Weekend tourist activities

Nancy posing between statues showing respect by folded hands. Behind her in distance, statues stand for 2 kilometres

A group of Przewalski horses. Note foal nursing on the right side of group

We spent the weekend being tourists. On Saturday, we visited the Khustain  National Park, about 65 miles southwest of Ulan Baatar. It was really good to get away from the city, which suffers from severe air pollution. 

The park is famous for reintroducing the Przewalski horse, which had become extinct in the wild in the 1960s. Although the pro-Soviet  government had been suspicious of offers to reintroduce the horse to a wild, after the fall of Communism in 1990, the new government accepted the offers of conservationists to reintroduce the horse to its native Mongolia. 

We did a two hour hike to a local high point, to get some feel for the terrain, and were fortunate enough to see a number of the Przewalski horses on a drive through the park to see Turkic stone monuments from the seventh through ninth centuries. After lunch, we spent an hour riding local horses before the drive back home.

Nancy walking across steppe with cows in background

Panoramic of typical Mongolian landscape

Sunday we walked to the Winter Palace, home of the last religious leader of Mongolia, the Bogd Khan, the eighth Living Buddha and last King of Mongolia, who had been held captive by the Chinese overlords until Mongolia became independent, and then was declared the nominal leader of the country, until his death in 1924. From there we hiked by an 82 foot high Buddha, on our way to the Zaisan Memorial, constructed to the everlasting friendship of the Mongolian and Soviet peoples. The eternal flame to commemorate this friendship no longer burns.

Friday May 27

When I arrived at the office, Chimge told me that I needed to register with immigration, because I will be staying in the country for more than 30 days.  She arranged for CHRD's driver to take me to the immigration station at the airport, 11 miles from town. Nancy and I spent about three hours, being driven to and from the airport and waiting on lines and getting the requisite forms completed. The driver, Galaa, whom I expect to hire for future trips to the countryside, was invaluable, both for his ability to negotiate the incredibly anarchic Ulan Baatar traffic and in dealing with the immigration bureaucrats. 

In the morning, Chimge and I spent about two hours discussing the clinic, and case selection criteria. Under the Mongolian legal system, the plaintiff, in addition to filing a complaint, is responsible for presenting all of the relevant evidence, exclusive of oral testimony which is subject to cross-examination. Experts are apparently retained by the court, rather than by individual parties. There is no provision for pretrial discovery.

In talking to Chimge, I got the impression that there are no formal standards for the admissibility of evidence, and the question of what evidence will be considered is a matter of pure judicial discretion. Since I will be advising students on what evidence they should be gathering, I will also need to advise them as to what evidence is likely to be persuasive. Chimge was intrigued by the concept, common to the United States, of a law of evidence, and, particularly of a code, such as the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Thursday May 26

After the meeting with the students on Wednesday, Chimge had told me that she had to be in court Thursday, and did not expect to get to the office until about noon. She asked me to provide feedback on the grant program (the student clinic is being funded by the Australian government, and CHRD prepared a grant document, showing the expected goals, how success would be measured, and how the work might be continued after the expiration of the one-year grant). 

I spent a little more than an hour going through the document, which was in Word, inserted my comments and e-mailed it to Chimge at about 8 AM. Nancy and I went off sightseeing, to see the Gandan Monastery, and arrange for some weekend tours for the two weekends that Nancy will be here. 

The Gandan monastery is one of the most important monasteries in Mongolia and is also immediately adjacent to the Buddhist University, which confers Bachelors and Masters degrees. Its full name: Gandantegchinlen is approximately translated as "the great place of complete joy.” The principal attraction of the monastery is the Migjid Janraisig Sum (photograph attached) which houses a gold plated 82 foot high hollow statue, which was dedicated in 1996, and was built to replace an earlier statue, which was destroyed by the Soviets in 1937 as part of the anti-Buddhist repression. The new statue contains medicinal herbs, sutras, 2 million bundles of mantras and a furnished ger!

A stupa on the grounds of the Gandan monastery. Note the people walking clockwise around it, turning the prayer wheels as they walk.

The Migjid Janraisig Sum. The 82 foot high statue is inside - photographs not allowed.

I arrived at the office at 12 o'clock, intending to meet with Chimge, to discuss the next steps for the student clinic; in particular, case selection criteria, and the next session for the students. We are scheduled to meet with the 10 students every Wednesday: the students are divided into three groups, and each group meets twice a week, both to discuss the cases that they are reviewing (each group is reviewing two cases and will select one) and to counsel individuals who come to the clinic for pro bono legal assistance. 

However, Chimge did not arrive until about 1 PM, because the court proceeding ran longer than expected. When she arrived, she had a lot of work to catch up on and e-mails to respond to. Although we finally did start talking, briefly, about four o'clock, she was interrupted by a crisis that required immediate attention.

The day was very frustrating for me because I had nothing to do all day. I tried to read Mongolian statutes which is as dull as reading any statute (try to imagine reading the CPLR from cover to cover, with no prior knowledge of either New York State practice or  the American common law system and you may have some idea). 

First day in office - May 25

The CHRD office is a short walk from our apartment, no more than 200 yards. I arrived about 9:15 AM and set up my laptop computer on the desk that has been assigned to me. Although CHRD had a computer for my use, it will be much easier for me to use my own laptop, so I can access my sent and received e-mails,  save documents and work on them at home, have access to my own files, including my growing files on Mongolian law, and use my voice recognition software. 

Ms. Amarjargal, or “Amraa,”  a lawyer and the Coordinator  of CHRD's program opposing human trafficking invited me to a three-day conference, to be held June 9 – 12, to discuss the relevant issues. The American Bar Association has a full-time paid lawyer in Ulan Baatar, who provides legal assistance, and CHRD and the ABA are putting on a program to discuss how to prosecute cases in Mongolia, with an emphasis on proving "non-material"  damages. I was asked to make a presentation, and would be happy to do so, assuming there is something that I can contribute. 

Amraa speaks fluent English: she lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn  for three months under U.S. State Department sponsorship. We discussed issues pertaining to litigation strategies and how traffickers can be confronted. I hope to have a further and more extended conversation with her about these issues, and hope that my perspective, both as a US lawyer and as a former community and union organizer, may be of value.

On Thursday, I gave Amraa a copy of my book on the Alien Tort Statute,  in the hope that the  discussions of international law in my book may be of interest to her.

After lunch (someone went out to purchase khuushuurs – a pancake with meat and onions, very tasty but a little greasy - a fairly common lunch food), Chimge and myself, together with  Ms.Baigalimaa, or Baigali, whose title is Assistant Officer, met with the students in the clinic. I presented a brief introduction of myself, followed by a discussion of public interest litigation.

I divided public interest litigation into three general categories:  1) cases brought to achieve specific results, either financial compensation for the victim or a specific injunction, 2) impact litigation, to establish a specific principle (describing Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade, which I also used to illustrate the problems with litigation becoming moot, and 3) legal services for the indigent, regardless of whether the case had any public implications.  I also asked the students to consider the circumstances of General Electric's opposition to dredging of the Hudson River to remove PCBs, and generated a lively discussion as to whether a citizens group, funded by General Electric, which opposed the dredging because of the placement of the PCBs in a landfill was acting in the public interest.

None of the students spoke English: I was of course completely dependent on Chimge for translation, both of my statements, and also of the questions and comments from the students. I don't think Chimge translated what I said literally: sometimes she would allow me to speak for long enough (say a paragraph or two) that she could not have done a literal translation. Still, it seemed that the communication was effective, although a bit awkward. From what I could tell from facial expressions and body language, the students enjoyed my presentation, but, in the absence of any direct verbal communication, I cannot be sure.

Notes on blogging

This is my first experience with blogging, and I am still learning. Gradually, I am getting better at putting captions under photographs and arranging the text on the blog. I am also not sure of what the content of the blog should be, and any suggestions comments or criticisms would be welcome

A good friend of mine advised me that blogspot is a difficult interface, because prospective commenters have to register, and the registration process is time-consuming and discouraging. If this is a problem, and you want to post a comment, e-mail it to me and I will include it on the blog. This does give me some censorship power, but I promise not to use it unless it is necessary.

I generate text by writing posts as word files, using voice recognition software, and then cutting and pasting them into the posts. Since Internet access is spotty, and there is no way to save text while I am doing a post, there is a danger, and it has happened twice, that I have written a substantial amount of text which has been lost when Internet access was lost while I was working.

The use of voice-recognition software  also means that there may be occasional strange typographical mistakes: I try to edit them out, but occasionally miss something, especially if I am working late at night or very early in the morning.

prepation for initial meeting with law students

After selecting an apartment on Monday, we returned to the CHRD office, where we discussed the substantive work that I will be doing, particularly the law student clinical program that will be established for public interest litigation.  On Wednesday, we will meet the 10 students, whom I  understand have been divided into groups to review prospective cases. We will need to select two cases as litigation projects, and one of my roles will be to advise as to which cases should be brought and strategies to be pursued in bringing the cases. 

My initial task is to provide an overview and introduction to the concept of public interest litigation. In the meeting with Chimge, I initially suggested that I make three separate presentations: 1) introduce myself and my background, 2) discuss my experiences in representing police officers facing a corrupt police department in Herkimer, New York, as a case study of how to use law to address a difficult social and political problem, and 3) give an hour-long presentation on the American civil rights movement, with its use of both legal decisions and nonviolent social protest. I thought the last would be of some value, not only to our students, but also to some of the lawyers who work with CHRD, who probably do not have familiarity with the civil rights movement in the United States, and might see some parallels in the way in which the movement confronted plainly unfair laws,  unsympathetic courts and outright hostility. 

Chimge was too polite to say no. However, after the meeting, when I started thinking about how much time would be involved, the theoretical nature of the presentation, and the more immediate needs of the students, I realized that such a presentation would not be a good use of time. I prepared a presentation, which I believe will be about an hour, which combines a brief overview of my background, why I became a public interest litigator, and a description of public interest litigation.

This is the kind of presentation that, if I was to make in the United States, I would do pretty much off the top of my head, with maybe about 10 minutes spent to organize my thoughts beforehand.  However, here, because Chimge will have to translate from English to Mongolian, I pretty much wrote the whole thing out, which took me about an hour and 40 minutes. I e-mailed it to her on Tuesday morning, and when she saw me Tuesday afternoon, she said that she liked it and did not seem to think there was any need for us to do any additional preparation for the meeting with the students today.

On Monday, I also became aware of the possible communication problems. I need to learn to speak much more slowly; not only so that Chimge can translate, but also so that she can understand. Her English is very good, but not good enough to follow a fast speaking New Yorker. 

On Monday, we also discussed other matters. I told Chimge some of my thoughts about public interest litigation and advocacy, told her that I had brought a book for her: Saul Alinsky’s Reveille for Radicals, and that I had some ideas as to how CHRD might confront the problem of human trafficking, which is a priority for the organization. I recognize, of course, that I know very little about Mongolia and the situation that they are confronting. Nevertheless,  one of the reasons why I am here, and one of the reasons why I assume that CHRD wants people like me, is the belief that some of our strategies, both legal and political, can be of some use.

Apartment photos

our bedroom

Our living room and kitchen. A spacious, light and comfortable apartment, but we have some problems with hot water, and have not yet been able to hook up our water filter (to remove heavy metals after boiling)  However, we have internet, cable TV and a washer/dryer - hardly roughing it.

A busy first day

Chimgee (pronounced  “Chim-gay”, and a much shorter version of her full name, Erdenechimeg Dashdorg) and her husband met us at the train station in Ulan Baatar and took us to our hotel. Khishge is the senior lawyer at the Center for Human Rights and Development with whom I will be working, and apparently will be my principal translator.

A dangerous incident    Monday morning I went for a run, to see the city which will be my home for the next seven weeks. Ulan Baatar is considered to be a very safe city, even though there has  been a rise in pickpockets and larcenies, there is very little violent crime. At about 5:45 AM, on the main street, two blocks from the main square, a man angrily yelled “fuck you”  at me without any provocation that I could see as I ran by him.  I sped up, and then slowed to a walk after about a minute.  Then I noticed that he had been running after me, and was apparently running hard to catch up to me. I resumed running, now looking to see who else might be around, and considering defensive options. Apparently, my antagonist  gave up the chase. 

Later that morning,   the folks from CHRD showed us two apartments: the first an old Soviet era apartment building, about a mile from the office, in an unpleasant looking neighborhood, which would not have hot water until after June 1. The second, which we took, is much more pleasant, has all reasonable amenities, in what appears to be a reasonably nice student area. Apparently, mostly foreigners live in this building. In a future post I will include pictures of the apartment, which we moved to on Tuesday.

 One of my principal assignments is to work with a group of law students, to develop a clinic for public interest litigation. On Monday, I  discussed the initial presentation that I will make to these students and various other issues with Khishge.  My next post will describe this discussion,  the preparation for the presentation, and if I do not get to do this post before the Wednesday presentation, the post will give an account of the presentation itself.

Train pictures

The Mongolian railway is on a different gauge than the Chinese railway. At the border, each car of the train is lifted and a new undercarriage is inserted. This takes about two hours for the entire train. The different gauge track is one of the main problems with establishing a freight link from Russia to the Pacific.

Sunrise over the Gobi desert

Our sleeper compartment. This picture was taken shortly after leaving the Beijing station.

The train's first stop in Mongolia about 5:15 AM

travel to Ulaanbaator

On the 30 hour train ride from Beijing, we had a number of interesting views of the Chinese countryside, and, after crossing the border, the endless Gobi Desert. We did not get much sleep because the train crossed the border about midnight and the border crossing formalities pretty much kept me awake from 10 to 2 A.M. We have some photographs of the train ride, which I will post after I get them downloaded

Visit to Beijing

Nancy and I arrived in Ulan Bator on Sunday, after taking the trans-Mongolian railway from Beijing.

We have spent two full days in Beijing; the first day touring the city, and the second day doing a hike to a non-tourist area of the Great Wall. On the first day we walked from the Forbidden City, through Tianamien Square to the Temple of Heaven.the hike, which involved a three-hour drive from Beijing, covered probably about a mile of the Great Wall, in an area that has not been reconstructed.the attached photographs show me in front of Mao's tomb. and the area that we hiked.

Test

This is a test of the new blog that I sent up