Law is the foundation of society’s economic, social, and even physical health—a fact never taken for granted in the countries you work. As Executive Director of the American Bar Association’s Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, you have been midwife to new legal systems in scores of countries emerging from the broken social structures left by despots and outside domination. Through Initiative efforts, more than five thousand American and European judges, attorneys, and legal specialists have contributed more than two-hundred-million dollars in pro bono assistance to new democracies. Where new tyrannies of lawlessness and corruption threatened to spread, the Initiative has helped build civil societies by advising on new constitutions; on training lawyers, judges, and government officials; on reforming law school curriculums; and on educating citizens about their newfound rights. Armenia is one country that as a result has passed constitutional reform that increases legal protections, improves the balance of power between the legislature and the executive, and establishes a more independent judiciary. The Initiative also helped set up the Women’s Legal Assistance Center in Tajikistan and filed more than eleven-hundred citizenship applications for Roma living in Macedonia. Your career in promoting the rule of law includes earlier work as head of the Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch and soon as leader of The American Society of International Law. The benefit of these efforts extends well beyond the citizens of those increasingly stable societies to all of us in this increasingly interconnected world. In recognition of your distinguished achievement in promoting the rule of law worldwide, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.
Megamenu Social