I greatly appreciate the privilege of giving the Jurisprudential Lecture this academic year at the University of Washington at the invitation of the Washington Law Review. It is a pleasure to return to this distinguished law school, which I visited years ago at the invitation of Professor Henderson. It is a particular pleasure for two reasons, apart from those of being at the University and revisiting Seattle. This occasion gives me the opportunity to see again one of my most valued former colleagues at the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Department of State, Professor Ted Stein. Professor Stein and I worked closely together in that great Office – perhaps the world's greatest office of the practice of public international law – in that happier day when the United States was plaintiff rather than defendant in the International Court of Justice – happier not of course for the imprisoned hostages; but I am sure you know what I mean when I use the word “happier.”

Another reason why it is a particular pleasure to speak is that I do so under Law Review auspices. I wonder how many of you appreciate how uniquely and refreshingly American is the institution of the law review. I refer not to legal journals, which are widespread throughout much of the world; I speak of law reviews, produced at law schools not by faculty but by students. Law reviews are remarkable instruments of legal scholarship, of legal education, and healthily American irreverence. The law review editor does not hesitate to edit whatever and whomever he or she can get his or her hands on.