September 11, 2013 – NEW YORK, NY – Cardozo School of Law has appointed the first Telford Taylor International Human Rights Clinical Teaching Fellow. Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, a Cornell Law School graduate and former Women and Justice Fellow for the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School, was the first person appointed to the position earlier this summer. She will serve for the 2013-2014 academic year, teaching in the Human Rights and Genocide Clinic.
The Telford Taylor Teaching Fellow will advance the work of the human rights clinic, supervising students in clinical case projects and developing new and deeper partnerships with NGOs, international criminal tribunals, and the UN.
“It’s very meaningful for Cardozo to have a fellowship in the name of Telford Taylor,” said Dean Matthew Diller. “He was both a giant in the field of human rights and played a key role in building our law school. It is an additional honor that the gift that made this possible comes from Ben Ferencz, who has devoted his life to promoting human rights and the rule of law.”
Telford Taylor was a member of the founding faculty at Cardozo Law, taught a course titled The Law of War, and helped design the human rights program at the school. Taylor is best know as the chief counsel for the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, which established the legal base for crimes against humanity. A professor at Columbia Law School in the 1960s, Taylor was an important critic of the war in Vietnam.
The fellowship is sponsored by a generous grant from Benjamin Ferencz, who worked with Taylor as a young lawyer on the Nuremberg Trials. Ferencz prosecuted 22 German officers at Nuremberg for murdering over one million people. He has played a pivotal role in the development of an international justice movement, dedicating his life to using the law to end war, especially in the adoption of the international criminal court.
The Human Rights and Genocide Clinic provides an opportunity for Cardozo students to represent individuals seeking asylum, as well as individuals and institutional clients in international human rights case projects. The Clinic provides students with first-hand experience in the range of activities and the diverse ways the law is utilized to promote social change.
Professor Sheri Rosenberg, assistant clinical professor of law, is the director of the Human Rights and Genocide Clinic and the director of the Program in Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies.
For more information contact:
John DeNatale
Assistant Dean of Communications
212.790.0237