Robert H. Jackson Center

In July 1923, a typhoid epidemic broke out in the city of Jamestown, NY. The subsequent extensive litigation was destined to become a key building block of the legal career of Robert H. Jackson.

On November 21, 2015, seventy years will have passed since the world stopped to listen to the opening statement of the trial against major Nazi war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at the Palace of Justice in the city of Nuremberg, Germany.

Defenders of Freedom is an oral history project collecting personal experiences of World War II and Korean War veterans.

Jackson Center teacher fellows create educational content that imparts the life and legacy of Justice Jackson to classrooms everywhere.

The Robert H. Jackson Center of Jamestown, New York is pleased to announce that it has awarded the prestigious Robert H. Jackson Center Teacher Fellowship to five deserving area educators. Commencing their collaboration with the Center on July 20th were Gregory Birner and Laura Wilson from Westfield Academy and Central School, Wendy Dyment from Cassadaga Valley Central School, Kim Joslyn from Chautauqua Lake Central School and Melissa Wadsworth-Miller from Tonawanda Middle/High School in Erie County. This year’s Fellowship program was made possible through the support of the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, Law, Youth and Citizenship Program of the New York State Bar Association and the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo.

Commencing the 2015 International Humanitarian Law Dialogs, Benjamin Ferencz provided a welcome address to the prosecutors and attendees. Screened at the Law Dialogs welcome dinner held at the Jackson Center on Sunday, August 30^th, Ferencz welcomed guests and shared a special message on international law, the legacy of the Nuremberg Trials and the common goal of creating a world of peace.

International Prosecutors, Ambassadors, diplomats, and legal scholars from around the globe came together in the name of humanity on August 31^st and September 1st at Chautauqua Institution, a renowned arts and cultural community located in upstate New York, near Jamestown. The International Humanitarian Law Dialogs, hosted by the Robert H. Jackson Center, Jamestown, NY, is a historic gathering of renowned international Prosecutors from The International Criminal Court, The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, The Special Court for Sierra Leone, Special Tribunal for Lebanon and The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, together with leading professionals in the field of International Humanitarian Law.

September 2, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. Under the terms of the Agreement, the United States gave the British 50 obsolete destroyers in exchange for 99-year leases to territory in Newfoundland and the Caribbean. The territories would be used as United States air and naval bases. Substantial legal obstacles complicated the deal. Attorney General Robert H. Jackson and his colleagues spent much of the summer of 1940 trying to resolve some of these issues. Jackson's Acquisition of Naval and Air Bases in Exchange for Over-Age Destroyers was presented on August 27, 1940.

The International Humanitarian Law Dialogs are a historic gathering of the current and former international war crimes tribunal prosecutors at the historic Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua NY. Annually, renowned academics and law experts are invited to speak on a current issues centered on a theme.