Puerto Rico: The Unspoken Challenge to the United States

CLEVELAND: Dr. Efrén Rivera Ramos, dean and professor of law at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, will be speaking on relations between the United States and Puerto Rico at noon on Friday, November 17, 2006, at The City Club of Cleveland.

Ramos has written extensively on the constitutional and political relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including the influential book The Legal Construction of Identity: The Judicial and Social Legacy of American Colonialism in Puerto Rico.

As a lawyer Ramos has dedicated his professional life mostly to public interest litigation and providing services to low-income clients through the Puerto Rico Legal Services Corporation, Legal Project of the Inter-Regional Council for the Defense of Haitian Refugees, and Legal Aid Clinic of the University of Puerto Rico. He has been president of the board of directors of the Puerto Rican Institute for Civil Rights and secretary of the board of the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of Penal Reform International.

In 2006, Ramos was awarded the Deborah L. Rhode Award, granted by the American Association of Law Schools, for outstanding work in the promotion of access to justice from a position in legal education. He is currently vice president and secretary of the General Council of the University of Puerto Rico Press, vice president of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists, and a member of the Program Committee of the International Association of Law Schools.

This Forum is in partnership with the Cuyahoga Community College and the United Church of Christ.

Tickets for this City Club Friday Forum are $18 for members and $30 for non-members. Lunch is included. Reservations are required at least 24 hours in advance of the event. They can be purchased by calling The City Club at 216.621.0082 or visiting the website at www.cityclub.org.