الناشر: Appreciations of an Extraordinary Man, p. 72-73. Yale law school, Yale Universityتاريخ النشر: 1999
In memory of my professor Myres Smith McDougal of Yale Law Schoolwho passed away on May 7, 1998 I wrote the following eulogy.*
Myres Smith McDougal ByMohamed Almulhim, ’65 LL.M., ’70 J.S.DMinister of State of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
As a world class institution,Yale Law School is the host to many first-class scholars and educators.However, Myres Smith McDougal, a pioneering, ground-breaking leader oflegal scholarship, had a major share in this institution’s renown beyond American borders. Without Myres Smith McDougal, this institution would not be the same. Mac is a popular name, and Myres Smith McDougal liked and loved very much that hiscolleagues and students should call him “Mac” whenever they desired to speak to him.As a human being, Mac was friendly, considerate, gentle, and appreciative.He had a great sense of humor and a good heart; he loved his students,foreign and national alike, and was extremely eager to help them with all the meansavailable to him. As an academician, Mac was a great, omni-competent teacher in his classroom.He dispersed knowledge tirelessly, and did not mind repeating his thoughts andexplanations in getting his ideas across, and more than occasionally using hishumor as a means of persuasion in holding his students’ attention.As an American, Mac was a deep scholar in the eyes of all non-Americans who knew him well.Mac, in fact, symbolized the true image of America in his dignified, courtly demeanor,in his openness, loyalty, honesty, and warm feelings. He was, to say the least,larger than life.When he joined the Yale Law School faculty and became the chairman of the Graduate program,Mac strived from the very beginning to make Yale Law School available to potentialapplicants world wide. He encouraged foreign students, regardless of their nationalities,race, religion, color, or loyalties, to attend Yale Law School. Most of such studentsafter studying went on to become leaders, judges, and law teachers in their respectivecountries, having been endowed with Yale values and excellence.Mac’s accomplishments are too numerous to outline here, but his legal imprint is mostvisible in the legacy of the cherished establishment known as: The new Haven School ofJurisprudence.” His inclusive-exclusive precise eight values namely, power, well-being,wealth, skill, respect, enlightenment, affection, and rectitude, have been engraved inthe memories of his devoted students.Based upon these values, Mac was the first among his associates to initiate,make and strongly advocate through his writings, the International Law of Human Dignity.Mac’s devoted students, including me, will never forget the question “What does the terminternational law of human dignity mean?” Mac defined the term al follows: “By aninternational law of human dignity, I mean the processes of authoritative decision ofa world public order in which values are shaped and shared more by persuasion than coercion,and which seeks to promote the greatest production and widest possible sharing, without discrimination irrelevant to merit, of all values among all human beings.”The notion of “international law of human dignity” had evolved and developed in Mac’s mind,legally and politically so to speak, as a result of the aftermath of the Second World War.However, Mac, after six decades was more than happy to witness in his lifetime that hisgenuine thoughts, taught within Yale Law School classrooms about the law of human dignity,had been already materialized through the total collapse of the Soviet Union.Even though Mac is no longer living among us to advise and teach, his legacy carries onnot only in his small island which is Yale Law School, but in all places around the worldwhere Mac’s ideals are being advocated and enhanced.On a personal level, I would like to show my sincere gratitude to my beloved teacher MyresSmith McDougal, for exposing me to deep scholarship and in widening my horizon to legalknowledge and proper methods of research.As devoted friends from Saudi Arabia, my wife Naeemah Alqadhi and I feel his lossand are grieved by his absence.
*Myres Smith McDougal, Appreciations of an Extraordinary Man, p. 72-73. Yale law school,Yale University, 1999.