Published May 24, 2004

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Let me first congratulate all of you who are today receiving your law degrees. It is a great pleasure for me to share this special moment and honor with you.

By earning these degrees, you have demonstrated that you have the intellectual gifts needed to become outstanding lawyers and the work habits required to cope with the ever increasing demands of our profession. The rest will come with experience and, I hope, with a lifelong commitment to law as an instrument for justice tempered by compassion.

I also want to congratulate your family members and all others here today who had a part in getting you to where you are at this point in your lives and who have sacrificed a great deal for you. Don’t ever forget that you did not make it on your own – no one ever does – and when you are tempted to feel self-satisfied and proud of your achievements, remember all those wonderful people to whom you owe so much. They deserve special appreciation on this day. May the helping hand they extend to you serve to remind you to do the same for others in need of your support.

I am deeply honored to have been asked to speak on this important occasion and to receive the honorary degree being conferred on me today. As you know, this Law School was my home from 1989 until 2000, when I was elected to the International Court of Justice. Here I spent what have been the happiest years of my academic career. Until I came to GW, I would invariably be overcome by the urge to move on after five years or so in one place. But at this Law School, I never felt a desire to leave. Apart from the fact that it is among the top law schools in the country, it is a very special institution because of its collegial faculty and staff and its outstanding student body. In short, I loved it here and I love to come back. To think that a University is bestowing an honorary degree on me after having allowed me to be part of the community for more than a decade, fills me with profound gratitude. Thank you all, very, very much.

A few weeks ago, I had a very pleasant reunion with a number of my law school classmates. I had not seen some of them since we graduated 44 years ago. As we reminisced about our student days and talked about our grandchildren, I wondered how many of us had regrets about the career decisions we made and what advice I would give young lawyers at a stage in life where we were 44 years ago almost to the day.

To start with, I doubt that one ever knows whether “the road not taken” would have led to a happier life or greater personal fulfillment. Over time though, I have come to the conclusion that the biggest mistake one can make is to plan too far in advance and to let considerations of money or status alone determine one’s future.

Not that money or status are unimportant. The Germans have a saying that “money does not make one happy,” to which some add “but it does make life easier.” Both propositions are no doubt true. However, I have seen too many supposedly successful lawyers who look back with regret on their careers 20 or 30 years later, and wish they had let considerations other than money or status determine what they did with their lives.

What are those other considerations? I have in mind a career course that will enable you to contribute to a cause or a subject close to your heart or one you consider important, a career that is likely to bring you personal satisfaction in the long run. Don’t be afraid to have ideals and to act on them. Professional satisfaction and success will follow if you are happy in what you are doing. And, for heaven’s sake, don’t let the career goals of others or what others think drive you into jobs you know or sense you will not like. Above all, if you conclude that you made a mistake in your choice of career, get out as fast as you can before your mortgage and car payments enslave you forever. I have seen too many lawyers in that position.

So much for my fatherly advice. Let me now shift gears.

As you heard, I have now lived abroad for a number of years. This experience has given me an opportunity to reflect on the demands a changing world is placing on our profession and on us as Americans. Let me share some of these reflections with you.

Today the dividing line between international law and national law is becoming ever more blurred. The practice of law you are entering is no longer all local or national; it is increasingly more transnational or global in character, and this is regardless of what you plan to do with your law degree. Globalization is not only transforming the world’s economies, it is also transforming the practice of law. It places new demands on our profession, and provides it with added challenges and opportunities.

This Law School has over the years developed and continues to develop an outstanding international legal studies program. GW is at the forefront of a handful of American law schools that have grasped the significance of globalization for the practice of law. Let me congratulate Dean Young and the faculty on their vision and on their understanding of the role law schools must play in preparing the legal profession for the transformation it is undergoing. President Trachtenberg, too, deserves much credit for his enthusiastic support for these efforts by the Law School.

The globalization of the practice of law requires that you begin to sharpen your awareness of the ever more significant impact international legal and political developments have on our law. This is true of fields as diverse as decedent estates, intellectual property, corporations, antitrust, banking, human rights, domestic relations, environmental law or whatever other areas of the law you might be drawn to.

Given the times we live in, we lawyers must recognize that the world beyond the borders of the United States is not merely one more marketing opportunity. Globalization admits us into a world of shared and diverse intellectual, cultural and spiritual traditions and values. They bear witness to the inherent unity and beauty of the human family. As human beings and as lawyers you will benefit materially and spiritually by making an effort to understand this world and by becoming part of it. Globalization offers vast new opportunities for public service that you should seize.

You will increasingly be working in an environment that is affected by U.S. foreign policy decisions and the consequences of these decisions. This is so whether we like it or not because the U.S., as the only remaining superpower, will for decades to come dominate world events. You will therefore have to concern yourselves with U.S. foreign policy decisions, for they will impact, directly or indirectly, on your professional activities. Unlike in the past, American lawyers can today no longer afford to leave matters relating to international law and international relations to diplomats, political scientists or politicians.

In this country, we frequently forget that policy decisions the U.S. makes affect not only Americans but also millions of people around the world, who have no real input into decision making processes that produce these policies. That is why some of my foreign friends keep telling me, only half in jest, that the entire world should be allowed to vote in U.S. presidential elections. My standard facetious reply is that I doubt that their selections would be any wiser than those we have made over the years. But it cannot be denied our superpower status imposes on all of us the responsibility to attempt to ensure that the consequences American policies have on the lives and welfare of human beings in other parts of the world are factored into the decision making processes of the U.S. If we are going to act as the policeman of the world, we had better know what our police are doing in our name, whether that really is what we want to do, and whether, in the long run, these policies are in the best interests of the U.S.

Nowadays we Americans are often surprised by the resistance our polices encounter from our allies abroad. It is much too simplistic to dismiss these views as reflecting the usual anti-American attitudes of some foreign leaders. What tends to be characterized in the U.S. as America-bashing, is frequently honest criticism we do not want to hear or feel we need not hear, even when it comes from good friends of America. I am reminded, in this connection, of the exchange between Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and German Foreign Minister Fischer that took place, I believe, at a NATO meeting around the time of the Iraq invasion. After Rumsfeld laid out the reasons why Iraq had to be invaded, Fischer said that he was not convinced by Rumsfeld’s arguments nor by the evidence he was presented. The indignant reaction with Fischer’s views were met on the part of the U.S. resembled the uproar I would expect if at a Vatican meeting some dared to challenge Papal infallibility.

Whether or not he was right not to be convinced, Fischer had a right to say that he was not convinced. Instead, he and Germany were attacked as ungrateful allies. What struck me as particularly ironic about the Fischer/Rumsfeld exchange and the U.S. reaction to it, was that for the last 50 odd years we have tried to teach Germany democracy and to help rid itself of its long militaristic tradition. And when we seem to have succeeded in this truly monumental endeavor, we attack its leaders for not following the U.S. blindly into a military adventure that a large segment of the German public opposed. What short memories we have!

We have grown very arrogant in recent years. As a result, we have made enemies at a time when we need friends. Unbecoming of our democratic tradition, we seem to have become intoxicated with our military might, forgetting that even super powers need friends. It is not enough to preach democracy, human rights and the rule of law. We must be seen to practice what we preach, not only at home but also abroad. Lately we have been doing too much of the latter and too little of the former.

I suppose all of us react differently to the recent news of the treatment of Iraqi detainees by U.S. soldiers. This is not surprising since it is a tragedy of many dimensions. As is natural, we all feel a deep sympathy for the victims themselves and disgust that anyone wearing a U.S. military uniform would so dishonor it. But beyond that, I also feel that millions of people around the world and I personally have lost something very special, something very precious. As you know, I have spent the greater part of my professional life promoting the cause of human rights and the rule of law around the world. In that endeavor, one of my most valuable assets had always been the admiration felt for the United States and for what we stood for. At times, I could sense that admiration even on the part of foreign government officials who resented U.S. advocacy of human rights. These sentiments made it difficult for those who sought to accuse the U.S. of hypocrisy to make the charge stick. They also provided the U.S with tremendous leverage to save human lives.

We have lost this very status – our credibility – at least for the time being. Apart from the adverse consequences for our foreign policy objectives, it is a truly tragic development for millions of people in many different parts of the world. Of course, what happened in that terrible prison in Iraq in recent months pales by comparison with the horrible crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in many parts of the world, including the recent beheading of that innocent young America, Nick Berg. But that is not the point. The point is that the United States has lost the moral high ground – I hope only for the time being. By losing it, it has deprived many current and future victims of human rights violations of their most effective advocate and protector.

America has much to give to the world and much to learn from it, and we lawyers have an important role to play in the process. It is critical, therefore, that America not weaken its commitment to the rule of law, to human rights, to democracy, to tolerance, and its compassion for the suffering of others. Contrary to what some believe, these are our most effective weapons in the struggle against terrorism. It is my fervent hope that you, our next generation of lawyers, will have the wisdom and the courage to fight for these values at a time when they appear to be threatened by international terrorism and by those who would capitalize on our fears of terrorism by advocating misguided policies and engaging in abusive practices incompatible with these values and America’s long-term political interests.

Welcome to a great profession and congratulations again!

More About Thomas Buergenthal
Before joining the International Court of Justice, Buergenthal was a member of the Law School faculty where he served as the Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence and as director of the International and Comparative Law Program.  Prior to joining the Law School in 1988, Judge Buergenthal was dean of the American University Washington College of Law. He also has held endowed professorships at the University of Texas and Emory University. An active writer, he has authored more than a dozen books and innumerable articles on international law and human rights.

©2004 The George Washington University Office of University Relations, Washington, D.C.
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