Sharing American political and judicial expertise overseas

Cornell Clayton, director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University, is helping developing democracies thrive.

Recipient of a  Fulbright Senior Specialist award for a three-week visit to Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, Clayton held a series of lectures for graduate and undergraduate students focusing on contemporary American politics, constitutional law and politics, and social science methodology. He also met individually with junior faculty to help advise on their research and publication efforts.

“Whenever one teaches students in other countries it always brings fresh perspective to familiar ideas and concepts,” said Clayton, the Claudius and Mary Johnson distinguished professor of political science at WSU. “Working with scholars and judges who encounter similar issues in this central European region will enrich my research and teaching about courts and justice.”

In a separate series of events funded by the U.S. State Department, Clayton and David Campbell, senior U.S. district judge for Arizona and chair of the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Committee on International Judicial Relations, conducted workshops for Slovakian judges and law professors. 

The sessions were part of a conference on the rule of law and were designed to help promote greater understanding of the role of judges in different types of democracies and how to improve legal education.

The two also presented on the role of courts in the protection of human rights at the 25th Human Rights Olympiad 2023 in Omsen, Slovakia.

Additionally, Clayton met with the vice president of the Slovakian Constitutional Court,  Ľuboš Szigeti, and with court advisors in Kosice, Slovakia, to discuss judicial administration and matters related to judicial ethics.

This was Clayton’s third Fulbright award and a long-awaited opportunity as it was put on hold during the coronavirus pandemic. Originally scheduled for spring 2020, his trip concluded in early May. 

The U.S. Fulbright program operates in more than 140 countries, sending American faculty members, scholars and professionals abroad to lecture and conduct research to increase mutual understanding across the globe.

By Juli Wasson, College of Arts and Sciences