Contributed by Douglas Heidenreich, Professor, William Mitchell College of Law
William Mitchell College of Law is a venerable institution with a lot to be proud of. I have taught here for nearly half a century; my subjects have for the most part been relatively technical ones—basic contract law and related courses—but I also teach Professional Responsibility, which is the modern version of the course that was, many years ago, called Legal Ethics. When, a couple of years ago, I learned that William Mitchell was to welcome onto its campus an organization called World Without Genocide, I didn’t think a lot about it.
After the organization had officially moved here, my friend and colleague, Professor Phebe Haugen, visited one of the classes that Dr. Ellen Kennedy, the Executive Director of World Without Genocide, was teaching to a group of our students, and at her urging I attended as well. Besides being impressed with the knowledge that Dr. Kennedy displayed and the skill with which she handled the class, I was struck by the significance of what she was doing and the importance of her work for all of us.
We here at William Mitchell talk a lot, as everyone does these days, about the shrinking world and the importance of a global society. Some of our students have served in foreign lands in the military conflicts in which the country is involved. Some of our alumni have served as judges in some of the special tribunals than have been established to deal with the horrors that have rent the social fabric of countries of whose existence we once were barely aware. One of our faculty members is counsel for a defendant in a proceeding before one of those tribunals. We all, faculty, staff, and students, are committed to the fundamental principles of justice and fairness and the rule of law. What issue can be more important for future lawyers—for future citizens—in a global society than the problem of man’s inhumanity to man?
So, I do what I can to support this program and to encourage the wonderful person who is its guiding light. As our students progress through law school, studying sometimes-arcane principles and theories, they need to think about more than how to start a lawsuit or draft a contract or negotiate a settlement of a legal dispute. Important though those matters are, our students need the chance to think about, talk about, and study the fundamental issues of evil and its manifestations in this world that they are poised to enter. I consider this to be one of the most important things that we do here at William Mitchell, and I am proud that we are giving our students and the other members of our community this opportunity.
