MEDIA RELEASE

Dr. Keanu Sai will discuss two important executive agreements signed by President Grover Cleveland in 1893 and their significance for Hawaii today in a Puana Ka Ike (Imparting Knowledge) lecture.

Sai will present “1893 Overthrow Settled Executive Agreement” from 5:30–7:30 p.m. Friday, March 18, at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort’s Bay View Meeting Rooms. Due to the capacity of the meeting rooms, seating is limited to 170 people.

Previously unknown in contemporary legal understandings of Hawaii’s history are two executive agreements that settled the overthrow of the Hawaiian government and that remain binding under international and U.S. federal laws.

The first is the Liliuokalani Assignment, signed Jan. 17, 1893, and the second is the Restoration Agreement, dated Dec. 18, 1893.

The Liliuokalani Assignment was a temporary and conditional assignment of executive power by Queen Liliuokalani to the U.S. President on Jan. 17, 1893. The Restoration Agreement mandated the President to restore the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

According to the Restoration Agreement, once her executive power was returned, the Queen would grant the U.S. amnesty. In this lecture, Sai will provide a legal and political context in which to understand these executive agreements and their profound impact for Hawaii today.

Sai received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he specialized in international relations and public law. His doctoral research centered on the legal and political history of Hawaii from Kamehameha I to the present.

Sai teaches Hawaiian Studies at Windward Community College. He is the author of numerous law journal articles and will have two forthcoming books published by the University of Hawaii Press.

For more information on Sai’s presentations, contact Joy Cunefare at 808-534-8528 or e-mail info@kohalacenter.org.

For lecture schedules and webcasts of previous lectures, visit http://kohalacenter.org/puanakaike/about.html.

This lecture is presented by the Keauhou-Kahaluu Education Group of Kamehameha Schools, Kamehameha Investment Corporation, and The Kohala Center.