Destroying Words in the Name of Art
With all eyes on Egypt, it is easy to forget that the Arab Spring began when Tunisian protesters brought down the government of their 23-year president in 2011. In April, 16 students and faculty of the Constitutional Transitions Clinic traveled to a University of Tunis El Manar conference to present their research on aspects of emerging democracies and later engaged with the nation’s political actors, including Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki. For the students, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience: “How many people can say they were able to ask the president of Tunisia for his reflections on the revolution and the constitutional transition in general?” said Cenobar Parker LLM ’13. Alex Kerchner ’14 added, “It is one thing to research these issues from New York from an academic perspective, and entirely another to meet with Tunisians who clearly had a large stake in the ultimate
resolution of these issues, and who posed pointed and directed inquiries because they believe the answers will greatly affect their lives moving forward.” The clinic, led by Sujit Choudhry, Cecelia Goetz Professor of Law, and Katy Glenn Bass, is assisting its client, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), by providing support for constitutional transitions across the Middle East and North Africa in Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Jordan. “Our students did an extremely good job in presenting their work to an expert Tunisian audience, and received valuable feedback that will enable them to sharpen their reports,” Choudhry said. “Our highlevel meetings are a testament to the importance of our project with International IDEA to support constitutional transitions in the region.”
“Our appetite for punishment… has made the demand…for lawyers much greater than…we’ve been able to meet. The situation for poor people in the criminal justice system is much, much worse today than it was in 1963.” bryan stevenson Moyers & Company, March 29, 2013 “Evening the Odds in American Justice”
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Stevenson: Dale Robbins / Moyers & Company
Springtime in Tunis
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Shingira Masanzu LLM ’13, Cenobar Parker LLM ’13, and Marzieh Darian LLM ’13 i n Sidi Bou Said, a picturesque town in northern Tunisia.
What happens when trimming a written work literally involves a pair of scissors? Amy Adler, Emily Kempin Professor of Law, would argue that the end result is art. Adler published an article in the California Law Review taking issue with a body of “moral rights” law that gives visual artists the right to protect the integrity of their creations, even when they are owned by others. Adler states in her article “Against Moral Rights” (which was excerpted in the 2010 issue of NYU Law magazine) that moral rights laws “endanger art in the name of protecting it.” It is her belief that modifying, or even destroying, works of art is essential to artistic expression and creativity. To practice what she preaches, Adler distributed four bound copies of “Against Moral Rights,” along with a pair of scissors, to students in her Art Law class. The students applied lipstick kisses to the article, spilled drinks on it, cut it up, drew on it, folded it, wrote on it, added objects, and crossed out some portions. The end result became a part of “Art and Law Codex” by artist and lawyer Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento and was displayed at the Independent Curators International Hub as “Cut Piece(2) by Amy Adler and 109 Art Law students.”