Thomas H. Speedy Rice

Talk Title: Cultural Norms and the Export of the W&L Honor System

Monday, October 19, 2020, 5:00 pm

Prof. Rice is currently a Professor of Practice at Washington & Lee School of Law’s Transnational Law Institute in Lexington, VA. He designed, and is currently teaching, practicum courses that are assisting the defense support services of the International Criminal Court and the Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, another with W&L Law and four law schools in Ukraine promoting anti-corruption education using the UN Convention Against Corruption and a third in Serbia on the European Court of Human Rights. Recent other international practicums that Prof. Rice designed and formally taught are Legal Aid and Access to Justice in Liberia, in Palestine and in Albania as well as a practicum assisting the Defense Support Section in the Extraordinary Chamber of the Courts of Cambodia. Prof. Rice is internationally recognized for his work in international legal reforms, Human Rights, specifically access to legal aid in criminal matters, in the fight against the death penalty, and teaching in international legal education reform. His collaborative legal education Practicums and clinics are acknowledged as academically and technologically innovative.

From September 2002 to January 2004, Prof. Rice was a Fulbright Scholar in human rights and legal education reform to the Law Faculty of the University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Serbia and Montenegro. Professor Rice has taught and lectured at numerous international schools and programs, including Albania, China, Hungary, Italy, Liberia, Palestine, Ukraine and 30 other countries. He was on the UNODC working group drafting the UN Principles and Guidelines for Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems. He is an acknowledged contributor to the UNODC publication on “Early access to legal aid in criminal justice processes: a handbook for policymakers and practitioners” as well as the recently released UNODC publication “Model Law on Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems with Commentaries.” Prof. Rice regularly engaged in planning and participating in the international conferences arising out of the UN Principles and Guidelines and in the implementation and teaching of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

He has tried cases in U.S. State and Federal courts and argued appellate cases before a number of American courts including briefing and arguing before United States Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and the New Mexico Supreme Court.