China’s Legal System
More than 90 scholars from around the globe visited Michigan Law in October for a once-in-a-generation conference on Chinese law. The three-day gathering was convened by the Law School and U-M’s Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies with the extraordinary support and vision of L. Bates Lea, ’49. The conference, “China’s Legal System at 40 Years—Towards an Autonomous Legal System?,” brought together scholars in law, political science, sociology, history, anthropology, and economics, as well as Chinese judges, lawyers, and legal activists, to engage in an intensive dialogue about the Chinese political legal system. The conference was co-organized by Nicholas Howson, the Pao Li Tsiang Professor of Law, and Mary Gallagher, director of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies.
Transnational Law
A diverse group of global academics and practitioners, including senior officials from the United Nations and the Africa Union, gathered at Michigan Law for the Transnational Law Conference. “International Legal Argumentation Outside the Courtroom” was the focus of the two-day event, held in November. Steven Ratner, the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law and a conference co-organizer, said he has had a longtime interest in the question of how legal arguments persuade and affect audiences outside courtrooms, and was eager to delve into the topic with the other 13 invited participants. The conference, which was co-sponsored by U-M’s Donia Human Rights Center, provided a forum for attendees to share their interdisciplinary perspectives and scholarly papers on various subjects, including international humanitarian law and non-state actors, cybersecurity, human rights, and non-proliferation.
Reingold Retires
After 30-plus years of teaching at the Law School, Clinical Professor of Law Paul Reingold retired on December 31. Reingold, who directed Michigan Law’s Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic from 1983 to 2018, taught his last class on December 5, before which faculty gathered to applaud his long teaching career.
JAG School
Michigan Law faced declining enrollment in the 1940s as a result of Selective Service requirements and the United States’ involvement in World War II. To fill the once-thriving Quad and to help the U.S. Army cope with its expansion in the wake of Pearl Harbor, Law School Dean E. Blythe Stason invited the Army to house its Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) School at Michigan Law. The school previously had been located at National University Law School in Washington, D.C., where it had outgrown the facilities. JAG members attended classes in Hutchins Hall, had daily drills in the Quad, and slept in the Lawyers Club. “After dinner, students were given an opportunity for rest and fraternizing in the comfortable Lawyers Club [before heading] back to quarters for the evening’s study assignment,” wrote Inzer B. Wyatt in The Army’s School for its Lawyers. Between September 1942 and January 1946—when the JAG School was deactivated at Michigan Law—2,684 officers and officer candidates graduated from the program, according to Elizabeth Gaspar Brown, author of Legal Education at Michigan.
2019 Distinguished Alumni Award
Alan Rothenberg, ’63, pictured with his wife, Georgina, received Michigan Law’s 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA) from Dean Mark West at a ceremony last fall in Los Angeles. The DAA recognizes extraordinary alumni whose achievements exemplify the values and ethos of Michigan Law. Rothenberg, a highly regarded expert in sports and business law, has provided decades of executive leadership to the National Basketball Association and helped initiate a new era of American soccer as president of U.S. Soccer—during which he established Major League Soccer and presided over two record-breaking World Cups hosted in the United States.—JW
