School Notes: Yale Law School
November/December 2014

SELA celebrates 20th anniversary in Peru

Leading scholars and lawyers from North and South America gathered in Lima, Peru, in June to celebrate the 20th meeting of the Seminar in Latin America on Constitutional and Political Theory (SELA). SELA is an annual seminar that brings together scholars from South America and the United States to present and discuss scholarly papers. SELA was created in 1995 to help deepen the understanding of complex theoretical issues, to model a more discussion-oriented form of intellectual discourse than is the norm in Latin America, and to create a venue for the formation of a professional community. This year’s seminar featured panels examining the politics of economics, social rights, free speech, and the constitution. YLS professors Owen Fiss and Robert Burt ’64LLB, two of SELA’s founders, presented their recent work, with Professor Fiss discussing the Modern Democratic State and Equality and Community and Professor Burt discussing the Dignity of the Individual Spirit and the Constitution in Conflict. 

Liman report prompts congressional action

A report by the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School that exposed the consequences of extensive delays to planned renovations at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury prompted 11 US senators—including Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal ’73JD and Chris Murphy—to release a letter to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) seeking an updated timetable for the stalled work. In 2013, the BOP announced plans to transfer more than 1,000 female inmates from Danbury, many to a new facility in Alabama. At that time, the BOP planned to provide no beds at Danbury for low-security female inmates, leaving no facility for low-security women from the northeast to be close to home. Facing strong opposition from legislators, former inmates, judges, and advocates, the BOP reconsidered its decision and announced that it would construct a new facility for women in Danbury. Originally scheduled to take 18 months, the timeline has been extended to 30 months but the bureau has not released details on its construction plans, raising concerns that the timeline could slip even further. Meanwhile, women have been transferred to facilities—including jails in Philadelphia and Brooklyn—where they report challenging conditions and a lack of legal resources and rehabilitation programs, including residential drug treatment.