Weekly Blog #8

This week I have truly ventured out of my comfort zone in regards to my research. I have not only begun to analyze specific human rights violation cases, but I have learned to draw connections between United States law and international law.

This week, I have mainly focused on a recent case involving a man from Kenya, named James Gatdet, who was unlawfully transferred from Kenya to South Sudan, and charged with abetment, treason, publishing false statements prejudicial to Southern Sudan, and undermining authority of the President, under the South Sudan Penal Code of 2008.

After reading multiple international human rights violations and articles published by the United Nations and Amnesty International, I have made detailed connections, between the administration of international law, and the administration of United States law. This is due to the fact that I am currently taking a course entitled Survey of Government and Public Administration, which provides an in-depth analysis of United States government, law and litigation. Therefore, I am able to create connections between certain trends in laws and treaties enforced by the United Nations, other countries, and the United States.

After this week, I have learned that it is essential for an international lawyer to be able to draw connections and find similarities and differences between specific treaties, laws and acts of different countries around the world. This skill will become highly valuable when litigating a =n international human rights case.

I feel that this week I have demonstrated strengths in synthesizing research material, with previous knowledge and inferences. However I felt that I may have experienced difficulty in connecting international law to other foreign types of law, simply due to the fact that I have not experienced an in-depth course analyzing international law.

Overall, I feel that I have broadened my research capabilities and application of critical thinking this week to a great extent. I hope to continue this trend in future research endeavors concerning my topic of study.