Past Program

On November 12, 2012, Baroness Helena Kennedy and Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter lead the conversation at the US Supreme Court for Third Annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture.

Hosted by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, guests enjoyed a stimulating conversation between Baroness Helena Kennedy, leading barrister and expert in human rights law, civil liberties, and constitutional issues, and a member of the House of Lords, and Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, and former Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department and Dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The conversation was moderated by Adam Liptak, the Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times.

The main topic of discussion of the night was the use of drones as a means to national security. Speakers conversed over the legitimacy of drone strikes and the ethics involved. This topic furthered the discussion of secrecy versus transparency, detention and torture, and the current state of human rights. In that context, Baroness Kennedy and Professor Slaughter also addressed the continuing existence of Guantanamo Bay.

Baroness Kennedy is a leading barrister and an ex-pert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues. She is a member of the House of Lords and chair of Justice - the British arm of the International Com-mission of Jurists. She is a bencher of Gray's Inn and President of the School of Oriental and African studies, University of London. She was the chair of Charter 88 from 1992 to 1997, the Human Genetics Commission from 1998 to 2007 and the British Council from 1998 to 2004. She also chaired the Power Inquiry, which reported on the state of British democracy and produced the Power Report in 2006. She has received honors for her work on human rights from the governments of France and Italy and has been awarded more than thirty honorary doctorates. She is currently acting in cases connected to the re-cent wave of terrorism - including the conspiracy to bomb Transatlantic Airlines and Operation Crevice.

In Baroness Kennedy's practice of law as a barrister - she is a member of the Doughty Street Chambers in London - she has acted in many of the most prominent cases of the last 30 years including the Brighton Bombing, the Michael Bettany espionage trial, the Guildford Four appeal and the bombing of the Israeli embassy. She has also acted in many homicide trials with a domestic setting. She was the British member of the recent International Bar Association Task Force on Terrorism. She recently chaired an inquiry for the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health into sudden infant death, in the aftermath of miscarriages of justice where mothers were wrongly convicted of murdering their babies. As a life peer, she also participates in the House of Lords on issues concerned with human rights, civil liberties, social justice and culture. She has led the opposition to encroachments on the right to jury trial and for her courageous stand against the government was awarded the Spectator's Parliamentary Campaigner of the Year Award in 2000.addressed the continuing existence of Guantanamo Bay.

Session Document
Conversation at the Court | Baroness Helena Kennedy &
Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter

Lloyd N. Cutler (1917-2005), who has been described as the last "super lawyer," had a brilliant legal career. A founder of the Washington, DC law firm, Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, and White House Counsel to two US presidents, he fulfilled the calling of a public servant over his lifetime. He was a long-time champion of Salzburg Global Seminar and a friend and colleague to many of the distinguished jurists, attorneys and policymakers whom he encouraged to attend its sessions.

For almost 30 years, Cutler played a central role in guiding Salzburg Global Seminar, serving as board chairman from 1984 to 1994, and as the visionary who helped broaden the focus of Salzburg Global's distinguished series of law sessions.

As a lasting tribute to the Cutler legacy, Salzburg Global Seminar has established the Lloyd N. Cutler Center for the Rule of Law whose mission is threefold: 

1. To seek solutions to global problems in areas where the law is inadequate or unfolding
2. To advance the role of independent judiciaries globally and promote universal access to justice
3. To employ innovative methods to engage new audiences and raise awareness of legal principles and why they matter.

Lloyd Cutler's influence on both people and institutions is felt thoughout the United States and around the world. In his tradition and his name, Salzburg Global Seminar continues to advance the Rule of Law through the Lloyd N. Cutler Center with the Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program and the Annual Lloyd N. Cutler Lecture.

To learn more about the Lloyd N. Cutler Center, please contact: president@salzburgglobal.org.