Treasuring What is Golden: The International Lawyer at Fifty

• Author: Robert E. Lutz
• Position: Paul E. Treusch Distinguished Professor of International Legal Studies at Southwestern Law School. Former Chair, ABA Section of International Law, Editor-in-Chief of The International Lawyer (1983-87), and Chief Editor of The Year in Review (1997).
• Pages: 19-21

Treasuring What is Golden: The International

Lawyer at Fifty

R

OBERT

E. L

UTZ

*

For fifty years The International Lawyer (“TIL”), the flagship publication

of the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law (“SIL”), has

served to keep its membership

1

apprised of developments, trends, and

academic analyses of international legal concerns. And it has served those

purposes well. Starting from a newsletter format in 1966 to inform the

Section’s members of Section activities and events,

2

the journal grew to a

full-content law journal, much in the image of academic law school reviews

(and, incidentally, The Business Lawyer of the ABA Section of Business Law),

but representing concerns of the practicing international lawyer. This focus

is reflected best by much of its content over the fifty years, but most recently

by the very successful annual publication of The Year in Review

3

from 1997 to

2015 as one or more of the Journal’s four annual issues.

For Volumes 18, 19 and 20 (1984-1986), I had the pleasure of being the

Editor-in-Chief of The International Lawyer.

4

During my editorship, TIL

marked its twentieth year of publication and celebrated it in true fashion—

by publishing a “Happy Twentieth Anniversary” issue of 450 pages.

5

During

that phase, a typical issue contained a rich mix of practical articles for

practitioners and some coverage and analysis of major current legal

developments, symposia on relevant legal subjects, major reports on

international subjects usually authored by ABA Committees, case notes and

comments, selected topical or general bibliographies, and book reviews.

* Paul E. Treusch Distinguished Professor of International Legal Studies at Southwestern

Law School. Former Chair, ABA Section of International Law, Editor-in-Chief of The

International Lawyer (1983-87), and Chief Editor of The Year in Review (1997).

1. Now unofficially the circulation of the each issue of The International Lawyer is

approximately 24,000 readers, the number of ABA SIL members.

2. See James T. Haight, Recalling the Origins of The International Lawyer, 1965-1966, in THE

ABA SECTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW—Leading the World’s International Lawyers

since 1878, 33-35 (Robert E. Lutz & Aaron Schildhaus, eds. 2008).

3. The Year in Review is an annual compilation of reports and analyses by the 50+ substantive

law Section Committees about major legal developments of the past year in the Committee’s

field of law.

4. During much of my editorship (from Vol. 18, No. 4 to Vol. 20, No.4, I also had the good

fortune to be assisted by my good friend, Dan Magraw, as Associate Editor, and by a small

number of dedicated and very able Southwestern Law student research assistants.

5. 20 I

NT

’

L

L

AW

. No. 1 (Spring 1986). My editorship was responsible for 3 volumes (12

issues) of TIL, amounting to 4055 printed pages.

THE INTERNATIONAL LAWYER

A TRIANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE ABA/SECTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH

SMU DEDMAN SCHOOL OF LAW