Legal Commentary

Given the immediate alternative of writing my law school exam, I would prefer to procrastinate and ask the following question:  What have been the most unusual experiences that law professors have had traveling to or from conferences or other similar events?  Here's my answer, but I invite others to procrastinate as well.

I was crazy enough to travel in 2000 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to consult with an NGO on rule of law issues, and to make some presentations on the constitutions of different countries.  I had been doing my fellowship in South Africa at the time.  Upon arrival, I was supposed to be greeted at Kinshasha airport by a representative from the NGO to get me through security.  Unfortunately, nobody was there.  I kept backing up to the end of the line that was going through customs, hoping some NGO rep. would magically appear but without any luck.  Finally airport security insisted I go through and I entered the airport terminal.  But security was suspicious of my behavior in delaying at customs so I was asked to "join" the police officials in a side room for some "questioning." 

Essentially, several police in a small room asked me what I was doing there and I told them.  They responded that what I said made no sense because there were plenty of constitutional law experts in the DRC so why would they need an American.  Then they started asking and accusing me of being CIA.  Other than my speaking French, things weren't looking good.  This continued for a while and they insisted that I offer proof.  Nothing like proving a negative to the security police of a country in the midst of a civil war when you come from a country they don't like.  So in desperation, I pulled out my law professor business card and showed it to them.  

Miraculously, this resolved the situation.  They relaxed and then became very friendly.  Eventually, they let me go, though the trip into Kinshasha with a taxi driver and twp of his best "friends" still proved fascinating given the "price enhancements" involved to guarantee my safety.  So what's the message?  Never travel without your law professor business card.  It's actually a life-saving device (akin to the police badge in the movies that always manages to stop the bullet).  And know that the CIA is not perceived as clever enough to invent such a technologically complex cover.