The Third Annual Solf-Warren Lecture in International and Operational Law

• Author: Jack Goldsmith
• Position: Professor of Law at Harvard University
• Pages: 192-203

192 MILITARY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 205

THE THIRD ANNUAL SOLF-WARREN LECTURE IN

INTERNATIONAL AND OPERATIONAL LAW∗

REFLECTIONS ON GOVERNMENT LAWYERING

PROFESSOR JACK GOLDSMITH†

∗ Jack Goldsmith is Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law at Harvard University. He is the

author, most recently, of The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush

Administration (W.W. Norton 2007), as well as of other books and articles on topics

related to terrorism, national security, international law, conflicts of law, and Internet

law. Before coming to Harvard, Goldsmith served as Assistant Attorney General, Office

of Legal Counsel, from October 2003 through July 2004, and Special Counsel to the

General Counsel to the Department of Defense from September 2002 through June 2003.

Goldsmith taught at the University of Chicago Law School from 1997 to 2002, and at the

University of Virginia Law School from 1994 to 1997. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law

School, a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University, and a B.A. from Washington & Lee

University. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Court of

Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, and Judge George Aldrich on the Iran-U.S. Claims

Tribunal.

† This essay is an edited transcript of a lecture delivered on 24 February 2010 by

Professor Jack Goldsmith to members of the staff and faculty of The Judge Advocate

General’s Legal Center and School, their distinguished guests, and officers of the 58th

Judge Advocate Officer Graduate Course at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center

and School, Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Waldemar A. Solf Chair of International Law was established at The Judge

Advocate General’s School, U.S. Army (TJAGSA) on 8 October 1982 in honor of

Colonel (COL) Waldemar A. Solf. On 16 August 2007, the Chair was renamed the

Waldemar A. Solf and Marc L. Warren Chair in International and Operational Law.

Colonel Waldemar Solf (1913–1987) was commissioned in the Field Artillery in

1941. He became a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in 1946. He served

in increasingly important positions until his retirement twenty-two years later.

Colonel Solf’s career highlights include assignments as the Senior Military Judge in

Korea and at installations in the United States; Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) of both the

Eighth U.S. Army/U.S. Forces Korea/United Nations Command and the U.S. Strategic

Command; Chief Judicial Officer, U.S. Army Judiciary; and Chief, Military Justice

Division, Office of The Judge Advocate General (OTJAG).

After two years lecturing with American University, COL Solf rejoined the Corps in

1970 as a civilian employee. Over the next ten years, he served as Chief of the

International Law Team in the International Affairs Division, OTJAG, and later as chief

of that division. During this period, he served as a U.S. delegate to the International

Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Conference of Government Experts on

Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed

Conflicts. He also served as Chairman of the U.S. delegation to the ICRC Meeting of

Experts on Signaling and Identification Systems for Medical Transports by Land and Sea.

He was a representative of the United States to all four of the diplomatic conferences

that prepared the 1977 Protocols Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. After his

successful efforts in completing the Protocol negotiations, he returned to Washington and

was appointed the Special Assistant to The Judge Advocate General for Law of War