ICAS Bulletin
Institute for Corean-American Studies, Inc.
Harold Hongju Koh named Next Dean of Yale
Law School
Dear Friend:
We are pleased to share with you that
Harold Hongju Koh* has been appointed as Dean of Yale Law School beginning in July
2004. Below is Annoucement by Yale Law School:
November 04, 2003
Human Rights Expert Harold Koh Named Next Dean of Law School
Yale President Richard C. Levin
has announced the appointment of Harold Hongju Koh, an expert on human rights and
international law, as dean of Yale Law School beginning in July 2004. Koh, who has
taught at Yale Law School since 1985, served as Assistant Secretary of State for
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1998 to 2001.
"As a scholar, teacher, lawyer
and public servant, Harold Koh embodies those qualities that distinguish Yale's
great Law School?a love of learning and a passion for justice," Levin said. "He
is a natural leader who has earned the overwhelming support and confidence of faculty,
students, alumni, and staff. We all look forward to his stewardship."
Koh, 48,
the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, is one of
the country's leading experts on international law, international human rights,
national security law and international economic law. He has received more than
twenty awards for his human rights work. He was named by American Lawyer magazine
in 1997 as one of America's 45 leading public sector lawyers under the age of 45.
In 2000, he was named by A magazine as one of the 100 most influential Asian-Americans
of the 1990s.
"It is the greatest honor of my life to be asked to serve as dean
of the world's leading law school," Koh said. "For four decades I have been privileged
to participate in that unique community of commitment to world-class scholarship,
public service and professional excellence that Yale Law School represents. I look
forward to leading this school I love into a new global century."
Koh has written
more than 80 articles and authored or co-edited "Different But Equal: The Human
Rights of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities" (2003); "Transnational Business
Problems" (2003); "Deliberative Democracy and Human Rights" (1999); the "Justice
Harry Blackmun Supreme Court Oral History" (1995, release date 2004); "Transnational
Legal Problems" (1984); and "The National Security Constitution" (1990), which won
the American Political Science Association's award as best book on the American
presidency. His current research concerns why nations do or do not obey international
law.
A graduate of Harvard College, Oxford and Harvard Law School, Koh served as
law clerk to Judge Malcolm Wilkey of the D.C. Circuit, and Justice Harry Blackmun
of the U.S. Supreme Court. Before coming to Yale, he practiced law at the Washington,
D.C. law firm of Covington and Burling and at the Office of Legal Counsel at the
U.S. Department of Justice.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Koh is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and has been a Visiting Fellow
at All Souls College, Oxford. He is an Overseer of Harvard University and on the
Visiting Committee of Harvard Law School, an editor of the American Journal of International
Law and a member of the American Law Institute. He has received Guggenheim and Century
Foundation Fellowships and has been awarded seven honorary doctorates and law school
medals from the Villanova Law School and Touro Law School. In 2003, Columbia Law
School awarded him the Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award for his contributions to
international law.
Koh, whose five-year term will begin in July 2004, will succeed
Anthony Kronman, who is stepping down after 10 years as dean. "Under his leadership
the School has strengthened and deepened, innovative programs have been developed
and the facilities have been splendidly renewed," Levin said of Kronman.
The Koh
family came to New Haven in 1961. Professor Koh, his brother, Howard, his mother,
Dr. Hesung Chun Koh, and his father, the late Dr. Kwang Lim Koh, were recently named
to the K100, the 100 leading Koreans and Korean-Americans in the century of Korean
immigration to the United States. His parents and his sister, Jean Koh Peters, have
all taught at the Yale Law School. Professor Koh lives in New Haven with his wife,
Mary-Christy Fisher, an attorney at New Haven Legal Assistance Association, and
their children, Emily and William.
* Harold was Guest of Honour for the ICAS Annual
Liberty Award Dinner 2000 and a recipient of ICAS Annual Liberty Award.
November
04, 2003
Statement by Dean Anthony T. Kronman on the Appointment of Harold Hongju Koh as the New Dean of YLS
Harold Koh is a scholar of the first rank. His work
in the all-important field of international law is original and influential. No
scholar of his generation has done as much to shape the way we think about the law
of nations. Harold is also a fierce champion of human rights, the most urgent cause
of our time. His commitment to this cause, and to the promotion of the rule of law
in general, has been inspiring to us all. Harold is a beloved teacher and a warm
and generous human being. His appointment as Dean reflects the unanimous judgment
of his colleagues that he is the one person best equipped, by temperament and training,
to lead the Yale Law School in the next phase of its life.
As an academic leader,
Harold will insure the Law School's continuing preeminence in the world of scholarship
and ideas. As the School's representative to the wider world, he will be a passionate
voice on behalf of those values to which the Yale Law School has long been committed--the
values of justice, decency, and a respect for the humanity of men and women everywhere.
I am thrilled by Harold's appointment. He is not only my colleague but my dear friend
as well, and I look forward to working with Harold in the months ahead to assure
a smooth transition in the deanship and the continued greatness of the Law School
we both love.
Thank you.
Regards,
Sang Joo Kim / signed
Sr. Fellow & Executive Vice President
ICAS
|
|
|