For Immediate Release
October 17, 2006

Contact:

Kara Tershel
Elissa Free, (202) 662-9500

Professor Drinan

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Georgetown University Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff is pleased to announce the establishment of the Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Chair in Human Rights.  A formal announcement ceremony will be held at Georgetown Law on October 23, with a keynote address by human rights advocate and Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh.

"Few have accomplished as much as Father Drinan, and fewer still have done so much to make the world a better place," said Aleinikoff. "This new Chair honors Father Drinan's lifelong commitment to public service and will allow us to bring distinguished human rights scholars and advocates to Georgetown Law.  We are grateful to the alumni and friends whose generosity will help to perpetuate Father Drinan’s indelible legacy."

The Drinan Chair will bring distinguished visiting faculty to Georgetown Law beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year when Judge Thomas Buergenthal will become the first Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Visiting Professor in Human Rights.  Buergenthal is the American judge on the 15-member International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.  The timing of Buergenthal’s teaching visits at Georgetown Law will be determined by the Court’s calendar.

Priest, scholar, lawyer, politician, activist, ethicist and one of the nation’s leading advocates for international human rights, Drinan has dedicated his life to humanitarian causes and to improving the legal profession.

A leading voice in the human rights movement from more than half a century, Drinan is one of the founders of the Lawyers’ Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry.  He is also the vice chair of the National Advisory Council of the ACLU and a member of the Helsinki Watch Committee.

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, Human Rights First, Bread for the World, the Council for a Livable World Educational Fund, Americans for Democratic Action, People for the American Way and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

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

Drinan served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts for five terms (1971-1981), sitting on several congressional committees, including serving as chairman of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Judiciary Committee.  He has traveled the globe both as a member of Congress and as a private citizen on human rights missions to Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sudan, Israel, the former Soviet Union, Chile, the Philippines, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Argentina.

A regular contributor to several law reviews and policy journals, Drinan is also the author of 12 books on major public policy issues including, "Can God and Caesar Co-Exist? Balancing Religious Freedom & International Law" (Yale Press, 2004), and "The Mobilization of Shame: A World View of Human Rights" (Yale Press, 2001).  He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the 2004 American Bar Association (ABA) Medal and the 2006 Congressional Distinguished Service Award.

 

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, Georgetown Law 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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