Owning ASFA

As New York and many other jurisdictions struggle to comply with the timelines of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), the experiences of the Expedited Permanency Part of the New York City Model Court under the direction of Judge Sara Schechter may provide helpful approaches for overcoming unnecessary delays and obstacles. Despite resistance to change, scarce resources, and a shortage of attorneys for indigent respondents, the New York City Model Court has been able to implement ASFA without sacrificing due process in the handling of child protective and permanency proceedings. Some of these strategies include extensive case conferencing, the use of specially trained conference facilitators, time‐certain appointments, and compliance reviews conducted by a referee. The New York City Model Court has found that integrating these new approaches has markedly improved the permanency outcomes for the children within its jurisdiction. Innovations piloted in the New York City Model Court are being replicated throughout the five boroughs of the city.     

The Development and Contribution of the Case-law of the Inter-American of Court of Human Rights

It is with particular satisfaction that I accede to the invitation to write this Preface to Dr. Gu Shengkai's book "International Human Rights Law: Inter-American Theory and Practice". I first met Dr. Gu Shengkai at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, on 09 December 2002, when I there delivered a public lecture, at the Human Rights Law Centre of its School of Law, on "Recent Developments in the Case-Law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights". Ever since his successful completion at that University, Dr. Gu Shengkai pursued patiently his line of research on the subject-matter of his present book. The outcome of his research, his present book, gives testimony of all his endeavours in examining the subject in a proper perspective.