EQUAL  JUSTICE  UPDATE
Annual Report 2001

 

 To  Preserve  the  Past

To  Serve  the  Present

To Enhance the Future

National Equal     Justice Library  

Washington College of Law            4801 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.  Washington, D.C. 20016

Telephone = (202) 274-4320

FAX = (202) 274-4365 

 e-mail = nejl@wcl.american.edu 

 

Main NEJL website=              http:// nejl.wcl.american.edu

This website is made possible by contributions from California Trial Guide          Federal Civil Trial Guide and the Trial Guide series published by Matthew Bender & Company.             

 

HONOR ROLL OF MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THE NATIONAL EQUAL JUSTICE LIBRARY

*SPONSORED COLLECTIONS* ($25,000)

Arnold and Porter Collection in honor of Abe Fortas on  the Constitutional Right to Counsel in Criminal Cases

James Doherty Collection on Indigent Criminal Defense in Chicago and the State of Illinois

Barbara and Earl Johnson Collection on Legal Aid in the United Kingdom              

Harriet Wilson Ellis Collection on Educational Programs

*FOUNDERS* ($10,000)

American Bar Association

Hale and Dorr

Jenner & Block

Washington College of Law

*BENEFACTORS* ($5,000)

ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responibilities

ABA Litigation Section

Philip H. Corboy

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & GarrisonSullivan and Cromwell

*FIRST FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL EQUAL JUSTICE LIBRARY* ($100-$3,000) presently includes over 400 individuals and law firms [for a complete list visit the Library's other website at http://nejl.wcl.american.edu] 

 FOUNDATION GRANTORS ($20,000-$250,000)

Mellon Foundation

Ford Foundation

Rockefeller Foundation

Leonardt Foundation

Cudahy Fund

Joyce Foundation

 

 

          

THE GOALS OF THE 

NATIONAL EQUAL JUSTICE LIBRARY

           The National Equal Justice Library officially opened at Washington College of Law on September 19, 1997. It was planned and developed by the Consortium for the National Equal Justice Library, Inc.--a non-profit corporation formed by the American Bar Association, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and the American Association of Law Libraries. This is the Library’s third annual report since that opening and summarizes the progress the staff and board have made thus far in realizing NEJL’s several important goals. Those goals include:

  • To save and make accessible a vital part of American history that otherwise will be lost.
  • To inspire law students and private lawyers to devote more of their careers to representing poor people and public interest causes.
  • To assist the development of sound policy in this field by giving policy makers in the United States and other countries a comprehensive body of information about legal aid, indigent defense, and related institutions throughout the world.
  • To encourage support for equal justice by educating the general public, students, and the legal profession about where we currently stand  -- the distance we have come and how far we have yet to go.
  • To permanently honor those who have contributed so much, often at great sacrifice, to bring justice to lower income Americans.
  • To promote and assist research studies that will add to our knowledge and produce better solutions to the many problems afflicting the delivery of justice to lower income people around the world.

    The NEJL has several programs that advance these goals in one way or another.  Before discussing these programs, their current status and future plans, however, we describe the physical library.  It too was carefully designed to serve the NEJL's several purposes.
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Legal aid first came to the United States in 1876.  Yet it was not until the National Equal Justice Library opened in 1997 that this country had an institution dedicated to capturing that 123-year history  and using it to reinforce the nation's commitment to the goal of equal access to justice.