From the Dean
To alumni and friends,
I am truly thrilled to send you this issue of Duke Law
Magazine, which features our extraordinary, and growing, strength in legal issues relating to national security, foreign affairs, and global terrorism. Duke is uniquely positioned to generate the
high level of academic and policy programming on national security law described in this issue, given faculty experts Scott Silliman, Jeff Powell, Sara Beale, Erwin Chemerinsky, Chris Schroeder,
Walter Dellinger, Robinson Everett, Donald Horowitz, Madeline Morris, Neil Siegel, Jed Purdy, and–in a few months–Curt Bradley.
In addition to our faculty scholars, Duke’s strength in national security law is mirrored in the impressive activities of a number of our graduates, who are pioneering a field of practice that hardly existed at the time most of them attended the Law School. Some of them share their experiences in this issue. We know there are many other graduates involved in various aspects of this general area; please let us know more about your work in these fields so that we may accurately track your activities.
As this issue describes, Duke Law School also has become a magnet for experts from other institutions on national security issues. Guest speakers for the fall 2004 semester included, among others, 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick; Air Force Colonel Will Gunn; Georgetown Law Professor Neal Katyal; A.C.L.U. President Nadine Strossen; and a host of authorities who participated in the Program in Public Law’s conference on Interrogation, Detention, and the Powers of the Executive, including Vicki Jackson, John Harrison, John McGinnis, Nina Pillard, Dawn Johnsen, David Barron, Marty Lederman, and Randy Moss. Already this spring, a student-intitiated conference brought together top prosecutors and government officials on the front lines of prosecuting terrorism, including Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretaries David Stone (TSA) and Michael Garcia (ICE). In March, Duke Law School hosts the second annual training conference for federal judges on national security and terrorism, under the auspices of the Federal Judicial Center. In April, Duke’s Center on Law, Ethics and National Security will be hosting its eighth annual conference, this one examining strategies for the war on terrorism, featuring Ambassador Thomas E. McNamara and retired Major General John D. Altenburg, the Appointing Authority for U.S. Military Commissions, in addition to Duke’s own national security experts.
This Magazine includes a great deal of information about other academic and community developments at the Law School. Faculty-student, student-alumni, and faculty-alumni collaborations are critical components of the Duke Law experience. Whether it is student research for appellate briefs being prepared by faculty, unique student-initiated seminars, student-organized conferences, or special academic research projects, faculty and students at Duke continue to push the envelope of possibilities for the kind of partnerships out of which the strong community that has been the hallmark of a Duke Law School education is built. Some of these collaborations present particularly good opportunities for students to work on real cases and prepare for the kind of problem-solving tasks that lawyers perform. Opportunities are especially rich in areas of public interest law in which our faculty and alumni are most active.
While the building is abuzz with intellectual and service activity, it continues to undergo significant physical changes. To keep up with the latest construction developments, which include a new front façade on Science Drive, renovated classrooms, and a new 30,000 square-foot addition, please check our Building Project website, or come see us in person. If this is a reunion year for you, April 15—17 would be a particularly good time for you to return. In addition to seeing your classmates and our changing facilities, you will have the opportunity to attend an alumni-rich panel on hot topics in sports law, and participate in an exciting high-tech pilot video project designed by Professor Tom Metzloff for teaching U.S. Supreme Court cases (for CLE credit!). If you have missed notice of your reunion, the Reunion website is also a good source of information. Please stay in touch with us, and tell us about the news in your life.
Sincerely,
Katharine T. Bartlett,
Dean and A. Kenneth Pye Professor of Law