BC Law Magazine Fall 2001 Boston College Law School
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Boston College Law School Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School Boston College Law School Magazine 10-1-2001 BC Law Magazine Fall 2001 Boston College Law School Follow this and additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclsm Part of the Legal Education Commons Recommended Citation Boston College Law School, "BC Law Magazine Fall 2001" (2001). Boston College Law School Magazine. Book 19. http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclsm/19 This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Law School Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SPECIAL SECTION: Annual Report on Giving FALL 2001 VOLUME 10 I N UMBER 1 Contents DEPARTMENTS 2 In Limine 3 Behind the Columns 4 In Brief 10 Gallery II Legal Currents LAW AND RELIGION: From the courtroom to the cloth GLOBAL JUSTICE: Inside a war crimes tribunal CONSTITUTIONAL IMPERATIVES: Introducing the American Constitution Society EMERGING ENTERPRISE: Copyright and the slippery slope of e-business 28 Faculty SCHOLAR'S FORUM: Making the FEAT U RES case for estate taxes PROFILE: Pragmatist True Confessions? Catharine Wells The characters in the late George Higgins's literary ACADEMIC VITAE crime novels offer a rare glimpse inside the writer's life and legal mind. By David Reich 36 Esquire ALUMNI NEWS 20 Why Rare Books? CLASS NOTES What difference do rare books make to a law school? A big difference, as a journey into Be Law's unusual 66 In Closing and accessible-collection shows. By Vicki Sanders Hard Pressed To talk or not to talk? How to protect your case, help your client, and defend your reputation when the media comes calling. By David Reich SPECIAL SECTIO N 45 Report on Giving On the Cover: Photograph by Jim Harrison FALL 200 I I Be LAW M AGAZI NE [ I N LIMINE BC 'LAW FALL 2001 A Sense of Belonging VOLUME 10 NU MBER 1 Dean John H. Garvey Inside Be Law Magazine, a new look at community Editor in Chief Vicki Sanders Contributing Editors e introduce a new look and new contents with this issue of the Deborah]. W. Coakley Wmagazine. The retooling starts with the publication's name, Stefanie Foster which has been abbreviated to BC Law Magazine, and ends with "In Closing," a back-page guest column that offers perspectives Photo Editor from outside the Law School. In between is this editor's note, "In Limine," Martha Wakefield with which I hope to establish a personal connection to readers, and "Legal Currents," a new section on trends and timely issues. They appear Copy Editor alongside such regular features as the dean's message, renamed "Behind Anna Snow the Columns," and alumni news, which has been repackaged as "Esquire" to include an expanded Class Notes section and a form to send us your Contributing Writers news. Nathaniel Kenyon The changes are not arbitrary. As BC Law grows and evolves, so too Linda Matchan must the publication that communicates what's happening here. We have Julie Michaels Judy Rakowsky tried with our new design, expanded use of photography, and rearrange David Reich ment of content to reflect the modern, vibrant community the Law School Maura King Scully is today. The topical articles on a variety of subjects focus on issues inside Jeri Zeder and outside the academy that may be beneficial to you personally and professionally. Design Consultant Another goal of our makeover is to enhance your feeling of identity Mark Gabrenya with the school. At a recent meeting of the Alumni Council, members were asked what BC Law meant to them. A common theme among their Design & Printing replies was a strong sense of belonging. We strive to ensure that such a Imperial Company bond endures for all alumni by using lively photography and engaging stories to bring you closer to the Law School and to each other. Photographers Many of you attended law classes on campuses different from John Harkey our current home in Newton, but place is not defined solely by Jim Harrison geography. Place is a feeling, a resource, a touchstone to which we Justin Allardyce Knight may return again and again to be reminded about what matters. Jared Leeds We hope the redesigned magazine will jog your memories about class Tony Loreti mates and favorite professors or courses, even as it shows you what Patrick O'Connor learning is like today inside the wired classroom, where laptops are Todd Plitt now as ubiquitous as notepads once were. Dana Smith We have introduced ways for you to stay in touch with us. You may give us your feedback on BC Law Magazine by filling out the Readers' Boston College Law School of Newton, Survey on Page 67. Use the form on Page 43 to bring us up to date on Massachusetts 02459-1163 publishes BC your recent activities or a change of address. You may also visit our web Law Magazine two times a year: fall and site at www.bc.edullawschool. spring. BC Law Magazine is printed by Imperial Company in West Lebanon, Only one thing more is needed: your letters. Please write to us. NH. We welcomes readers' comments. Respond to the information and opinions you read in these pages. Let Contact us by phone at 617-552-2873; us know what provokes you, what makes you laugh. Share your opinions by mail at Boston College Law School, Barat House, 885 Centre Street, Newton, with your fellow readers. A "Letters to the Editor" page awaits. MA 02459-1163; or by email at [email protected]. Copyright © 2001, Boston College Law School. All publica Vicki Sanders tion rights reserved. Editor in Chief Opinions expressed in B C Law Magazine do not necessarily refl ect the views of Boston College Law School or Boston College. 2 BC LAW M AG AZINE I FA LL 200 1 [BEHIND--- THE COLUMNS] The Worst of Times The simpler and less ambiguous our principles of freedom, the more effective they are when crisis tests the first amendment. by John Garvey s a member of the ABA Task Force on Terrorism and the Law, I have had cause to reflect anew on first amendment issues. A quick review of the past 100 years leads to one immediate observation: at times of crisis, concern for security has sometimes overwhelmed Americans' devotion to first amendment values. During World War I we passed the Espionage Act amendment, in other words, should be targeted for of 1917, which forbade people to "make.. .false state the worst of times." ments with intent to interfere with" the military suc What does that perspective tell us about free speech cess of the United States. Schenck v. United States, principles? They should be strong and simple. They Frohwerk v. United States, Debs v. United States, and should cover the activities most in danger in a crisis, Abrams v. United States, early first amendment cases, and they should be easy to understand-no three-part upheld convictions under this law. The American ver balancing tests, no complicated definitions, no (or sion of free speech was born at this time, but it was a almost no) exceptions. Here are three examples. First, dissenting position. During World War II Jehovah's people should be free to criticize the government. Sec Witnesses were persecuted for their supposedly anti ond, there should be no prior restraints on the press. American beliefs (Gobitis and Barnette). At the begin Third, people should be free to associate in political ning of the Cold War, the era of McCarthyism and a parties and religious groups. particularly bad time for the first amendment, we We have done a pretty good job of observing the prosecuted Communists under the Smith Act, which first two principles. But I sense some ambivalence forbade seditious speech and association (Dennis v. about the third. United States, Yates v. United States, Scales v. United There have been no attempts to suppress criticism States, Nota v. United States). of the Bush administration's conduct in the war on The 1960s brought a shift. It was the states, rather terrorism. Reporting on the war has sometimes irked than the federal government, that clamped down on the government, but the government has made little or civil rights and Vietnam War demonstrations, and the no effort to stop it. Given the ideology of the Septem Supreme Court leaned more toward liberty than secu ber 11 terrorists, however, there is reason to fear for rity, in cases like New York Times v. Sullivan. The Muslims' religious liberty. The President has been results were gratifying-progress on civil rights, an careful to distinguish between Muslims generally and end to an unpopular war, and a more robust first the AI Qaeda terrorist network. Similarly, Congress amendment. went out of its way in the new anti-terrorism law to The year 2001 brought the war on say that "the civil rights and civilliber terrorism, which is testing the limits ties of all Americans, including [Muslim of our liberties once again. Legal Americans], must be protected." But philosopher Vincent Blasi says it is Attorney General John Ashcroft sent a precisely for times like thest!"that we different signal when he expressed a should design our freedoms. Our desire to let the FBI begin spying again purpose, he writes, "should be to on political and religious groups. equip the first amendment to do max Let us be careful, in our concern for imum service in those historical peri domestic security, to identify our ene ods when intolerance of unorthodox mies one by one.