School Notes: Yale Law School
January/February 2008

Sterling professor honored with book award

Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science Bruce Ackerman ’67LLB was honored by Scribes: The American Society of Legal Writers for the best law book published in 2006. Ackerman was named co-winner of the Scribes Book Award for Before the Next Attack: Preserving Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism, published by Yale University Press.

In the book, Professor Ackerman addresses the threat to civil liberties posed by terrorist attacks that trigger the enactment of repressive laws. He proposes an "emergency constitution" that enables government to take extraordinary actions to prevent a second strike in the short run while prohibiting permanent measures that destroy our freedom over the longer run.

Scribes is a national society of judges, lawyers, law professors, legal publishers, legal writers, and legal editors dedicated to improving legal writing across the profession. The Scribes Book Award has been awarded annually since 1961 to honor the best work of legal scholarship published in the previous year.

YLS graduate named to Connecticut Supreme Court

Barry R. Schaller ’60, ’63LLB, was sworn in as a Connecticut Supreme Court justice on September 24, 2007. He replaced Justice David Borden, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. Justice Schaller earned his BA from Yale in 1960. He currently teaches in Yale Law School's Trial Practice class. "The opportunity to participate in judicial decision-making on the Supreme Court of Connecticut is very meaningful to me," said Justice Schaller. "It represents, in some respects, the culmination of many years of work on the trial and appellate courts. It also represents a rare opportunity to decide cases that may have an impact, not only on individual litigants, but on the growth of the law in many important areas."

Justice Schaller practiced law with Bronson & Rice in New Haven before being appointed to the Connecticut Superior Court bench in 1974 and to the Appellate Court in 1992. He has taught and lectured widely and plans to continue teaching on a wide range of subjects, including bioethics and public health law and ethics. His newest book, Understanding Bioethics and the Law: The Promises and Perils of the Brave New World of Biotechnology, was published in November.

YLS alums gather for two-day reunion in London

More than 50 Yale Law School alumni, ranging from the Class of 1949 to the Class of 2007, as well as deferred students from the classes of 2011 and 2012, gathered in London on October 21 and 22. Dean Harold Hongju Koh, Associate Dean Toni Davis ’92LLM, Assistant Director of Alumni Affairs Abby Roth ’94JD, and Professor Jay Pottenger Jr. ’75JD joined the group for an educational and fun-packed two days that included panel discussions, dinners, a walking tour of "Legal London," a cruise along the Thames, and a visit to the "Golden Age of Couture" exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Participants also had the opportunity to observe courtroom proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice and to hear presentations by English barristers from Brick Court Chambers, which specializes in commercial law, European Community law, administrative law, antitrust, and human rights. The graduates in attendance came from an extraordinary number of locations, including France, Italy, Turkey, Croatia, Switzerland, Germany, Egypt, Belgium, England, and the United States.