Dean Russell K. Osgood welcomed guests to the installation ceremony for Professor MJ Durkee, who is now the William Gardiner Hammond Professor in Law. Professor Durkee was introduced by her mentor, Dr. Shirley A. Mullen, President Emerita of Houghton University, before delivering her address “The Invisible Business of International Lawmaking.”
Professor Durkee is an expert in international law with a focus on international legal theory and specialties in business, environment, and governance. Her volume “States, Firms, and their Legal Fictions” was recently published by the Cambridge University Press, and she serves on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law.
WashULaw established this professorship in 2000 with funds from early benefactors who decided to create an endowment known as the “Subscription of 1936.” William Gardiner Hammond was appointed the first full-time dean and professor of the Saint Louis Law School (which later became the Washington University School of Law) in 1881. Professor Hammond’s character was demonstrated at Commencement in 1889; when the classmates of the first African-American to graduate from the School of Law refused to march with him, Professor Hammond accompanied Walter Moran Farmer down the aisle.
