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Youth Faces “The New Order”

On Monday morning, February 23, 1942, Justice Robert H. Jackson delivered the following speech in Buffalo, New York, at the University of Buffalo’s (UB’s)  2nd annual midyear convocation (commencement). The ceremony was held in UB’s Edmund Hayes Hall before almost 1,000 persons, including sixty-five degree recipients. Justice Jackson gave this speech half way through his first year as a Supreme Court justice and just twelve weeks after Japan's devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. He spoke to his Buffalo audience of Americans’ failure to grasp the drift of the world and the threat of Nazism, of the massive military struggle underway worldwide, and of the need for the U.S. to take the offensive in seeking to win a peace and a new world order based on reason, justice and personal freedom.

The Nurnberg Trial

The University of Buffalo is passing the century mark. But what is more significant is that it attains a venerable age without losing the spirit of youth. It today dedicates its century-old accumulation of experience and academic tradition to the intellectual and ethical advancement of the youth of the coming century. I take pride in being admitted to its circle and asked to speak on this occasion.

Lawyers Today: The Legal Profession in a World of Paradox

We are aware that lawyers exert an influence on the social and governmental policy of the United States that is disproportionate to their numbers. The same is true in varying degrees of the legal profession in other countries. Its function and interest everywhere are concerned with movement and policies that affect the fundamental legal structure on which the individual relies for security and free personality.

Nuremberg Trial of the Major Nazi Leaders

I gladly accepted the invitation to talk informally about the Nurnberg trial of the major Nazi leaders because it was supremely interesting and important work of my life and an experience that would be unique in the life of any lawyer. The proceeding itself was invested with a certain melancholy grandeur both from its nature and from the character of the parties.

America’s Lack of Success in Europe

Uppermost in the mind of every thoughtful youth today is this question: Will I have to go through another war? I cannot answer that question, of course, but perhaps I can point out some of the factors that will help you to determine the probabilities.

Address at St. Lawrence University

The enemies with whom hostilities so recently ceased were among the most literate, scientific and artistic peoples of the world. No European people could better meet a general education test than the Germans, and no Orientals were more proficient in the Western arts and sciences that the Japanese. Barbarians no longer menace civilization, for modern war is a complicated enterprise that only a generally educated nation can manage. Hence the paradox that a people is to be feared in direct proportion to its education.

Liberian Anniversary Address

Many different reasons have led to the foundation of different new nations. Liberia is the only one that occurs to me as having been founded to ease a troubled national conscience. It is an outgrowth of the most deplorable chapter in American history-one which still leaves an ugly residue of misunderstanding between races and, to some extent, between sections or our country.

A Country Lawyer at an International Court

One morning the telephone rang and we were asked about how to deliver a telegram to a man whom we happened to know but who had just moved into the neighborhood. Of course, we gave the information, but when they delivered the telegram he was surprised to find he had been identified so quickly and he said, "How did you ever know where to find me?" "Oh," said the telegraph man, "that was easy. We just called the Justice of the Peace:" (Laughter) So I claim that I am the first damn Yankee to be made a Virginia judge as quick as that.

Liberty Under Law

Words will hardly express my appreciation of this award. Its presentation evidences your fine generosity, whatever may be thought of the discrimination shown in your choice. You, and even I, must have reservations as to whether I deserve a place on the roll with the two extraordinary advocates on whom you have previously bestowed it. But I let no scruples stand in the way of eager and grateful acceptance.

Rule of Law Among Nations

On April 13, 1945, Justice Robert H. Jackson delivered a speech at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington D.C. This speech was given the day after the death of President Roosevelt. In the speech, The Rule of Law Among Nations, Jackson urged that any war crimes trials following the war be genuine, informed by due process and the rule of law, and not pruned proceedings, contrived to reach a designed end.