Heartfelt congratulations to Elizabeth L. Hillman (left), aka IntLawGrrl Vera Brittain: Rutgers-Camden School of Law, N.J., just named her 2007 Professor of the Year! It's a well deserved honor for this scholar of military justice, American legal history, and gender and sexuality in the law, and author of the excellent 2005 book, Defending America: Military Culture and the Cold War Court-Martial. Fittingly, Beth's speech at Rutgers' graduation last week made note of the war in Iraq: Every war challenges our understanding of the law, but this war has put law in its cross-hairs. Its rationale, its interrogations, its detentions, its re-shaping of the relative powers of our branches of government have profound consequences for our legal present and future.
Beth spoke of 1st Lt. Andrew Bacevich, Jr., killed this month in the conflict about which his father, an international relations professor, has written thoughtful critiques:
We no longer have the gifts of the young Andy Bacevich to help us recover from the errors of this war. But we do have you. You are his contemporaries – some of you will even be fellow military officers – and we need your insight and passion to move beyond this conflict.Hers was a message for all.
