ALEP Annual Conference Brings Together Faculty and Students from Afghanistan and Stanford

Stanford Law School’s Afghanistan Legal Education (ALEP) held its annual conference this past September in Bangkok, Thailand. In Bangkok, ALEP students, faculty, and staff met and collaborated with students and faculty from the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF). Since 2007, ALEP has worked with AUAF to establish its Department of Law and BA-LLB degree program. ALEP students, with the guidance of AUAF faculty and Afghan legal experts, publish textbooks on Afghan law for use by AUAF’s students and individuals at other institutions across Afghanistan.

Conference participants from AUAF, who flew in from Kabul, presented on Afghanistan’s historical and political context, AUAF’s Department of Law and curriculum, and the AUAF student experience. Further, during the conference, AUAF faculty members lectured on Afghan law and advised ALEP students on the development of a new textbook for the “Introduction to Law” course. Faculty and students from both universities also discussed and laid the foundation for future programmatic collaborations. Eric Smith, a third year student at Stanford Law School and an active member of ALEP, said of the conference: “This year’s conference was an incredible experience. Working with our Afghan colleagues, I felt humbled to play my small part in the broader project.”

While in Bangkok, ALEP also visited the Chulalongkorn University Law School. At Chulalongkorn, ALEP students learned about the Thai legal education system, and presented on both the ALEP project and the American legal education system. Additionally, ALEP met with lawyers at the Thailand Institute of Justice and discussed lessons learned from the respective rule of law projects.

ALEP Annual Conference Brings Together Faculty and Students from Afghanistan and Stanford 1

Top photo: Kristina Alekseyeva, a second-year Stanford Law student, asks AUAF professors about the Afghan legal system

ALEP Annual Conference Brings Together Faculty and Students from Afghanistan and Stanford

Bottom photo: Sadaf Baseer discusses her experience as a student at AUAF