Biography

Arlene S. Kanter
Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence
Professor of Law
Director, Disability Law and Policy Program
Co-Director, Center on Disability Studies, Law, and Human Policy

College of Law
Syracuse University

Phone:     (315) 443-9551
Email:      kantera@law.syr.edu

BIOGRAPHY:

B.A., Trinity College
J.D., New York University
LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center

Since Professor Kanter joined the law faculty in 1988, she has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Director of Clinical Legal Education, and Director of the Externship Program. She is currently the director of the College of Law's Disability Law and Policy Program, which houses the nation’s first joint degree program in Law and Disability Studies. Professor Kanter also co-directs the SU Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies, the nation's first multi-disciplinary university center dedicated to research, advocacy, academic programming, and public education on issues of inclusion and equality for people with disabilities. In 2005, Professor Kanter was awarded Syracuse University's most prestigious teaching award, the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Award for Excellence in Teaching. She also holds a courtesy appointment at the School of Education.

Prior to joining the law faculty, Professor Kanter taught at Georgetown University Law Center and practiced public interest law at a national disability rights organization in Washington, D.C. where she represented clients before the United States Supreme Court and Congress.

Professor Kanter teaches courses on disability law and policy, education law, special education law, international human rights and comparative disability law, legislation and policy, ethics, lawyering skills, and professionalism. Professor Kanter publishes and lectures on domestic, comparative, and international disability law. Her most recent publications include a co-authored book, CASES AND MATERIALS ON INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND COMPARATIVE MENTAL DISABILITY LAW (Carolina Press, 2006). Her investigative research with Mental Disability Rights International culminated in a 2006 report entitled, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN THE PSYCHIATRIC FACILITIES, ORPHANAGES AND REHABILITATION CENTERS OF TURKEY, (available at http://www.mdri.org/). This Report has resulted in dramatic reforms in Turkey's mental health system.

Professor Kanter is founder and co-editor of the SSRN JOURNAL on DISABILITY LAW (with SUCOL Professor Michael A. Schwartz), and co-founder and co-chair of the newly established Section on Disability Law of the American Association of Law Schools. She is also a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law. Professor Kanter worked with the United Nations on the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and based on this work, recently edited a special issue of the SYRACUSE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW and COMMERCE on the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.