Former Guam resident Neil Weare teaching Yale law school course about territories

Ask most attorneys whether they learned anything about Guam or other U.S. territories in law school, and all you are likely to get back is a blank stare. That is starting to change though as former Guam resident Neil Weare begins teaching a legal seminar focused exclusively on U.S. territories this semester at Yale Law School, the top-ranked law school in the United States.

“It’s exciting to return to Yale Law School, where I studied, to now teach about an important area of law that most law students unfortunately miss out on,” said Weare, founder and president of Equally American, a nonprofit organization that advocates for equality and voting rights for the nearly 4 million Americans living in U.S. territories in a press release.

Weare grew up on Guam, representing Guam in the 2004 Athens Olympics and graduating as part of Southern High School’s inaugural class. Prior to law school he worked for Delegate Madeleine Bordallo, then-Sen. Lou Leon Guerrero and Del. Robert Underwood. His parents, Dr. William and Nancy Weare, have lived on Guam for the last 30 years.

40 students signed up for the course

“It’s a big deal that law schools like Yale are starting to include specific courses on the territories,” said Weare, who will be teaching his Law of Territories course as a Visiting Lecturer in Law. The seminar has attracted a lot of interest, with 40 students signing up to fill 25 spots in the course.

Two students in the seminar, third-year law student James Campbell and second-year law student Kyla Eastling, have Guam ties. James, whose grandparents are the late Felicita Rosa Long and James O. Long of Mangilao, worked as a judicial intern at the District Court of Guam before attending law school. Eastling, whose grandparents are the late Victoria Lujan Blas and Jesus Quitugua Charfauros, was last in Guam with the Yale Veterans Legal Services Clinic in May. Both were instrumental in petitioning the law school to sponsor the course.

“Yale has a growing community of students interested in addressing the unique legal problems facing the territories,” said Campbell, who has worked to build closer ties between Yale and the legal community in Guam and the other territories.

Guam resident Kyra Blas, a graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School, has also been accepted to begin Yale Law next Fall.

The seminar will focus on the legal and political development of U.S. territories from the founding. In particular, it will critically examine the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in the Insular Cases, a series of cases from the early 1900s that created a legal justification for the “separate and unequal” treatment of territorial residents.