Wiebe, Virgil
Virgil Wiebe
Director of Clinical Education and Professor
1000 LaSalle Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Office Location: MOH 100
J.D., New York University School of Law
LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center
M.Phil., Latin American Studies, Oxford University
B.A., Kansas State University
Virgil Wiebe grew up in western Kansas and attended Kansas State University, where he received an Honors B.A. in geography and political science. As a Rhodes Scholar, he received an M.Phil. in Latin American studies from Oxford University with concentrations in geography and economics. Following time working with refugees in south Texas, he attended law school at New York University, where he was a Root-Tilden-Snow Public Interest Scholar, an International Law Fellow, and an editor of the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics.
After law school, Wiebe clerked for the Honorable James C. Francis, IV, federal magistrate judge in the Southern District of New York. He then served for four years as Director of Immigration Services and Supervising Attorney for Interfaith Community Services in New York City, a non-profit organization assisting refugees and immigrants. While at ICS, Wiebe represented hundreds of immigrants before the US Immigration and Naturalization Service and in Immigration court. There he also led efforts to create community based immigration clinics in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island .
In 1999, Wiebe joined the Center for Applied Legal Studies at Georgetown University Law Center as an Advocacy Fellow. There he taught in the immigration clinic. In 2001, Wiebe was appointed visiting assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he established an in-house immigration clinic and taught criminal law.
Wiebe has been an active participant in the efforts to curb the use of landmines and cluster bombs in armed conflicts. As a consultant to the Mennonite Central Committee, he has attended United Nations conferences on landmines and conventional weapons, and has addressed diplomats on international humanitarian law matters. He has also advised non-profit organizations on establishing immigration programs for low income communities. He is active in his local congregation and various professional organizations, serves pro bono clients, and frequently presents at continuing legal education (CLE) seminars..
As director of clinical education at St. Thomas, Professor Wiebe is one of the principal architects of the University’s unique Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services. At the Center, students from the schools of Law, Graduate Professional Psychology, and Social Work provide counseling and legal services to diverse and under-served populations.
Courses Taught
| Number | Title | Credits | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 635 | Torts | 4 | ||
| Description of course 635 : | This course will examine the legal principles that determine whether civil liability will attach to conduct that results in injuries to persons or property. Students will explore in depth, the issues and principles related to the law of neg- ligence and its elements of duty, breach, causation and damages. The course will also address principles of liability for intentional torts. Throughout the course, students will explore the social and economic policies underlying tort law principles. | |||
| 782 | Canon Law of Marriage | 3 | ||
| Description of course 782 : | This course will explore the principle canons on matrimony in their historical and doctrinal context. Students will examine the canonical definition of marriage and its ends and properties, canonical preparation for marriage, the impediments to canonically valid marriage, the laws concerning matrimonial consent, the canonical form, mixed marriage, dissolution of the bond, separation, convalidation and sanation. Students will subject some disputed questions concerning marriage to critical analysis from a theological and canonical point of view, e.g., the meaning of covenant, the requirement of faith, the nature of consent, indissolubility, the privilege of the faith and other grounds for dissolution of the marriage bond. Students will examine the nature of the Church's matrimonial jurisprudence and of selected capita nullitatis of particular relevance to practitioners in both the Roman Rota and American church courts: the so-called traditional capita as well as various psychological bases for nullity. Each Student will write a relatio (memorandum) and a sentence concerning the validity of a hypothetical marriage. ( 3 credits. Offered Alternate years.) | |||
| 802 | Administrative Law | 3 | ||
| Description of course 802 : | This course will examine the legal limits on administrative agencies under the Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act and other statutes. Students will explore constitutional limits on Congress' power to delegate law- making and judicial power to agencies, procedural limits on agency rulemaking and decision making and limits on the availability and scope of judicial review of agency actions. | |||
| 803 | Advanced Torts | 3 | ||
| Description of course 803 : | This course will explore in greater depth than is possible inthe first year Torts course the theories of liability that govern civil damage actions for injuries caused by negligence. Students will also examine theories and rules governing strict liability, products liability, defamation, invasion of privacy, and infliction of emotional distress. | |||
| 810 | Canon Law:Basic Principles | 3 | ||
| Description of course 810 : | This course will examine the nature, history and function of law in the Catholic Church by presenting an overview of the 1983 Code of Canon Law and other ecclesiastical laws and regulations concerning general norms (Book I), the rights and obligations of the Christian faithful and ecclesiastical structures (Book II), the teaching office of the Church (Book III) and temporal goods (Book V). The course will provide students with an understanding of the structures, processes and discipline directed to harmony and order for the Christian faithful. It will seek to engender a knowledge and respect for ecclesiastical law as a pastoral instrument and practical science that translates the Church's teachings into reasonable norms for members' everyday lives. Students will learn about the basic structures in the Church at the universal, national, diocesan and parochial levels and about resources helpful to their effective participation and ministries in the Church. The course will introduce students to a significantly different juridical system and body of law and will enhance their abilities to deal with legal issues arising in a distinctly different juridical context. | |||
| 950 | Supervised Resrch & Writing | .5 | ||
| Description of course 950 : | Under the supervision of a faculty member, a student may receive up to two hours of course credit for researching and writing a substantial paper on a topic of the student's own choosing. The student must receive the instructor's per- mission to enroll in this course and must meet periodically with the instructor for discussion, review and evaluation. Each faculty member may supervise the research of no more than five students each semester. | |||
Areas of Academic Expertise:
Immigration
Criminal Law
From the article "Grand Ideas: Faculty members describe the best ideas from their scholarship" St. Thomas Lawyer Magazine Fall 2011
The use of cluster munitions violates international humanitarian law in nearly all cases. Cluster munitions are artillery shells, rockets or air-delivered bombs that break into small bomblets or submunitions. Because of their wide area of coverage (making them difficult to accurately target) and their high “dud” rates (converting them into dangerous unexploded ordnance), their use creates serious hazards for civilians. This idea was vindicated in 2008 with the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), an international treaty banning cluster munitions. The CCM has been signed by 108 countries; 57 have ratified it.
Upcoming: I am researching the extent to which graduate students in mental health professions serve as expert witnesses in immigration proceedings.
Contributions and mentions in the media
KSTP Television - "Gadhafi Death Hits Home for Some Minnesotans" View Publication
MinnPost - "U.S. should sign, ratify treaty banning cluster bombs" View Publication
Twin Cities Daily Planet - "What the arrest of immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas says about Minnesota immigration policy" View Publication
CPAC - "Foreign Affairs: In Committee from the Senate of Canada" View Publication
Minneapolis Star Tribune - "Immigration and sequestration: Accidental justice?" View Publication
Scholarship
Chapters
Virgil Wiebe, John Borrie & Declan Smyth, Introduction, in Gro Nysteun & Stuart Casey-Maslen ed., The Convention on Cluster Munitions: A Commentary (Oxford Univ. Press 2010).
Virgil Wiebe, John Borrie & Declan Smyth, Introduction, in Gro Nysteun & Stuart Casey-Maslen ed., The Convention on Cluster Munitions: A Commentary (Oxford Univ. Press 2010).
Virgil Wiebe, Declan Smyth & Stuart Casey-Maslen, Article 1. General Obligations and Scope of Application, in Gro Nysteun & Stuart Casey-Maslen ed., The Convention on Cluster Munitions: A Commentary (Oxford Univ. Press 2010).
Virgil Wiebe, Declan Smyth & Stuart Casey-Maslen, Article 1. General Obligations and Scope of Application, in Gro Nysteun & Stuart Casey-Maslen ed., The Convention on Cluster Munitions: A Commentary (Oxford Univ. Press 2010).
Virgil Wiebe, Maybe You Should, Yes You Must, No You Can’t: Shifting Standards and Practices for Assuring Document Reliability in Asylum Cases, in Immigration and Nationality Law Handbook 2006-2007 (Stephanie Browning, ed., American Immigration Lawyers Association 2006).
Virgil Wiebe, Maybe You Should, Yes You Must, No You Can’t: Shifting Standards and Practices for Assuring Document Reliability in Asylum Cases, in Immigration and Nationality Law Handbook 2006-2007 (Stephanie Browning, ed., American Immigration Lawyers Association 2006).
Virgil Wiebe (with Serena Parker), Asking for a Note from Your Torturer: Corroboration and Authentication Requirements in Asylum, Withholding, and Torture Convention Cases, in Immigration & Nationality Law Handbook 2001-2002 (updated and reprinted in Immigr. Briefings, Oct. 2001).
Virgil Wiebe (with Serena Parker), Asking for a Note from Your Torturer: Corroboration and Authentication Requirements in Asylum, Withholding, and Torture Convention Cases, in Immigration & Nationality Law Handbook 2001-2002 (updated and reprinted in Immigr. Briefings, Oct. 2001).
Articles
Virgil Wiebe & Sarah S. Brenes, Mental Health Professionals and Affirmative Applications for Immigration Benefits: A Critical Review of Administrative Appeals Office Cases Involving Extreme Hardship and Mental Harm, 11-04 Immigr. Briefings 1 (2011).
View Publication
Virgil Wiebe & Sarah S. Brenes, Mental Health Professionals and Affirmative Applications for Immigration Benefits: A Critical Review of Administrative Appeals Office Cases Involving Extreme Hardship and Mental Harm, 11-04 Immigr. Briefings 1 (2011).
Virgil Wiebe & Sarah S. Brenes, Oath Martyrs, U. St. Thomas Legal Stud. Res. Paper No. 11-28 (2011).
View Publication
Virgil Wiebe & Sarah S. Brenes, Oath Martyrs, U. St. Thomas Legal Stud. Res. Paper No. 11-28 (2011).
Virgil Wiebe, For Whom the Little Bells Toll: Recent Judgments by International Tribunals on the Legality of Cluster Munitions, 35 Pepp. L. Rev. 895 (2008).
View Publication
Virgil Wiebe, For Whom the Little Bells Toll: Recent Judgments by International Tribunals on the Legality of Cluster Munitions, 35 Pepp. L. Rev. 895 (2008).
Virgil Wiebe, Recent Trends in Cluster Munitions Regulation: 2003-2007, U. St. Thomas Legal Stud. Res. Paper No. 07-15 (2007).
View Publication
Virgil Wiebe, Recent Trends in Cluster Munitions Regulation: 2003-2007, U. St. Thomas Legal Stud. Res. Paper No. 07-15 (2007).
Virgil Wiebe, Maybe You Should, Yes You Must, No You Can’t: Shifting Standards and Practices for Assuring Document Reliability in Asylum Cases, 06-11 Immigr. Briefings 1 (2006).
View Publication
Virgil Wiebe, Maybe You Should, Yes You Must, No You Can’t: Shifting Standards and Practices for Assuring Document Reliability in Asylum Cases, 06-11 Immigr. Briefings 1 (2006).
Virgil Wiebe, The Drops that Carve the Stone: State and Manufacturer Responsibility for the Humanitarian Impact of Cluster Munitions and Explosive Remnants of War, Italian Campaign to Ban Landmines Website (2004); U of St. Thomas Legal Studies Research Paper No. 05-21 (2005).
View Publication
Virgil Wiebe, The Drops that Carve the Stone: State and Manufacturer Responsibility for the Humanitarian Impact of Cluster Munitions and Explosive Remnants of War, Italian Campaign to Ban Landmines Website (2004); U of St. Thomas Legal Studies Research Paper No. 05-21 (2005).
Virgil Wiebe, Washing Your Feet in the Blood of the Wicked: Seeking Justice and Contending with Vengeance in an Interprofessional Setting, 1 U. St. Thomas L.J. 182 (2003).
View Publication
Virgil Wiebe, Washing Your Feet in the Blood of the Wicked: Seeking Justice and Contending with Vengeance in an Interprofessional Setting, 1 U. St. Thomas L.J. 182 (2003).
Virgil Wiebe, Footprints of Death: Cluster Bombs as Indiscriminate Weapons Under International Humanitarian Law, 22 Mich. J. Int'l L. 85 (2000).
Virgil Wiebe, Footprints of Death: Cluster Bombs as Indiscriminate Weapons Under International Humanitarian Law, 22 Mich. J. Int'l L. 85 (2000).
Virgil Wiebe, The Prevention of Civil War Through the Use of the Human Rights System, 27 N.Y.U. J. Int’l L. & Pol. 409 (1995).
Virgil Wiebe, The Prevention of Civil War Through the Use of the Human Rights System, 27 N.Y.U. J. Int’l L. & Pol. 409 (1995).
Short Pieces
Virgil Wiebe, Ain’t Goin’ Study War No More? NOT, 38.2 Peace Office Newsletter (Mennonite Central Committee), Apr.-June 2008, at 7.
Virgil Wiebe, Ain’t Goin’ Study War No More? NOT, 38.2 Peace Office Newsletter (Mennonite Central Committee), Apr.-June 2008, at 7.
Virgil Wiebe, Still Thinking: Thinking About Dual Citizenship and Hospitality Can Guide a Christian Response to Immigration, The Christian Leader (2007).
Virgil Wiebe, Still Thinking: Thinking About Dual Citizenship and Hospitality Can Guide a Christian Response to Immigration, The Christian Leader (2007).
Other Works
Stuart Maslen & Virgil Wiebe, Cluster Munitions: A Survey of Legal Responses (Landmine Action 2007).
Stuart Maslen & Virgil Wiebe, Cluster Munitions: A Survey of Legal Responses (Landmine Action 2007).