Dean's Address

Thanks to the Academy's China Program and to Ray and Audrey Tam, the Academy is really having an important impact in China.  We are influencing the formation of the legal system in China.  The men and women we bring to our homes are writing, enacting, and enforcing the laws that will govern China in the years to come.

In 1994, the Academy was in Hong Kong as the British were making preparations for the transition of Hong Kong to China.  We were addressed by the Consul-General and the Attorney General of Hong Kong.  They candidly discussed the legal and political challenges of the transition that would be occurring soon.  They were very honest about their doubts and misgivings as to what the future would hold for Hong Kong.

When we returned in 1998, Hong Kong was no longer a British protectorate, but a Special Administrative Region of China.  This time we were addressed by the U. S. Counsel General, the highest ranking representative of the U. S. government in Hong Kong.  It was fascinating to be able to learn about one of the most important historical events of our time from people who had participated in the transitions. As the British had done before, the U. S. Counsel General expressed his fears for Hong Kong's future.  A few weeks ago his fears became a reality as the Rule of Man trumped the Rule of Law and China refused to recognize democratic reforms promised Hong Kong.

In 1993, Wayne and Patsy Fisher hosted the IATL in the Czech Republic.  A few short years before our visit, only a block from our hotel in Prague, the "Velvet Revolution" brought about the bloodless overthrow of the communist regime.  The people of Czechoslovakia had recently participated in the first democratic elections in their history.  It was an exhilarating time in the Czech Republic because the people we met were experiencing freedom and democracy for the first time in their lives. The President of the Czech Bar Association, a man who played a major role writing the new constitution for the Czech Republic, discussed the development of the legal practice following the Velvet Revolution and the overthrow of the Communist regime.

I remember back then being stunned when told the Czech tort system capped damages on wrongful death cases at $2,500.  After Tort Reform in Texas, that doesn't sound all that bad.

For many of us perhaps the most inspirational trip taken by the Academy was with Ron and Carole Krist to South Africa in 1999.  In Cape Town, five South African attorneys who were on the front lines of the war against Apartheid, were initiated as Fellows in the Academy.  One of these men, Milton Seligson, is here with us today.  Each of these men had played a leading role in the peaceful transition of South Africa from Apartheid to democracy for all people of their country.  I do not exaggerate when I say that these men are the Thomas Jefferson's, the James Madison's of South Africa; men who  had stood shoulder to shoulder with Nelson Mandela as he fought for justice and freedom for all South Africans.  In generations to come, when South African children study their history, members of this Academy will be listed among their country’s Founding Fathers.

Finally, by seeing firsthand the legal systems of other countries, we  should be extremely proud of the American legal system and the contributions we as lawyers make to our country.

In China, one of the most frequent questions asked by Chinese lawyers was to explain about the O. J. Simpson trial.  It was in progress at the time we were there, and they were watching it on TV.  In all due respect to Lawyer Cochran, I couldn't explain it.  But the point is, how many of us know anything about a trial going on in China?

We were told that in China, charges were brought against a citizen by the local Communist party.  The accused would be afforded another member of the party to represent him, and the trial would take place within a week or two.  The trial would last a day or so, and the judges would be the hierarchy of the local party.  If convicted, there would be no appeal and if sentenced to death; the execution would be the next day.  No matter how you feel about the Simpson trial, aren't you thankful that we have the system we have?

Two years ago we were in Russia – another country experimenting with the Rule of Law – taking its first tentative steps toward democracy.  The former Soviet Union had a constitution that was similar to ours in many ways.  It guaranteed the right to a fair trial, but it was only a piece of paper.  Trials in the Soviet Union were "show trials" with the outcome pre-determined.  Soviet citizens were subject to the whims of the powerful in the Communist Party, to arbitrary enforcement of these laws.  They had plenty of laws, but no legal system, no independent judiciary, no lawyers to make the system work.

On the pre-trip to Moscow, Tom Murray took Neal Kraemer, Bob Hall and me to meet Boris Topornin, Director of the Institute of State and Law of the prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences who was initiated into the Academy when we returned to Russia that summer.  He told us that some of the provinces were experimenting with jury trials on criminal cases, but they were having problems.  It seems some of the juries were finding people not guilty.

In South Africa, International Fellow Dikgang Moseneke gave a moving presentation on his years of imprisonment on Robben Island. The youngest prisoner on Robben Island, he was imprisoned for writing a theme as a schoolboy that was critical of the government.  While in prison, Dikgang came under the influence of fellow prisoner, Nelson Mandela, and obtained his law degree.  Rather than become bitter and hardened, he and others like him left prison determined to peacefully change South Africa, determined not to seek revenge from the society that had treated him so wrongfully, but to reconcile with his oppressors for the good of his country.

George Bizos, a Fellow in the Academy, who had represented Nelson Mandela in one of his sham trials, recounted years of fighting apartheid before biased and prejudiced judges, knowing that each time he announced "Ready Your Honor," the result was a foregone conclusion.  His clients would lose because their skin was black.  When asked how he could keep going, George Bizos said that what kept him going was the hope that eventually his clients would, "win in the court of public opinion."  Because of men like George Bizos, finally, they did win.

All of us have had trials where we were home-towned by a judge, but I cannot imagine practicing in a system like this.  Unlike George Bizos, I do not believe I could have kept going.

South Africa called itself a democracy – it had a constitution, an elected legislative body, an active court system.  It had a legal system founded on the same legal principles as ours – English common law.  The problem was that until men of courage like our five new members changed the system, the law only served and protected those whose skin was white.  Eighty percent of the population was oppressed by the law.

What about the Academy in today's world?  I have never returned from a trip abroad not feeling truly grateful that I am an American.  But on my return from every trip there are always things that I am not proud of; some things that cause me to feel a little guilty, how we Americans take so much for granted - our material blessings, our democratic society, our freedom; how unconcerned and uninformed many Americans are about the rest of the world; and how cavalier many of us are about what the rest of the world thinks.

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