An address delivered at the Homecoming Dinner by Chief Justice Warren on the occasion of the dedication of the new law school facility, Catholic University Law School

Warren, Earl

English

The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law

Catholic University Law Review Volume 16 Issue 3 Article 2 1967 Law and Peace Earl Warren Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.edu/lawreview Recommended Citation Earl Warren, Law and Peace, 16 Cath. U. L. Rev. 249 (1967). Available at: https://scholarship.law.edu/lawreview/vol16/iss3/2 This Address is brought to you for free and open access by CUA Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Catholic University Law Review by an authorized editor of CUA Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact edinger@law.edu. Law and Peace*CHIEF JUSTICE EARL WARRENTHERE IS AN OLD FRENCH saying that the company makes the feast. Thesoundness of this observation could receive no more convincing demonstra-tion than this homecoming celebration tonight. Being able to share thisoccasion in the presence of the faculty, alumni, and friends of Catholic Uni-versity has given added lustre to an already impressive banquet.The dictionary definition of "homecoming" somehow seems to lack someof the special quality which this kind of event enjoys, for an academic home-coming is something sui generis. It provides alumni a chance not only torenew old friendships with each other but it affords them the all too infre-quent opportunity to get back in touch with matters academic and to learnwhat has been going on at their alma mater. The alumni, of course, hold avery special relationship to the university.Many years ago Will Rogers, the late cowboy humorist and philosopher-whose wise comments are not as familiar to the younger generation todayas they should be-alluded to this special status of alumni. He had been askedto address an impressive group which had been assembled by the Presidentof Columbia University and which included many alumni of that institu-tion. First, to soften up his audience for his stiletto, he observed that therewere more students in that university than in any other. "There are thirty-two hundred courses," he added. "You spend your first two years in decidingwhat courses to take, the next two years in finding the building that thesecourses are given in, and the rest of your life wishing you had taken anothercourse." Within the more manageable confines of Catholic University, I amsure that a similar problem would not exist. Having driven this point home,Mr. Rogers turned his attention to the alumni who were present on thatoccasion. He said: "And they have this wonderful society called the Alumni0 An address delivered at the Homecoming Dinner by Chief Justice Warren on theoccasion of the dedication of the new law school facility, Catholic University Law School.Catholic University Law ReviewAssociation, a bunch of men who have gone to school and after they havecome out, formed a society to tell the school how to run it."Tonight's homecoming is particularly meaningful to the alumni andfriends of Catholic University's Columbus School of Law. For tonight wetake note of a returning home in a very special sense. About twelve yearsago when the Columbus School of Law merged with the Catholic UniversitySchool of Law, the law school left its campus home to occupy the old Colum-bus properties on Eighteenth Street in downtown Washington. When thosequarters proved inadequate for the expanding needs of your law school, thedecision was made to build a new structure on the university campus. Theattractive and functional law school building which opened its doors lastSeptember was the happy result. Not only does your new building have themost modern facilities, but the planners have allowed for development andexpansion over the years ahead. And as these years go by I have no doubtthat the progress which we celebrate tonight will continue to manifest itselfin many different ways at the Catholic University Law School.But the full significance of this move from the downtown site back to theuniversity campus does not lie in mere transposition. As your distinguishedRector, Bishop McDonald, recently observed, the return of the law schoolto the university campus involves far more than a mere physical change.It means that your law students now take a more pertinent place in the uni-versity's community of education and play their rightful parts in the variedscholarly associations available in campus life.The location of a law school like yours in the Nation's capital providesthe members of the faculty and students with a unique opportunity for thestudy of law. Here at close range you can observe laws being made by ourCongress. You can attend the hearings at which the need for legislation isestablished. You can hear the debates on the floor of Congress where thepro's and con's are discussed from all angles. And by listening to appellatearguments in the Court over which I am privileged to preside, as well asattending sessions of other courts and government agencies in the Districtof Columbia, you have, in effect, front-row seats to observe still other aspectsof our legal and governmental system. Being able to behold these multifari-ous processes of government at such close range affords those at law schoolshere in Washington a chance to see our democracy in action which does notordinarily come to those pursuing their legal studies elsewhere. It was con-siderations such as these that prompted the late Justice Robert H. Jacksonto conclude, as your Rector has reminded us, that "no place in the countrycan compete with the Nation's capital as a training ground for lawyers."So a new law school building, which is located in the capital city of our greatcountry, provides a happy combination for both those who teach at CatholicUniversity's Columbus School of Law and their students.[Vol. XVILaw and PeaceLaw is the basic ingredient of civilization. It is the foundation-the verybedrock-on which all of the advances of mankind have been based. It isthe principle without which no people can hope to achieve progress. Lawis a part of the very fibre of mankind; it is part of the instinctive nature ofall of us, and without it progress is beyond attainment.Fortunately, this fact of life has been recognized by every nation that canlay any claim to being civilized. No country with a recorded history is with-out law of some kind. By the same token, no country can be said to have amonopoly on justice which is the guiding spirit of the law. Each of us pre-occupied with the law may have a predilection for the law of his own land.That is only natural. It is also proper, since a country's domestic law hasemerged from its history and culture. Such factors as geographical considera-tions, climate, and the like, have played their important roles in shapingthe development of law.At the same time, the differences which have emerged between legal sys-tems sometimes have a tendency to keep us apart from each other. We some-times tend to think of what we have as exclusively ours. But, as far as the lawis concerned, nothing could be further from the truth. For there is no sys-tem of law today with which I am familiar that has not derived, at least inpart, from other civilizations. The debt which we owe to the past is im-measurable. It should also be humbling. I have often thought that it wasthis very need for the law which brought civilization into being. Whereverany ancient civilization has been revealed-no matter how remote it mayhave seemed to be from other civilizations-its very existence has been shownto have depended upon a system of law.Against this background of law which each country has developed overthe centuries, it does seem strange, if not ironical, that the world is still insuch ferment today. Despite the progress which we like to think we havemade, disorder persists within our own society as well as within the societyof nations. It must, however, be abundantly clear that until this disorder iseradicated, law cannot fulfill its proper function and man cannot realizehis true destiny.So what do we search for as we pursue the study of law? What is the over-riding, the paramount objective? There can be but one answer.Our search is for peace.Realizing as we must today what consequences would attend the failureto attain this goal, it is all the more vital that we ask ourselves-and answer-some vital questions. No setting could be more suitable for such an in-quiry than the dedication of a new law school structure such as we celebratetonight.Is it sufficient for us to become acquainted with the law as it has developedthrough the centuries? Is it adequate to know what the law is today? Since1967]Catholic University Law Reviewwe know that the system has not achieved its true fulfillment, we must allacknowledge that the answer is No. Men and women of the law-be theyscholars, teachers, practitioners, or judges-must therefore commit them-selves to exploration of the conditions which have contributed to the law'sfailures both at home and abroad. We must research every phase of the lawwhich has heretofore been found wanting. We must probe the social short-comings, the societal defects, which have flouted the attainment of thatpeace which is the essence of true law, both domestic and international.I believe that no person has made a more impressive contribution in thepursuit of this quest for peace than your great spiritual leader, the late PopeJohn XXIII. He was able as perhaps no one else within our memory to ap-praise intuitively the hopes and the needs of mankind. He was a man ofsingular endowments, not the least of which was humility. He was a simpleman and among his other great attributes he possessed a great sense of hu-mor. If I may digress for a moment, I should like to recall one example. Avisitor once asked Pope John how many men worked in the Vatican. "Halfof them," the Pontiff replied.Of the many accomplishments of Pope John's all too brief reign, one ofthe most outstanding was the encyclical which he published in April 1963entitled "Pacem in Terris."The annals of civilization include certain great documents, both ancientand modern, which are of what I would term a seminal character. They havegerminated the principles of freedom and justice which have formed thebasis for the civilized world. They have served not only the immediate needsof the time-the special occasions for which they were issued-but constitutelegacies for ages to come. Twenty centuries before Christ, Hammurabigrounded the first recorded code of law upon the principle that it was "toprevent the strong from oppressing the weak." The great Magna Carta pos-sessed a lasting vitality in the development of individual liberties which fartranscends its role in the dispute between King John and the barons, whichit resolved at Runnymede over 750 years ago. Its timeless words, "To no onewill we sell, to no one will we deny, or delay right or justice," remain theshining beacon light by which our footsteps in the law are guided to thisvery day.Some seminal charters are scarcely known to us any more but, neverthe-less, have played impressive roles in the cause of freedom and justice. Thegreat Northwest Ordinance of 1787, for example, is an amazingly vital in-strument but is now a stranger to most of us. The Confirmatio Cartarum,issued almost five hundred years before that, is now virtually unheard of,yet it served as confirmation by Edward I that the terms of the Magna Carta"shall be kept in every point without breach."Students of the law are conversant with such documents as the Code of[Vol. XVILaw and PeaceJustinian and the Code of Napoleon. And familiar to us all are the Declara-tion of Independence, the Constitution with its Bill of Rights, and the Uni-versal Declaration of Human Rights. Many other kindred documents willcome to mind. I have no hesitancy in including in the category of these sem-inal charters, these almost timeless instruments of the civilized world, PopeJohn's encyclical "Pacem in Terris."It is acknowledged in all quarters that "Pacem in Terris," though a papalencyclical, belongs to all people, to non-Catholics and Catholics alike. Infact, it is the first encyclical in history ever addressed to "all men of goodwill." This historic papal proclamation is premised on the realization of theuniqueness of man and that his very survival depends upon resolution ofdifferences to achieve the common cause of peace. It has been observed thatit is not primarily Christian, Jewish or Hindu civilizations or any other civil-izations which are in jeopardy, but the civilization or life of man which isthreatened with extinction. As one commentator has expressed it, "It is notman's particularized beliefs but his own uniqueness that counts. For whatthreatens him is the loss of the basic conditions that make life meaningfuland purposeful." The premise for this underlying postulate is made clearat the very outset of Pope John's encyclical when he said:First of all, it is necessary to speak of the order which should exist betweenmen. Any human society, if it is to be well ordered and productive, must laydown as a foundation this principle, namely, that every human being is a per-son, that is, his nature is endowed with intelligence and free will. By virtue ofthis, he has rights and duties of his own, flowing directly and simultaneouslyfrom his very nature, which are therefore universal, inviolable and inalienable.A few passages later he said:By the natural law every human being has the right to respect for his person,to his good reputation; the right to freedom in searching for truth and in ex-pressing and communicating his opinions, and in pursuit of art, within the lim-its laid down by the moral order and the common good; and he has the rightto be informed truthfully about public events.And then:Every human being has the right to honor God according to the dictates ofan upright conscience, and therefore the right to worship God privately andpublicly.Later on in the encyclical Pope John addressed himself to the right of as-sembly and association and the right to take an active part in public affairs-rights which we Americans have cherished over the years.But his eloquent espousal of these and other precious rights did not di-minish the need for a reminder that obligations exist as well as privileges. Itis also clear in human society, the Pontiff was careful to note, that all per-1967]Catholic University Law Reviewsons have a duty to respect the rights of others. He minced no words whenhe declared:Those, therefore, who claim their own rights, yet altogether forget or neglect tocarry out their respective duties, are people who build with one hand and de-stroy with the other.We-all of us-would do well to bear these strictures in mind today. Weare a people who value our rights and liberties. We acknowledge today, inpartial atonement for the errors of the past, our failure to accord these rightsto our minority groups. Yet, without diminishing our commitment to themeaningful vindication of those rights, we must see to it that they are real-ized consistently with the law and order that are the very bulwark of oursociety.And just as is true in the area of domestic affairs, so in the relations of na-tions to one another, the rule of law and order must prevail. We are pain-fully aware of the conditions in various parts of the world which requiresolution. Pope John gave full attention to these in his encyclical-problemsof poverty, of unequal distribution of the resources of the earth, of the op-pression of minority groups, of political persecution, and countless otherconditions which can lead to dissension, unrest, and, ultimately, outrightviolence. But, however many are the causes of differences between peoples,the recourse to violence cannot be used to resolve disputes. Negotiation be-tween the peoples of the world and the rule of law which must result fromsuch negotiation must be used to settle disputes. As Pope John put it:It is true that on historical grounds this conviction is based chiefly on the ter-rible destructive force of modern arms. And it is nourished by the horroraroused in the mind by the very thought of the cruel destruction and the im-mense suffering which the use of those armaments would bring to the humanfamily. And for this reason it is hardly possible to imagine that in the atomicera war could be used as an instrument of justice.Nevertheless, unfortunately, the law of fear still reigns among peoples, andit forces them to spend fabulous sums for armaments: not for aggression, theyaffirm-and there is no reason for not believing them-but to dissuade othersfrom aggression.There is reason to hope, however, that by meeting and negotiating men maycome to discover better the bonds-deriving from the human nature which theyhave in common-that unite them, and that they may also come to discover thatone of the most profound requirements of their common nature is this: thatbetween them and their respective peoples it is not fear which should reign butlove, a love which tends to express itself in a collaboration that is loyal, mani-fold in form and productive of many benefits.The Pope went on to stress the importance of a public authority with world-wide power and instituted by common consent. He expressed the hope that[Vol. XVILaw and Peacethe United Nations Organization "may become ever more equal to the mag-nitude and nobility of its tasks, and that the day will come when every hu-man being will find therein an effective safeguard for the rights which derivedirectly from his dignity as a person."Within the compass of these few moments, I have not been able to do ade-quate justice to the "Pacem in Terris" encyclical; indeed, I have not beenable to probe more than the surface of its vast treasures. But as we dedicateyour new law school building, I can think of no worthier commitment forthose of you who are teachers at the Catholic University School of Law andthose of you who are privileged to be their students than to pledge your-selves to fulfilling as best you can the great promise which this documentholds for mankind. I make these remarks to you in no parochial sense."Pacem in Terris" belongs to us all, regardless of individual religionor creed. It was addressed to men of good will, and to men of good willthroughout the world it belongs.1967]

Law and Peace

https://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2885&amp;context=lawreview

Law and Peace

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law