The professional professor.

• Author: Syverud, Kent D.
• Position: International law teacher

Welcome to the Vanderbilt Law School and to this happy occasion in which we reflect on the life and career of Jonathan Charney. I say this is a "happy" occasion deliberately. There have been two months and a lot of tears since Jonathan died, and I know for many people here including me the loss is still deeply felt in expected and unexpected ways. But we are celebrating today, and we should be happy as we reflect on the extraordinary career and accomplishments and life of Jonathan Charney.

We have some special guests with us today. From Jonathan's family, we have Sharon Charney, his beloved wife, and his children Noah, Tamar, and Adam. Rita Charney, Jonathan's mother, is here, as are his brothers Richard and Robert Charney, his cousin Andy Shookhoff, and his cousins Peter Greenfield and Judith Starbuck.

Representing the American Journal of International Law and the American Society of International Law, we are happy to welcome three of our speakers today, Professor Richard Bilder from the University of Wisconsin Law School, Professor Louis Henkin of the Columbia University Law School, and Professor Michael Reisman of the Yale Law School. Also representing the Journal and the Society, we are grateful for the attendance of Professor Bernard Oxman of the University of Miami Law School.

I'd also like to acknowledge Judge Martha Daughtrey of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, a former colleague of Jonathan's on the Vanderbilt faculty; Judge Aleta Trauger of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, a former student of Jonathan's; my colleague William Smith, Dean of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University; Dean Susan Karamanian of the George Washington University Law School; Professor Mary Ellen O'Connell of the Ohio State University Law School; and Dr. Craig Sussman of the Vanderbilt University Medical School, who was Jonathan's doctor at Vanderbilt these past years.

Jonathan influenced the lives of many students, professors, judges, lawyers, and policymakers who could not be here today. I have received an outpouring of letters, tributes, and notes of anguish from people all over the world who learned of Jonathan's passing and this event and could not attend. They include everyone from government ministers and U.N. officials to former students or readers of his work. I cannot read them all today, although I will share them with the family and with the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational...