STUDENTS GO TO SUPREME COURT FOR LESSON IN LAW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 1997
Fairbanks, Alaska - When Erik Girvan enrolled in International Law at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, he thought his classroom was in the Gruening Building. Two months into the semester, Girvan found himself in class at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Girvan and nine other classmates traveled to Washington D.C. this spring to hear arguments on U.S. v. Alaska (1997), a decade-long dispute between the state and federal government over submerged lands in Stefansson Sound, located just off the coast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and adjacent to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The state and federal government have generated more than $1.4 billion from leases within the disputed waters during the past decade while the case has wound its way through the courts. Now that revenue, and the right to future leasing and development, hinge upon the Supreme Court's decision in the case, due out some time in mid-summer.
"This case is pretty important in connection with oil development on the North Slope," Girvan said. "Traveling to the Supreme Court to hear arguments personalized our class instruction. We realized that there are actually people behind this huge and amazing institution called international law."
That was exactly what UAF political science assistant professor Karen Erickson wanted her students to bring back from the five-day trip. According to Erickson, principles in the case are based on maritime boundaries and Arctic policy, which have a foundation in international law.
Erickson says she emphasizes the importance of providing students with a creative and current curriculum. "It is especially vital in international affairs today to ensure that Alaskan students have opportunities that their counterparts elsewhere experience by their mere proximity to major decision-making arenas."
It's rare that a U.S. Supreme Court case involving Alaska would coincide with a course being taught at UAF. "I simply did not want to let this chance go by without doing something about it for my class," Erickson said. The most difficult part was arranging reserved seats for an entire class at the Supreme Court. "I had to persuade the Marshal of the Court that Alaskan students, if anyone, belonged in the audience of this case," she said.
Students earned their way to the Supreme Court through focused research in maritime law and by reviewing more than 500 pages of briefs for the case. The first two days of the trip were spent on red-eye flights across the U.S., working by day at law libraries in Seattle and Washington, D.C.
While in the Capitol, the students also had briefings on current issues in international law, including the prosecution of war crimes involving the former Yugoslavia, the Chemical Weapons Convention, U.S. arctic policy, fisheries and maritime boundaries.
After hearing oral arguments by U.S. and Alaska attorneys in the Supreme Court, the students had a personal audience with Justice Stephen Breyer.
Funding for trip came in part from the students' own contributions,
the UA Foundation and the UAF Provost's Office.
CONTACT: UAF Political Science Assistant Professor Karen Erickson,
(907) 474-6503, or Jillian Swope,
University Relations, (907) 474-7778.
UAF News releases available electronically at:
http://www.uaf.edu/univrel/media/index.html
JCS/4-9-97/97-072