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ALUmni
Q&A
Khavan sok, ’06
Researcher, Office of
Co-investigating Judges,
Cambodian genocide Tribunal
A Journey
Toward Justice
Khavan Sok came to the U.S. when he was just a freshman in high
school. He lived in Seattle with family acquaintances, attending a
bilingual high school, then moved to Richmond, Virginia, to live with
an uncle and complete his senior year of high school. He attended
the University of Virginia, graduating in 2002, and took a year off
to pursue work as a freelance writer. It was during this time that
he discovered a true connection to work dealing with reparations
from the Cambodian genocides of 1975–1979. Today, he acts
as a researcher for the Office of Co-Investigating Judges on the
Cambodian Genocide Tribunal in his home country. Saint Louis
Brief spoke with Sok about his journey.
When was the first time you knew you were interested in doing
work relating to the Khmer Rouge?
I took a course in Southeast Asia in the tenth grade and wrote a
paper on the Khmer Rouge. It piqued my interest in the subject and
eventually grew into a passion. After college, I decided to extend
my research on the topic and focused my work on it for a full year.
What did you do during your year as a freelancer?
I worked for a small NGO established by Sody Lay, a Cambodian
American from Columbia Law School. He started a Web site
designed to help other Khmer Cambodian scholars, and everyone
who contributed wrote about Cambodian issues.
How did you meet Sody Lay?
I met him through a mutual friend at a conference for a Cambodian
filmmaker. He quickly became my mentor. He had a real passion
for this work, and was devoted to getting the word out about
Cambodian issues.
When did people begin to understand what happened during
the Cambodian genocide?
No one knew exactly what happened until decades later. When the
movie “The Killing Fields” came out in 1984, many of the atrocities
were illustrated and people began to realize just how serious it was.
Had you done work on Cambodian issues prior to graduating
from college?
Yes. I interned with researchers in the Cambodian Genocide
Program at Yale the summer of my junior year in college. The
last year of the grant (2001), I worked with the Program’s director,
Susan Cook. From 1997-2003, the UN was negotiating with
the Cambodian government to form a tribunal to prosecute the
Khmer Rouge, which received a lot of national attention. I wrote
a research paper that kept track of the negotiation process. That’s
how I was discovered. Helen Jarvis, the adviser to the Cambodian
government and a crucial person in the negotiation process, knew
Susan Cook. Through her, Helen got to know my work. In January
of 2003, when the negotiation team from Cambodia came to the
UN in New York, I got to work with the team for a week.
They knew I was going to law school, but I still continued
working with the Cambodian government. After the first summer
of law school I went back to Cambodia and interned for those who
worked on the task force in charge of negotiations with the UN. I
worked for the secretariat to the task force, helping them draft the
code of procedure for the tribunal. This tribunal is a Cambodian
court set up within the Cambodian system with UN support. They
have to draft a compromise between Cambodian civil procedure
and the international civil procedure. The UN wanted a minimum
standard in the tribunal or they wouldn’t participate – so the
Cambodian government had to pass a new set of legislation to
create an extraordinary chamber (the Khmer Rouge court) and
come up with a new set of laws and procedures, separate from the
current Cambodian procedure.
I also went back the summer of my second year, doing similar
work. I’m fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time,
getting to know the right people.
Why did you choose to go to law school?
I always try to challenge myself. After my freelance work, I thought
of law school as another challenge. I’ve thought about the law since
my sophomore year in college. While in school, I loved studying
at the law school on campus. I loved being in an intellectual
community and talking with law students. They had a career night
and everyone talked about the work they did over the summer. A
student there went to Cambodia and worked with a family trying
to get their land back in a dispute. She worked with a NGO trying
to help them. I was amazed at what she’d done and wanted to go
back to Cambodia and be a lawyer and help others. That’s when I
decided to apply to law school.
I was offered a scholarship to Saint Louis University School
of Law and was glad to have a chance to live here the last three
years. I wanted to live in a bigger city than Richmond, and St. Louis
is one of the biggest cities in the Midwest. I spent a lot of time on
the east and west coasts, so living here was a nice change for me.
What are some of your best memories in this country?
I’ve practically grown up here and have thoroughly enjoyed
experiencing a different way of life and meeting so many new
people. I never saw anyone chew tobacco before coming to this
country. And I never saw a Cardinals game before.
What’s your advice to people who wish to pursue a passion,
even if it’s one that requires a great deal of sacrifice?
I would say that as long as you’re doing what you like, though the
short-term payment may seem minimal, you will often find that even
with sacrifice, it’s the right decision. It’s almost never a bad choice
to follow your passion.
— As told to Stefanie Ellis
Q&A
Don Anton’s life has
taken him far — literally.
A St. Louis native, he
spent the first 26 years of
his life in his hometown,
pledging allegiance to
the sports teams he still,
to this day, follows with
rapt attention.
Though his career has taken him to another continent, he
still remains connected in ways that would make his city
proud. He took some time to chat with Saint Louis Brief
about his journey from the Show-Me-State to the land of
kangaroos and didgeridoo, his passion for international
environmental law and his contributions to shaping future
generations of lawyers.
you’ve lived abroad a while. Do you still think
of St. Louis?
St. Louis is still in my bones. I have pictures of all the
sporting venues of my childhood (Sportsman’s Park, the
Arena, the old Busch Stadium) on the walls of my office.
I still consider the city my first home and continue to
religiously follow the Cardinals (naturally delighted with the
World Series win), Billikens and Blues via video and audio
streaming broadcasts.
What made you want to get into law?
I was born in 1960 and grew up watching Americans make
melioristic legal claims for equality, civil rights, greater
economic participation, environmental protection, etc. I
frequently watched and read news about lawyers helping
Americans make these progressive and socially beneficial
claims through law. As a result, like many, I came to
develop a view of the lawyer as “hero,” a champion for the
oppressed, a fighter for the public interest. I went to law
school because I wanted to be like that — to advocate
worthy causes on behalf of others.
Why did you choose to get into international/
environmental law?
I did not contemplate practicing either International
Law or Environmental Law when I entered law school.
donald K. anton, ’86
Professor, University of melbourne Law School
I did not take either subject while in law school. Even
when I graduated, these fields (and especially their
intersection) were not on my radar. Instead, after several
years of a scenic, but not very “heroic” practice of law
in Boise, Idaho — mostly defending the interests of
mining companies, polluters and insurance companies
— I made the decision to try to become an international
environmental lawyer. My decision was largely motivated
by prominent transboundary environmental incidents that
took place in the 1980s, like Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez,
Rainbow Warrior. It seemed to me that there was very
little applicable law and that there was an opportunity to
develop not only expertise, but the law itself, in an area
that the international community would increasingly need
and call on.
I was also personally restless at that time (1989-1990) and
decided to look at postgraduate legal education outside of
the United States. The government of Australia offered a
full scholarship to study International Environmental Law in
Sydney and I arrived in Australia in March of 1991. Within
months I met my future wife in Canberra (where we now
live and teach together). A year and a half after coming to
Australia, my still future wife and I traveled to Columbia
University School of Law in New York so she could pursue
her S.J.D. degree. I was eventually hired as a Research
Associate at Columbia University, working with two of the
world’s most influential international lawyers, Professors
Lou Henkin and Oscar Schacter. When we returned to
Australia in 1994, both of us were hired by the University
of Melbourne Law School. I created the first course in
International Environmental Law at Melbourne Law School
in 1995 and have been teaching and practicing it ever since.
Describe your work.
I teach law to aspiring lawyers in Australia. International
Environmental Law (IEL) is still my passion, but I have
taught across the curriculum, including Property Law
and Torts. The courses I regularly teach include: IEL,
International Law, Marine and Coastal Law, Human
Rights and the Environment, International Trade and the
Environment, and Federalism and the Environment. I also
continue to teach in the United States. In 2003, I was a
visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School,
where I taught a course on International Environmental
Law. In 2007, I will be a visiting professor at the University
of Alabama School of Law, where I will be teaching
courses on International Human Rights and Environmental
Justice and Rights.
What other work do you do in your field?
In addition to teaching, I continue to practice public
interest environmental law in Australia and around the
world through participation in the Environmental Law
26 Saint Louis Brief Fall 2006 Fall 2006 Saint Louis Brief 2
ALUmni ALUmni PRoFiLe Q&A
photo courtesy of Donald K. Anton, ’86
Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW). E-LAW is a group of public
interest environmental lawyers, scientists and academics
from 58 countries around the world that assist each
other in protecting the environment across borders. In
my teaching, I regularly have students assist my E-LAW
colleagues with real cases around the world. I used to
travel regularly to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon
Islands to assist in environmental litigation and training
and I have served as a course instructor for the United
Nations Environment Program in a course designed to
train high-level administrators from developing countries
in environmental law and policy. My research continues to
focus on International Law and Environmental Law.
What are the differences between legal education as well
as the practice of law between the u.S. and Australia?
The two most significant differences in legal
education here are:
1. Most students come to law school directly from high
school. No first degree is required. As a result, students
are much more immature and uncertain about the
future direction they want their lives to take.
2. “Lecturing” without a great deal of student participation
is still widely used as the primary means of
instruction as opposed to the use of Socratic or, more
contemporarily, modified Socratic techniques.
The three most significant differences in practice here are:
1. Instead of a bar exam, most would-be lawyers get
qualified to practice by doing a six-month “practitioners”
course following graduation from law school.
2. The profession is still, by custom, very much a split
profession with barristers doing the appearance work
and solicitors doing pretty much everything else.
3. Once admitted to practice in any jurisdiction in
Australia, you are automatically entitled to be admitted
in every other jurisdiction under the Mutual Recognition
Act 1992 (Cth).