For Immediate Release
November 7, 2005

Contact:
Elissa Free, (202) 662-9500

Left to right: Jerome Grossman, Chairman of the Board, Council for a Livable World, Professor Robert Drinan, Sen. Edward Kennedy and Terry Lierman, Chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The well-known national arms control organization Council for a Livable World has established a major award named for Georgetown Law University Law Center Professor Robert F. Drinan, S.J. The Father Robert F. Drinan National Peace and Human Rights Award will be given annually by the Council to the individual who best exemplifies Drinan's commitment to peace and justice. 

Drinan is a longtime member of the Board of Directors of the Council and chairs its PeacePAC affiliate, which has supported many members of Congress devoted to stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the reduction, and eventual elimination, of all weapons of mass destruction.

Established in 1962 by nuclear physicist Leo Szilard and other scientists, the Council's mission is to warn the public and Congress of the threat of nuclear war and lead the way to arms control and nuclear disarmament.

Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, one of the speakers at the November 2 ceremony honoring Drinan, said, "The world is a safer place, and America is a better place today because of the leadership of Bob Drinan."

Drinan, in accepting the award, stated: "You've taken one more step tonight in creating the Drinan Peace Award so that people will be reminded: you just cannot make war."

Drinan – priest, scholar, lawyer, politician, activist and ethicist – has been a professor at the Law Center since 1981. He teaches classes on international human rights, constitutional law, civil liberties, legislation, and advanced legal ethics. He has been the recipient of 21 honorary degrees and has been a visiting professor at four American   universities. He also served as the dean of Boston College Law School.

He served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts for five terms, sitting on several congressional committees, including serving as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Criminal Justice Subcommittee. Drinan is a regular contributor to several law reviews and policy journals and is the author of 11 books on major public policy issues.

Drinan serves on numerous committees devoted to the furtherance of human rights and sits on the board of directors of the International League for Human Rights, Bread for the World, the Lawyer’s Committee for International Human Rights, the Council for a Livable World Educational Fund, Americans for Democratic Action, People for the American Way and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He is one of the founders of the Lawyer's Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry.  Drinan is also the vice chair of the National Advisory Council of the ACLU and a member of the Helsinki Watch Committee.

About Georgetown University Law Center

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, the Law Center has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body.

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