Law professor assists youth councils, meets with officials in Kosovo

Professor David Kader recently returned from Kosovo, where he spent a week evaluating and assisting the new Municipal Youth Councils, particularly those in the cities of Mitrovica, Prizren and Gjakova.

The trip was sponsored by the U.S. State Department, and was organized by Arizona State University’s Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian & East European Studies.

Kader was joined by two other colleagues. The group, led by Professor Stephen Batalden, director of the Melikian Center, also met with the mayors of the cities and with judicial members of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo. The meeting included Chief Judge Enver Hasani, with whom Kader “debated” church/state constitutional issues at the University of Prishtina on Kader’s last trip to Kosovo in 2010.

The group also planned meetings with U.S. Embassy officers on the Civil Society development program, which focuses on young people and their governance skills and capacities.

Kader is an affiliate faculty member at the Melikian Center, which is a comprehensive research and training center with both instructional and research mission. He is also an affiliate with ASU’s Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict and Center for Jewish Studies, as well as the Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies. He teaches in the areas of criminal procedure, torts, state constitutional law and religion and the Constitution.