The Council sponsored a lecture on Article XII by visiting Law Professor Rose C. Villazor on the evening of 7 July.
The lecture, entitled "Article XII, Claims to Culture and Political Rights: the race vs. Political Identity Dilemma," discussed the legal, historical and cultural relationships between Article XII of the CNMI Constitution and other "blood quantum property laws" in American Samoa, Hawaii and other jurisdictions and situate them in constitutional jurisprudence.
Professor Villazor makes a point during her lecture.
The lecture was based in part on an article that Professor Villazor published in the California Law Review and explains the ways in which blood quantum laws are examined under contemporary equal protection doctrine.
In particular, Professor Villazor discussed the U.S. Supreme Court's approach to analyzing blood quantum laws under either a race or political constitution paradigm.
This binary framework, Professor Villazor argued, fails to addres competing yet equally important issues of equality, liberty and political rights that relate to land ownership in formerly colonized territories.
An overflow crowd of approximately 120 listened to the 40 minute lecture and then participated in a lively question and answer session that followed.
Professor Villazor, a former Saipan resident and 1991 graduate of Mount Carmel High School, is an associate professor of law at Hostra University Law School.
She received her J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law and her LL.M. from Columbia University.
The lecture was a part of the Council's continuing efforts to provide the community with information on Article XII from a variety of viewpoints. Read a newspaper account of the lecture here.
Genevieve Cabrera poses a question on Article XII.
The lecture drew a full house at Visitors Center Theater.