJ for three months in the fall of 2008 to help train lawyers working in the juvenile justice system...

I'm rapidly approaching senior status myself. Fortunately, I'm very immature for my age.

A Happy Christmas to all

Let the just rejoice,
for their Justifier is born.
Let the sick and infirm rejoice,
For their Savior is born.
Let the captives rejoice,
For their Redeemer is born.
Let slaves rejoice,
for their Master is born.
Let free men rejoice,
For their Liberator is born.
Let all Christians rejoice,
For Jesus Christ is born.

- St. Augustine (AD 354-440)

Mauerfall

O welche Lust, in freier Luft
Den Atem leicht zu heben!

"Oh what joy to breathe freely
in the open air!"

Polako, polako!

Innovative law enforcement idea from Slovenia: cardboard cut-out policemen!Still a few bugs in the system...

Courtesy of The Glory of Carniola.

"The Lives of Others"

This weekend I watched "The Lives of Others" (Das Leben der Anderen), just out on DVD. Lead actor Ulrich Mühe, who died last month, drew from his craft and from his personal experience to completely inhabit the role of a Stasi man in the former East Germany. Imagine, living in a country where the state spies on its own citizens in the name of homeland security. Harder to imagine that one of the guys behind the wiretaps might have a change of heart. Watch the transformation - highly recommended.

Live from Ukraine, it's criminal defense

In the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv,

The typical criminal case commences when a suspect is "invited" to the police station in handcuffs...

... and things go downhill from there. An interesting look (with pictures) at post-Soviet criminal justice, aspects of which seem familiar on a bad day:

The defendant is then found guilty and the case is recessed... During this time... attempts to raise the proper inducements to encourage the authorities or the court to be lenient at sentencing...

From Ed and Susan's Adventures in The Ukraine, from a city called Kharkiv (Харків) in Ukrainian, Kharkov (Харьков) in Russian.

(see also Carpetblogger) (oh, and don't forget CEELI)

UZ to CEELI: c-ya

Uzbekistan's increasingly closed society is now off-limits to the American Bar Association's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI). Those of us daydreaming about being a criminal law liaison in Tashkent will have to pick a different destination.

UZBEKISTAN: Crackdown on international organisations continues

Tashkent court bans U.S. lawyers' NGO in Uzbekistan

News tip courtesy of JURIST.

Difficult clients ar lietuviskai / на русском

Three years after several Los Angeles-area business owners were kidnapped, suffocated and thrown into a reservoir, their alleged killers remain in custody awaiting trial (The case had a tangential connection to Twin Falls, Idaho, through one ex-USSR resident of Twin who's now doing federal time). Federal prosecutors say it could be a year before the death penalty trials of Iouri Mikhel, Jurijus Kadamovas and Petro Krylov, fine specimens of Homo Sovieticus all.

It's been a pretty interesting case of intrigue and very bad acts featuring some very scary bad guys. The Russian emigre community in L.A. has blamed the "Baltic Mafia". I'm just guessing here, but I imagine that the Baltic emigre community has blamed the "Russian Mafia."

I don't know Iouri Mikhel's national origin - I'd wager Moldova or the Moldavian SSR - though I read somewhere that he's very industrious.

Dale Rubin, a court-appointed attorney representing Mikhel, said he has not asked his client if he is guilty or innocent.

Well, would you?

(p.s.: liquidating your enemies worked up your thirst? Time for Leninade!)
(lv JD at Southern Appeal)