Last lecture in Spring 2011 Faculty Lecture Series held on April 12

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Teri L. Skillman-Kashyap, (808) 956-8688
Events & Communications Coordinator, Library Services
Posted: Mar 17, 2011

Oahu Ceded Lands
Oahu Ceded Lands
The final lecture in the Spring 2011 Faculty Lecture Series, Ke Ala Pono: The Path of Justice, will be held in UH Mānoa's Hamilton Library lecture room 301 at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12. Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie, associate professor and Director of Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, will give the lecture.  Admission free and refreshments will provided.  The doors open at 3:15 p.m.
 
The recent decisions of the Hawai'i Supreme Court show a willingness to open the courts to the Native Hawaiian community and to consider long-standing historical claims to lands and natural resources. In this talk, MacKenzie will analyze the most recent decisions by the Court impacting the "ceded" lands trust, the Hawaiian Home Lands trust, and Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights. She will also examine several cases working their way through the courts that could have a profound effect on the development of Native Hawaiian law.
 
After receiving her law degree, MacKenzie served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William S. Richardson of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court. She then joined the staff of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, a public interest law firm protecting and advancing the rights of Native Hawaiians, and served as NHLC’s Executive Director and as a senior staff attorney.  MacKenzie is project coordinator and chief editor for the second edition of the Native Hawaiian Rights Handbook, which she originally edited and helped to write, and is a contributor to the 2005 Edition of Felix S. Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law. She has worked on cases asserting Hawaiian traditional and customary rights, dealing with land issues, and defending the constitutionality of Hawaiian programs. MacKenzie teaches Native Hawaiian Rights, the Native Hawaiian Rights Clinic, and Second-Year Seminar.
 
The Faculty Lecture Series is presented by the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, the Office of Research Relations, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library.  

For more information, visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/calendar/uh/2011/04/12/14831.html