CENTERS FOR LAW AND LEGAL STUDIES
Center for Law and Education
The Center for Law and Education (CLE)
offers support services on educational issues for
advocates working on behalf of low-income stu-
dents and parents. It seeks to take a leadership
role in both improving the quality of public
education for low-income students in the
United States and enabling low-income commu-
nities to address their own public education
problems effectively. As part of the nationwide
network of support centers funded by the LEGAL
SERVICES CORPORATION (LSC), it provides spe-
cialized legal assistance to staff members of legal
services programs and to members of approved
panels representing eligible clients. The center
has been at the fulcrum of reforms in education
policy.
Founded in 1969, the Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts, and Washington, D.C., branches of the
center offer advice and collaboration on cases,
publications, training, federal program advo-
cacy, and litigation and assist parent and student
involvement in education. The center publishes
the NEWSNOTES periodical on a quarterly
basis, as well as a host of other manuals, mono-
graphs, and reports. Its staff includes attorneys,
an editor, and administrative support personnel.
The center conducts training workshops, usually
in conjunction with local legal services pro-
grams.
The CLE has been a part of significant law-
suits dealing with the enforcement of federal
and state constitutional rights and of federal
laws. It focuses on issues such as students’ rights,
federally funded programs, special education,
sex and race discrimination, vocational educa-
tion, bilingual-bicultural education, and Native-
American education. Its staff has pressed
significant litigation on the fairness of state pro-
grams for competency testing, the right of
298 CENTERS FOR LAW AND LEGAL STUDIES
pupils with limited proficiency in English to
understand instruction, the rights of students
with disabilities, and RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
in education—among other issues. Whenever
feasible, the center encourages the development
of local lay advocacy resources to avoid costly
and time-consuming litigation. A significant
portion of the center’s work is supported by
grants from private funding.
Center for Law and Social Policy
As a national public interest organization,
the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
seeks to improve the economic conditions of
low-income families with children. The Wash-
ington, D.C.–based center also attempts to
secure access for poor people to the nation’s civil
justice system through education, policy
research, and advocacy. CLASP has worked
closely with the Center on Budget Policies and
Priorities, the CHILDREN’S DEFENSE FUND,the
American Public Welfare Association, and hun-
dreds of other federal and state advocacy organ-
izations. The center helps develop new strategies
to fight poverty and stimulates new approaches
in the delivery of legal services.
Since its founding in 1969, CLASP has been
involved in important court decisions related to
welfare distribution. The center headed efforts
to preserve professional legal services for poor
people. It also organized the first clinical pro-
gram for law school externs and initiated the
National Women’s Law Center and the Mental
Health Law Project. In the 1990s CLASP got
involved in a debate over proposed changes in
the welfare system: the center issued a number
of publications and began a process of informa-
tion dissemination that created a conduit so that
commissions on welfare could obtain informa-
tion about each other’s activities. As part of its
ongoing mission the center has committed itself
to the continuing review and analysis of devel-
opments in federal and state welfare reform.
CLASP advocates streamlined enforcement
of CHILD SUPPORT. In the 1990s it initiated the
ChildNet campaign which was designed to
increase public awareness of the need for reform
of the enforcement system for child support. In
addition, the center attempted to expand the
access of teen parents and impoverished adults
to education and training programs. As to leg-
islative issues, the Child Care and Development
Block Grant, vocally supported by the center,
tempers proposed limitations on welfare recipi-
ents that would make affordable child care less
feasible. Generally, the center has promoted
income support policies that enhance work,
reduce poverty, and promote the well-being of
families.
CLASP maintains a network of state and
local advocates who provide training and tech-
nical assistance to other advocates and officials.
It produces the quarterly Family Matters period-
ical, newsletters, and periodic updates on new
policy developments. It serves as counsel to the
hundreds of legal services programs across the
United States and their national organizations.
Center for Oceans Law and Policy
The Center for Oceans Law and Policy con-
cerns itself with the future of the oceans and of
the coastal and polar areas of the earth. The cen-
ter has contributed to decisions made on the
protection and use of these areas. It supports
research, education, and discussion on legal and
public issues surrounding oceans policy. It pro-
motes interdisciplinary interaction at all lev-
els—international, national, regional, and
state—by conducting conferences and lectures.
The center has dedicated itself to education in
areas of oceans law and serves as a primary
source for ongoing efforts in international
research.
In 1976 the center was founded as a part of
the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.
Since its founding the center has established a
number of programs to promote discussion of
oceans issues. In one such measure it established
a teaching program in oceans law at the Univer-
sity of Virginia School of Law, along with the
first master of law degree program with special-
ization in oceans law and policy. In addition, a
basic course on oceans law and policy is taught
by center personnel at American University,
Georgetown University Law Center, and George
Washington University Law School. Also work-
ing with the University of Virginia’s law library,
the center established the Newlin Collection on
Oceans Law and Policy, believed to be the largest
collection of formal and informal materials in
oceans law anywhere in the world.
The center’s activities include advocacy in
five different areas: publications and research
(the biennial Director’s Report and the Oceans
Policy Study Series); international associateships
and fellowships; curriculum and teaching pro-
grams in oceans law and policy; conferences and seminars; and the Newlin Collection. Through teaching, research, and the dissemination of
information, the center seeks to help promote
rational choices for maintaining a vital part of
the earth’s well-being. The center is supported
by the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable
Foundation.
Center on Social Welfare Policy
and Law
The Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law
(CSWPL) seeks an income support system that
provides an adequate standard of living for people
in the United States. In attempting to achieve
this goal it respects individual rights of privacy,
independence, self-determination, and fair
treatment. It works as a nonprofit legal and policy
organization providing assistance to advocates
and poor people’s organizations on welfare
policy issues in Washington,D.C., and in the rest
of the United States.
Since 1965 the CSWPL has pursued an
aggressive policy of advocacy for poor people.
Its work concentrates on public assistance programs
that provide cash subsistence benefits to
millions of economically disadvantaged people.
The center works to facilitate programs such as
Aid to Families with Dependent Children and
general assistance programs at the state and
local levels, which together provide services to
over 15 million adults and children.
A professional staff of seven attorneys and
policy analysts contributes to the center’s understanding
of welfare policy and law. First, welfare
recipients and poor people receive direct representation
in federal litigation before appropriate
administrative and legislative bodies; this
includes litigation before the U.S. Supreme
Court, which has established basic DUE PROCESS
rights for welfare recipients and ended discriminatory
practices of welfare agencies. Second, the
center seeks nonpartisan policy analysis
designed to identify objective welfare policy
issues. Third, by means of public education, the
center attempts to increase popular understanding—
and dispel myths—about public assistance
programs. Fourth, the center disseminates legal
analyses of developments in welfare law and
policy to more than fourteen hundred welfare
specialists in every state and to the poverty law
journal Clearinghouse Review. Finally, it provides
specialized case assistance with training
and training materials for local lawyers, paralegals,
and other advocates throughout the United
States who are engaged in work that coincides
with the center’s mission. In the 1990s the center
focused on welfare reform proposals.
The center receives financial support from
foundations, corporations, the Legal Services
Corporation, the Interest on Lawyer Account
Fund of the State of New York, law firms, church
groups, community organizations, and individuals.
Under section 501(c)(3) of the INTERNAL
REVENUE CODE, the center is a nonprofit corporation
with tax exempt status.
Center for the Study of the Presidency
The New York City–based Center for the
Study of the Presidency (CSP) promotes citizenship
education, especially for youth. It seeks an
understanding of U.S. political and economic
systems and relies on a network of college and
university faculty and students for its intellectual
support. The center conducts high-profile
roundtable discussions with political leaders as
well as special studies of U.S. political policies. It
also maintains a research clearinghouse on the
presidency.
The founding of the CSP in 1968 received
support from former President DWIGHT D.
EISENHOWER who said, “The result [of the center]
cannot fail to be good . . . for the Nation.”
The New York State Board of Regents chartered
the center. Since the center’s founding, Dr. R.
Gordon Hoxie, a former chancellor of Long
Island University, has served as its president and
chief executive. Its board of trustees, pursuant to
the EDUCATION LAW of the state of New York, is
limited to twenty-five members. In 1995, membership
in the center as a whole reached five
thousand business, professional, and government
leaders as well as contributors in academia.
Corporations and foundations assist in the
center’s $1 million budget. The center has
remained a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational
corporation.
The CSP has several objectives. Primarily, it
focuses on securing an understanding of the
U.S. constitutional system of government. The
center also seeks to make itself an objective,
nonpartisan body for public policy research. It
provides educational programs for college and
university students. It seeks to strengthen democratic
institutions both at home and abroad: as
part of its comprehensive mission and international
scope, the center attempts to build a sense
of interdependence and understanding between
peoples and nations, while recognizing and
respecting cultural differences.
The initiation of most of the center’s basic
programs occurred before the end of 1970. The
Annual Leadership Conference, the Annual Student
Symposium, the Fellowship Program, the
Annual Lecture Series, and the center’s publications
(ANNUAL REPORTS and the Center House
Bulletin) date to its early days. In 1974, the
Annual Awards Program was added to its activities.
In the 1990s, the Annual Business Leaders
Symposium and a program for White House
interns joined its offerings.
The center is exempt from federal INCOME
TAX. The INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE has also
determined that the center is not a private foundation,
making it eligible for “distributions”
from foundations.
Jerry Lee Center of Criminology
(formerly the Sellin Center)
Founded in 1960 and located in Philadelphia,
the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology (formerly
the Sellin Center for Studies in Criminology and
Criminal Law, which closed in 1998 and was
rededicated and renamed in 2001) researches
crime, delinquency, the police, judicial systems,
prisons, social control, and social deviance.
Housed in the Wharton School, at the University
of Pennsylvania, the center also trains graduate
students toward master’s and doctor’s degrees.
Studies at the center have produced numerous
professional presentations and government
reports, books, articles, and monographs.
The Jerry Lee Center views criminology as
the scientific study of crime and criminals and
society’s reaction to both. The center emphasizes
the contributions of different disciplines—the
behavioral sciences, psychology, anthropology,
legal studies, psychiatry, neurology, biology, and
the criminal justice system—to criminology.
The center has worked on one of its primary
projects since the early 1970s. Delinquency in a
Birth Cohort analyzes the largest population of
delinquents ever studied in the United States.
The project has had a major effect on criminal
justice thought throughout the world and has
become a frequently cited publication in the field
of criminology. Another project focuses on
delinquency in the People’s Republic of China.
Students in both the center and China have participated
in this extensive project. Many of the
center’s studies—of both national and international
scope—have been cited in testimony
before the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees.
The Jerry Lee Center has worked with officials
in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation.
It has provided technical assistance to the
mayor’s and district attorney’s offices and to
judges and other officials in Philadelphia. The
center has also worked with the New Jersey Public
Defender’s Office in using an extensive database
to assess possible discriminatory practices
in the imposition of CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
FURTHER READINGS
Center for Law and Education (CLE). Available online at
Center for Law and Social Policy. Available online at
Center for Oceans Law and Policy. 1990. Report of the director.
Available online at
(accessed November 20, 2003).
Center for the Study of the Presidency (CSP). 1995. A Time
of Transition: 1994–95 Annual Report. New York: CSP.
A Description of the Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law.
1994. New York, December.
Jerry Lee Center for Criminology. Available online at
Litman, Alyssa. 2001. “Penn Celebrates Opening of New
Center for Criminology.” Daily Pennsylvanian online
(October 16).
CROSS-REFERENCES
Schools and School Districts; Environmental Law.
