United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, ambassadors from more than a dozen countries, and Georgetown University Law Center alumni, faculty, students and friends all participated in a day of celebration and pageantry Oct. 27 to dedicate Georgetown Law's new Eric E. Hotung International Law Center Building.
With the opening of the six-story, 125,000-square-foot Hotung Building, Georgetown Law - already recognized throughout the country and overseas as a leader in international, transnational, and comparative law - has gathered all of its international resources under one roof. Doing so enables the school to centralize and strengthen its international focus and bring faculty and students together from around the globe, Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff said during remarks at the early-afternoon dedication ceremony.
"This new building is a home for these new connections," Aleinikoff said. "The Hotung Building, in short, projects the future of the Law Center."
A centerpiece of the new building is the two-story John Wolff International and Comparative Law Library, which contains more than 107,000 volumes and volume equivalents in general areas of public and private international law, as well as more specialized materials encompassing international trade and environmental law, human rights law, and treaty law. The Hotung Building also now houses Georgetown Law's Office of International and Graduate Programs, two student-run international scholarly journals, and 14 classrooms and seminar rooms. In addition, the building features a moot courtroom modeled closely after the design of the Supreme Court, enabling Georgetown Law's Supreme Court Institute to provide appellate attorneys set to argue before the Court an opportunity to practice in as authentic an environment as possible.
More than 700 alumni, faculty, students, and guests attended the dedication ceremony, held just outside the Hotung Building on the Georgetown Law campus' new Tower Green. The ceremony began with a procession of Georgetown faculty and administrators, dressed in academic regalia, along with law students carrying flags representing many of the dozens of countries represented in Georgetown Law's student body. Part of the procession wound its way through Georgetown Law's new Sport and Fitness Center, which was dedicated last month and is another component of the school's Campus Completion Project.
In her keynote address, covered live on C-SPAN 2 and by other national media organizations, Justice O'Connor said Georgetown, with its new Hotung Building and presence in Washington, D.C., is now positioned to be one of the leading institutions for global legal studies worldwide. In an increasingly interconnected world, providing an international perspective is more important than ever, she said.
"The efforts that Georgetown makes to educate students in international law are efforts well-spent," she said. For lawyers today, "an understanding of international law is no longer a specialty; it is a duty."
The ceremony also featured videotaped messages from Baroness Brenda Hale – the United Kingdom's first female Law Lord - and Justice Michael Kirby of the High Court of Australia, as well as a benediction by Theodore Cardinal McCarrick of the Archdiocese of Washington. A ribbon-cutting concluding the ceremony featured Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia; Aleinikoff; former Dean Judy Areen, who spearheaded Hotung Building and other construction efforts during her tenure; and His Excellency Ambassador Eric E. Hotung, whose generosity helped make the new building possible.
During the ceremony, DeGioia praised Hotung's charitable and humanitarian work, especially on behalf of the newly independent East Timor. He also thanked Areen for her work to make the new building a reality.
"Her visionary leadership has fostered an exceptional sense of community on this campus," he said. "Dean Aleinikoff will build on this foundation for years to come."
Before the dedication ceremony, Georgetown Law Professor Jane Stromseth moderated a panel discussion sponsored by the Georgetown Journal of International Law on the "United States and International Law: Confronting Global Challenges." Panelists included William Taft, legal adviser for the U.S. State Department; Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks, associate professor for the University of Virginia School of Law; Georgetown Law Professor John Jackson; and David Scheffer, former U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues and visiting professor for the George Washington University Law School. They discussed topics ranging from use of force doctrines after 9/11, international trade, and the United States' relationship with the United Nations. |
C-Span(Webcast in RealPlayer): Oct 27, 2004 At Georgetown Law dedication ceremony for the new Eric E. Hotung International Law Center building
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Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor speaks at the Hotung Building dedication. |
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The Eric E. Hotung International Law Center Building. |
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Former Dean Areen, President DeGioia, Ambassador Hotung, and Dean Aleinikoff at the ribbon-cutting.
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