1986: A LOOK BACK: U.S.-Soviet lawyers pact (12/28/86)

1986: A LOOK BACK

U.S.-Soviet lawyers pact

This year saw a major controversy erupt within the ranks of the American Bar Association (ABA) because of that organization's ties with the Association of Soviet Lawyers (ASL).

The flap started in May 1985 when, under a document signed by ABA's executive director, the 300,000-member internationally known organization was formally linked to the Soviets by a cooperative agreement of indefinite duration. The agreement, which reportedly was proposed and drafted by the Soviets, contains expressions of mutual respect.

It provides for annual visits by five-person delegations, and joint symposia, electronic information exchanges and a variety of other cooperative ventures to be decided on in the future.

Opposition to the agreement on the basis of Soviet human-rights violations started this year and is being led by attorneys Patience T. Huntwork and Orest A. Jejna, both of Phoenix, Ariz. Both attorneys have stated that the ASL is not a bar association but an elite group of individuals chosen by the USSR's Central Committee for the role of disinforming public opinion in the U.S. concerning the Soviet legal system.

In light of this, a major topic of discussion within the ABA this year was whether the ABA should honor its agreement with the ASL.

In an effort to dismantle the agreement the Huntwork-Jejna team ascertained in August that the ASL is openly anti-Semitic. The accusation was termed "irrelevant" to the agreement by the ABA and was not seen as grounds to abrogate the agreement. The answer came in response to questions posed by Ms. Huntwork which stemmed from a June statement that said ABA officials were aware of the ASL's anti-Semitic stance.

Also in August, the ABA at its annual meeting in New York rejected a resolution by Attorneys Jejna and Huntwork, and their Task Force on ABA-Soviet Relations, that would have abrogated ABA-ASL formal ties. Supporters of the pact, while agreeing there were disagreements with the policies of the ASL, argued that it provides an opportunity for dialogue.

In September 12-13 at the first ABA-ASL joint seminar, held at Dartmouth College, a flap occurred between the dissident ABA group and Soviet lawyers. The Task Force charged that human rights did not receive sufficient treatment at the meeting. When the question of human rights was raised, the Soviet lawyers simply denied there were any human-rights problems in their country and instead tried to shift the focus to alleged flaws in the American justice system.

A list of questions submitted by Myron Boluch, a lawyer acting on behalf of the Task Force, the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, was never addressed at the seminar. The questions focused on the cases of Ukrainian dissidents Lev Lukianenko, Yuriy Shukhevych and the late Vasyl Stus, the famine of 1932-33 and the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

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