Fifty Years Young: A Personal Note of Congratulations and of Appreciation

• Author: Joseph J. Norton
• Position: James L. Walsh Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Professor of Financial Law, SMU Dedman School of Law.
• Pages: 5-8

Fifty Years Young: A Personal Note of

Congratulations and of Appreciation

J

OSEPH

J. N

ORTON

*

My heartiest congratulations to the Leadership of the American Bar

Association’s (“ABA”) Section of International Law (the “Section”) on the

50th Anniversary

1

of its flagship publication, The International Lawyer

(“TIL”). Also, my most sincere appreciation to the Section for maintaining

its confidence in my law school, the SMU Dedman School of Law in Dallas,

and its international law faculty and law student body by having TIL’s

editorial home based at SMU for the past thirty years.

It is undisputed that TIL has established itself as one of the premier

international law journals in the English-speaking world, being one of the

most widely-cited international law journals and having the largest regular

readership touching over ninety countries. TIL has become a key

disseminator of the Section’s tagline of “Your Gateway to International

Practice,” to the Section’s strong commitment to the global embrace of the

“Rule of Law,” and to the Section’s ongoing promotion of inclusion and

diversity in its expanding membership base and in its leadership structure.

2

Thirty years ago, I had the privilege, along with my then faculty colleague,

Professor Dr. Werner Ebke (now a member of the Heidelberg Law Faculty),

to interview with the late Mont Hoyt and other Section Leaders, for SMU

to take the editorial baton of TIL from the most capable hands of the prior

Editor-in-Chief (“EIC”), Professor Bob Lutz.

3

Robert Rendell, who was the

Section President in 1986, strongly encouraged Werner and me to make this

* James L. Walsh Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Professor of Financial Law, SMU

Dedman School of Law.

1. TIL’s lineage can be traced back to the establishment of the ABA’s International Law

Committee in 1878: this Committee was one of the original seven Standing Committees of the

ABA. In 1933, this Committee became the Section of International and Comparative Law

under the great legal scholar, Professor John Henry Wigmore as its Chair. In 1981, the Section

was renamed the Section of International Law and Practice and in 2004 the Section was given

its present name of the Section of International Law. See, inter alia, Victor Folsom’s historical

discussions of the Section in 16 I

NT

’

L

L

AW

. 1, 119 (1982) and in 28 I

NT

’

L

L

AW

. 3, 587 (1994).

See also Lutz and Schildhaus, infra note 2

2. For information on the ABA Section of International Law, see generally Section of

International Law, A

MERICAN

B

AR

A

SSOCIATION

, available at http://www.americanbar.org/

groups/international_law.html.

3. Bob was to become President of the Section in 2001, and earlier in 2016 the Section

awarded him its 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award. Bob, along with another former President

of the Section, Aaron Schildhaus, have edited a most impressive volume, The ABA Section of

International Law, Leading the World’s International Lawyers since 1878 (ABA 2008) .

THE INTERNATIONAL LAWYER

A TRIANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE ABA/SECTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH

SMU DEDMAN SCHOOL OF LAW