The NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, a student publication “devoted to the development and analysis of classical liberal thought,” held its first Friedrich A. von Hayek Lecture in Law last September, featuring the energetic and engaging Professor Richard Epstein as its inaugural speaker.

Epstein, who is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, kicked off his brief in-residence stay at NYU with his lecture “Intuition, Custom and Protocol: What Are the Sound Sources of Human Knowledge?” During his talk, he examined how Hayek might have understood human nature, our traditions and the choices we make, and then applied Hayek’s theory of spontaneous order—defined as unplanned cooperation among members of a society—to legal frameworks.

Intuition, as Epstein defined it, relies on a set of three basic societal norms: condemnation of acts of aggression, reciprocity in social transactions and revulsion of acts of deviance. These norms suppress violent crime, set the terms for contracts and prohibit taboo acts. Unlike Hayek, who believed that an individual’s moral compass guides a society toward order, Epstein asserts that people will inevitably find exceptions and ways to circumvent these norms (killing in self-defense, for example) and so the creation of laws to sort things out is always necessary.

To define custom, Epstein cited the development of language. No centralized government agency forms a language; rather, it is a collective product agreed upon and utilized by individuals gradually over time. However, in order to resolve extremely critical issues facing a society (the depletion of natural resources, unfair compensation for land), custom may need to be forsaken, allowing a forced evolution to take place in the form of legislation—something somewhat contradictory to Hayek’s laissezfaire philosophy of spontaneous order.

Epstein compared his final topic, protocol (which he defined as “a rigorous program that you follow, come hell or high water”), to intuition by highlighting how, in modern day cases of risk assessment and liability, stringent steps need to be taken and regulations must be observed in order to keep society safe. Epstein explored Hayek’s theory’s restrictions by suggesting that protocol based on data, and instituted by one central organization, will serve society better than multiple individuals deciding things for themselves.

Boiling down Hayek’s model to an image, Epstein remarked that Hayek’s legal system would “have sharp boundary lines, and then once those boundary lines are clear, let individuals figure out what to do.” He recounted that Hayek argued a dispute with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1944, during which New Deal Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter countered Hayek and said that the government should draw those boundary lines, and, as with a highway, also control the traffic’s flow. “Hayek said that the reason why highways work is that we set the rules and you figure out where to go,” Epstein said, adding, “We have had an empirical test: Highways do just fine—the FCC doesn’t do so good!”

“How much do you hate pie, Dean Revesz?” Carter asked.

“Lots!” replied Revesz, as the bids kept rolling in.

Too bad for the dean, because he and Sexton were about to square off against Jay Neveloff ’74 and Beverly Farrell ’01 in an impromptu pie fight that brought in $1,050 to benefit the Law School’s summer programs in public interest.

The auction’s proceeds help fund students to work at public interest organizations both in the United States and abroad. Last year, reports Deb Ellis, assistant dean for the Public Interest Law Center, NYU funded more than 300 students working in 31 countries.

In the end more than $139,000 was raised, making this year’s auction the most successful in the history of the event. Alumni helped plan this auction—a first—and their participation was a big reason for the record-breaking outcome. The 22-person alumni auction committee, chaired by Neveloff and his wife, Arlene, worked with students to solicit donated items from members of the community for both the silent and live auctions. As a result of their efforts, the auction itself was awarded the President’s Service Award for Volunteerism and Community Service, which recognizes outstanding efforts to support charitable causes at the university, and in the greater community of New York City.

The alumni effort was also reflected in the greater variety and sophistication of the prizes. During the silent auction, held in Greenberg Lounge, guests bid on weekend getaways to Colorado’s Beaver Creek resort, vintage Bordeaux and dinners at top restaurants such as Babbo and Lever House.

The stakes were raised in Tishman when guest auctioneers Jason Washington ’07 and Professors Cynthia Estlund and Samuel Issacharoff brought bidders to their feet, pitting students against alumni for extravagant prizes.

A night of tournament poker with World Series of Poker record-setter Wendeen Eolis went for $2,500, while a diamond necklace from M. Fabrikant & Sons was snatched up for $6,000. The night’s largest bid, commanding an impressive $6,700, fetched a pair of Super Bowl tickets and VIP passes to a Friday night pre-game party in Miami.

“The Public Service Auction represents student and alumni support for our commitment to public interest legal practice,” says Ellis.

“It was gratifying to see the superb job the student committee did, and the overwhelming support of the faculty and alumni,” Neveloff said, adding, “besides, where else can you see President Sexton and Dean Revesz getting pies thrown in their faces?”

On the morning’s agenda was an informal yet dynamic discussion between Robert Bauer and Benjamin Ginsberg, principal lawyers for the Democratic and Republican parties respectively, each with a distinct perspective on the complicated nature of the American election process.

On hand to provide further analysis were Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law Richard Pildes and University of Minnesota law professor Guy-Uriel Charles.

“These are the people who have shaped the way that politics is done in the United States—for better or worse,” said Issacharoff, the Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law, as he introduced Bauer and Ginsberg. “Both play a critical role in the way our political system functions.” Issues such as redistricting, voter exclusion and campaign finance reform came to life in the firsthand stories and anecdotes of these two Beltway insiders.

“My name is Ben, and I’m a Republican,” joked Ginsberg before launching into a discussion of the logistical problems at the polls that have plagued both parties—from the recurrent stuffing of ballot boxes to the controversial 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. When it comes to contemporary elections, the Democrats, Ginsberg said, are the con artists and the Republicans are the thieves.

Redistricting was another hot button topic. Ginsberg contended that redrawing geographical boundaries is necessary to change political bases, describing incumbents, with their 98 percent reelection rate, as wallowing in inefficiency, apathy and corruption. “Redistricting,” he said, “is an area of raw human emotion for the elected officials.” Bauer agreed on the emotional nature of redistricting, but questioned the process by which seats are reallocated. “One of the peculiar pathologies of the United States is that we allow politically self-interested actors to have various powers over the democratic system—like the design of election districts—that virtually no other democracy does,” Pildes chimed in.

Bauer also focused on low voter turnout and a general sense of public disengagement as problems for both parties. He noted that in recent years Democrats and Republicans have each crept closer to the other’s ideologies in order to gain votes. This is why, said Bauer, radical ideology is becoming the trump card that might decide an election.

On campaign finance reform, Ginsberg and Bauer concurred that legislative restrictions have led to the creation of special interest groups that wage their own election ad campaigns.

“What you get is less branding by the parties,” said Ginsberg, pointing to groups such as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (for whom Ginsberg served as counsel), which mounted sharply worded partisan attacks during the last presidential election season.

“Where is the boundary?” Bauer asked, wondering if the increasing visibility and influence of special interest groups was in part due to dissatisfaction with the recent crop of candidates and their lack of focus on issues most important to voters.

In the end, the speakers were more hopeful than cynical about the future, while acknowledging the mistakes of the recent past. Ginsberg said that the disenchanting legal battles that follow “flawed elections” are fought in order to alleviate voters’ fears and hopefully bring them out to the polls.

That comment led Leith, who at the age of 31 was planning a career change, to apply to law school. But what confirmed for him that law was the right choice was his experience in the Federal Defender’s Clinic.

With three other clinic students, Leith represented an ambulance driver accused of disorderly conduct. “Students are only allowed to do petty offenses,” says Leith of the case. “But it’s not petty to the defendant.”

Weeks of preparation, including reviewing testimony and dissecting a surveillance video, led to Leith presenting evidence and crossexamining witnesses during a seven-hour trial, at which Leith’s client was acquitted.

“After you get to know your client and his story, you get really invested for the sake of the defendant,” says Leith. “We were scared to death of letting him down.”

Leith observes that performing in a band onstage has many similarities to arguing in a courtroom before a judge and jury. His next gig? Working as an associate in the litigation department of Sidley Austin.

“I had my own office and secretary,” says Washington of her Silicon Valley setup. “But it just felt wrong to me since I’d never so much as had my own desk or computer on a regular basis.”

Instead, Washington, a Root-Tilden- Kern scholar, has found a better fit in New York. After graduation, she will work as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office under the legendary Robert Morgenthau. By taking this position, she hopes to help lead the way for others, especially women of color, to consider prosecutorial work.

Washington’s aspirations include returning to NYU. “I’m hoping it’s not too far off that I’ll come back to talk in the Leaders in Public Interest Series,” says Washington. “It would be great to walk into Vanderbilt as an attorney to share what I’ve learned.”

“Everyone sees administrative law as boring, but it’s something I find fascinating as a conceptual matter,” says Childs. “It’s what tied law school together for me and is something I never would have expected.”

Unexpected to others, as well, is Childs’s other passion: dance. Through a nonprofit group called House of the Roses, she puts her lifetime of dancing to use teaching New York City homeless children her craft.

After graduating, Childs will clerk for Judge Emilio Garza of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in San Antonio, in her home state of Texas. A note she wrote on American, European and global administrative law will also be published in the Journal of International Law and Politics. Childs is considering a Ph.D. in history, with a concentration on American administrative law and due process, leading to a possible career in academia.

Soon enough it may be Childs’s turn to inspire future law students.

Reflecting on an academic year that began with the devastating hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, Dean Richard Revesz spoke of his pride in the humanity of the graduating class. “I was deeply impressed by our students’ responses,” Revesz said. “You set up fundraising efforts and clothing drives, and arranged legal assistance for those displaced by the devastation.” And he offered a parting wish: “My hope is that you combine your newly acquired knowledge with your passions; that you use what you have learned to take a stand with reason and integrity as well as conviction.”

Two students who exemplify Revesz’s ideal are Brandon Buskey and Alexander Dmitrenko, J.D. and LL.M. candidates respectively, who spoke on behalf of the class of 2006. Both delivered unique perspectives on their Law School careers.

“The law cannot help people,” said Buskey, a Root-Tilden-Kern and an AnBryce scholar who was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. “But people who know the law can help people.” In a crowd-pleasing, funny and personally reflective speech, Buskey described how in his first year, Professor Bryan Stevenson’s admonition to “find your own place in the law” led him to focus on public interest law and criminal justice by taking Professor Randy Hertz’s Juvenile/Criminal Defense Clinic and becoming a board member of Law Students Against the Death Penalty. He will continue to follow this path in 2006-07, when he serves as a clerk for the Honorable Janet C. Hall ’73 of the U.S. District Court of Connecticut prior to joining Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama the following year.

Dmitrenko’s road to the Law School was quite different from Buskey’s, with his having grown up in what was then the Soviet Union and graduating magna cum laude from Rostov State University Faculty of Law in Russia. He also earned two previous international LL.M. degrees, in Budapest and Toronto, before receiving his tax LL.M. from the Graduate Tax Program at NYU. “Having grown up in a Communist household, it was the rebel in me that wanted to come to the ‘cradle of capitalism’—New York City,” Dmitrenko said in his remarks, which included thank-yous in eight languages. A prime example of “the global lawyer,” at 28 years of age Dmitrenko has already contributed to international taxation and constitutional law in places like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, as well as landmark rulings concerning same-sex marriage in Canada. He will start as a tax associate at Dewey Ballantine in the fall.

Before the conclusion of the ceremony, Lester Pollack ’57, chairman of the NYU School of Law Board of Trustees, introduced Daniel Blaser and Elida Kamine, who presented a $78,000 gift from the class of 2006, helping to ensure that future law students have the same opportunities for leadership and community that they had.

One of the top students in his class, Chris received a full dean’s scholarship to attend the Law School, and made his mark as a staff editor on the NYU Journal of Law and Liberty.

During a memorial service for him at NYU, Visiting Professor Ehud Kamar, who taught Chris in Corporations, remarked, “Chris was one of those people you immediately notice and immediately remember.” There was a certain ease to his academic skill, Kamar noted, and an innate confidence in his questions and answers.

Professor Jack Slain recalled Chris’s grinning face from the upper right-hand row of the classroom where he taught Survey of Securities Regulation. Chris, he said, was always ready to make his point.

Chris graduated from Bard College, from which he received a B.A. in history, and was a corecipient of the Marc Block Prize for best senior project in the history department. Marilyn Bernard, a close friend from Bard, said that Chris wasn’t always serious: she cherishes the time they spent together watching Star Trek reruns or listening to Barry Manilow songs late at night. Chris even taught Bernard to do the Hustle at a party, early in their friendship. The memories will clearly fortify those directly impacted by Chris’s death. “Being around him made you want to smile,” she said. “Everyone felt brilliant around Chris.”

Goyal decided something had to be done so that the villagers could both have accessible water and allow the kids to get an education. “When I got to Namje, in the Dhankatu district, it was the driest part of the season,” he says. “People called the place ‘a fish out of water.’ It was a two-hour walk from the village to the river, and the children had to fetch water every morning.”

Goyal arranged a community meeting to propose the creation of a pump system—not that he knew the first thing about engineering a water supply. “I was hesitant at first because it was a part of the culture and the economy to fetch water. I didn’t want to disturb that,” says Goyal, who also thought his outsider status as an Indian- American might be an obstacle. “But the villagers basically said, ‘If you organize the infrastructure, we’ll build it.’”

And that’s exactly what happened. For 16 months, Goyal, in addition to teaching, helped carry pipes and 25-pound bags of concrete through mountainous terrain. He contributed more than sweat equity, too, raising $30,000 through grants and private donations. Though he hadn’t yet attended a minute of law school, Goyal also had the foresight to draft bylaws to govern the new system, guaranteeing jobs for those displaced by its construction.

On July 21, 2003, water trickled for the first time from 22 public spigots around the district. Daily rhythms in the village changed dramatically as a result.

The project changed Goyal’s ideas about his own goals, too. During the year, he had been accepted to the Law School but now he wasn’t so sure about leaving the village that had become like a second home. A discussion with a Nepalese neighbor, Tanka Bhujel, the vice principal at the school where he worked, sealed Goyal’s eventual choice. Bhujel told him, “If you go to law school, you’ll have access to resources. You’ll still need us, and we’ll still need you.”

Goyal has likely exceeded Bhujel’s expectations; during his three years at the Law School Goyal raised approximately $70,000 for “Hope for Water” and its sister program, “Hope for Education,” which provides support to schools in Dhankatu. He returned to Nepal six times while attending NYU, and witnessed the district’s transformation into an independent and viable community. The water system has also grown; 150 spigots deliver a daily allowance of 300 liters of water to most residences. Engineering jobs were created to keep the community selfsufficient; a cottage-industry cooperative occupies the women who no longer have to transport water in containers; and the district has so far turned a $5,000 profit by selling water to other villages.

Despite being singled out at graduation ceremonies with the Eric Dean Bender Prize in recognition of his outstanding commitment to public service apart from Law School commitments, Goyal is modest about his achievements. At press time, he was studying for the bar and planning a visit to Nepal after the test. “I never imagined,” he says, “that I had the power to alter someone else’s life.” Clearly, he also had the power to change his own.

The five students—Kun Fan, Bin Hu, Taotao Ling, Jun Wang and Fan Wei, who all took Vice Dean Clayton Gillette’s domestic and international sales law class—donated their time to Pace University Law School to translate arbitration opinions issued by the China International Economic and Trade Association Commission. “Having translated decisions from major trading nations such as China is essential to a uniform application of the United Nations’ Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG),” says Gillette, the Max E. Greenberg Professor of Contract Law. “They’ll be used by practitioners and academics around the globe.”

The students’ work is part of an expansive, shared online database of international case law from the CISG. Nations responsible for more than 75 percent of the world’s commerce, 67 countries in total, have adopted this standardized legal treaty since its inception in 1980. The CISG promotes equity through the regulation of sales contracts between international entities.

“Voltaire complained that he had to change laws as often as horses when traveling across Europe,” says Pace law professor Albert Kritzer, who started building the database in 2004. “Uniform accessibility of the CISG, including the interpretations in decisions on disputes, is the ‘more’ that is needed. The database is the tool that provides this accessibility.”

The current database contains more than 1,700 arbitration cases that have been translated into English. Translations include CISG cases from Germany, Russia, Belgium, Austria and Spain, among other nations.

The students spent 12 to 20 hours per week translating two 10-page cases every month. Thanks to their work, the database is currently the most complete resource of Chinese interpretations of the CISG, with China likely to be the country reporting the most cases when completed.

Though the students worked without pay, they were rewarded in other ways. “After my first translation was put on the site,” says Hu, “one of Professor Kritzer’s students quoted it in her thesis. I was thrilled.”