A three-day Conference honoring the scholarship and legacy of Professor Van Dyke was held in 2013 (January14, January 31 – February 1, 2013). The Chief Justice of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court and the Governor of the State of Hawaii provided the welcoming addresses. The Governor of the State and the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu issued proclamations declaring February 1, 2013 to be Jon Markham Van Dyke Day in the State of Hawaii and the City and County of Honolulu.
The program and panels reflected the issues that Professor Van Dyke felt deeply about. Some of the distinguished scholars who made presentations at the conference are as follows below. Papers from the conference were published by the University of Hawai`i Law Review. 35 U. Haw. L. Rev. 1 (2013).
Professor Jerome Cohen of the New York University School of Law and Director of the US - Asia Law Institute, one of Professor Van Dyke’s professors at Harvard Law School, opened the conference with the first lecture on “A New Era for Chinese Justice, Reflections on the Bo Xilai and Chen Guangcheng Cases.” Professor Harry Scheiber, University of California at Berkeley Law School, Director of the Institute for Legal Research, Stefan Riesenfeld Chair Professor of Law and History, Director Sho Sato Program in Japanese and U.S. Law, and Co-Director of the Law of the Sea Institute, and Jane Scheiber, research associate in the Center for the Study of Law and Society, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, Special Assistant to the Dean, College of Chemistry, UC Berkeley, where she recently retired as Assistant Dean, spoke at the historic Ali`iolani Hale Hawaii Supreme Court Building about Martial Law in Hawaii during World War II.
Judge Jin-Hyun Paik, Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and Professor of International Law at Seoul National University and formerly Dean of its School of International Studies, moderated the first panel on Northeast Asian Seas – Conflicts, Strategies for Peaceful Resolution and Accomplishments. Professor Joon-Soo Jon, Vice President Sogang University, former Dean of Sogang Business School and Professor at Sogang Business School moderated the second panel on International Environmental and Nuclear Law. Naoki Idei, Attorney and Professor of Law, Daito Bunka University Law School, Tokyo presented on Facing Mass Nuclear Damage Claims, Challenge of Japanese Judicial System facing Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident. Professor Sherry Broder spoke on Updating Nuclear Law.
Professor and JVD Institute Director Sherry Broder chaired panel five on Protecting the Ocean and Its Resources. Professor Nilufer Oral, Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey presented on A Particularly Sensitive Sea Are for the Black Sea; Elias Blood-Patterson, first NYU Jon Van Dyke Fellow, presented on US Ratification fo the Law of the Sea Treaty; and Duncan Currie, Director, Globalaw and former Pew Environment Group Consultant, presented on The State of the Oceans: Ways Forward How to Secure Professor Jon Van Dyke’s Legacy and Vision for the Oceans. Panel six included presentations by Professor Yoonkyeong Nah, Yonsei University, on Historical Issues Between Korea and Japan, Professor Tae-Ung Baik, WSRSL, on Stabilizing Democracy and Human Rights Systems in South Korea, and Professor Alison Conner, WSRSL, on Images of Justice (and Injustice) in China.
Dean David Caron delivered a keynote address on Anticipatory Public Trust Doctrine: A Means for Climate Change Adaptation.
The seventh panel on Utilizing Indigenous Tradition and Custom in Decision Making was chaired by Justice Richard Pollack of the Hawaii Supreme Court and a former student of Professor Van Dyke. Chief Justice Arthur Ngiraklsong of the Supreme Court of Palau and Justice Richard Torres of the Supreme Court of Guam spoke about the practices and decisions of their courts. Judge Richard Clifton of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals chaired the eighth panel on International Law and the Development of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Professor Dinah Shelton, Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law, George Washington University and Chairperson, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Professor James Anaya, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People and American James J. Lenoir Professor OF Human Rights Law and Policy, University of Arizona School of Law spoke on recent developments.
Attendees included the conference participants, William S. Richardson School of Law students, faculty and alumni, lawyers, government officials and judges.
