Speaker: Jim Goldston, Executive Director of Open Society Justice Initiative

The Open Society Justice Initiative uses law to protect and empower people around the world, supporting the values and work of the Open Society Foundations. Through litigation, advocacy, research, and technical assistance, it strives to secure legal remedies for human rights abuses, and promote effective enforcement of the rule of law. James A. Goldston, the Executive Director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, will discuss cases embarked on by the Open Society Justice Initiative and will draw on his global legal experience to reflect on what the Open Society Justice Initiative has learned comparatively about the impact of litigation to advance rights.

James A. Goldston is the Executive Director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, which advances the rule of law and legal protection of rights worldwide through advocacy, litigation, research, and the promotion of legal capacity. A leading practitioner of international human rights and criminal law, Goldston has litigated several groundbreaking cases before the European Court of Human Rights and United Nations treaty bodies, including on issues of torture, counterterrorism, and racial discrimination. In 2007–08, he served as coordinator of prosecutions and senior trial attorney in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. Prior to Open Society, James Goldston was the legal director of the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre; director general for human rights of the Mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; and prosecutor in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he focused on organized crime.

Goldston graduated from Columbia College and Harvard Law School and has taught at Columbia Law School and Central European University.

Kosher pizza will be served.