James Paul

DEAN JAMES C.N. PAUL James Caverly Newlin Paul, former law school Dean, law professor, international jurist and scholar in international human rights law, died peacefully at his home in Trappe Maryland on September 13, 2011. He was 85. Jim Paul was born April 30, 1926 in the Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the late William and Adelaide Paul, also of Chestnut Hill and, later, Easton, MD. He graduated from Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia in 1943, and served in the United States Navy in the Pacific from 1943-1946. Jim graduated from Princeton University with high honors in 1948 (class of ’47) and with highest honors from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1951. His senior thesis at Princeton was later published as “Rift in the Democracy”, a study of the impact of slavery on political party discord during the administration of President Jackson. Jim married Margaret (Peggy) Paul of Philadelphia in 1948. They moved to Washington D.C. in 1951, where Jim served for two years as Legal Secretary (law clerk) to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In 1954 he joined the University of North Carolina Law School faculty, where Jim later prepared a report for the Governor of North Carolina on desegregating that state’s public schools following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school segregation decision. In 1955, Jim and Peggy moved back to Philadelphia, where Jim joined the University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty. Jim ran for Congress in 1958 and was a delegate to the 1960 Democratic Convention. He later served as Dean of Rutgers University Law School from 1970 to 1975, and thereafter taught law for over twenty years before retiring from Rutgers in 1996. In the early 60’s Jim consulted to the Peace Corps, negotiating country projects for African Countries, and co-founded the Ford Foundation’s “Project SAILER” (Staffing African Institutions of Legal Education and Research). He moved his family to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1963, where he served for six years as the founding dean and moving force behind the establishment of Ethiopia’s first law school. He later served from 2001 to 2009 as a member of the Ethiopia-Eritrea International Claims Commission, an international war claims tribunal established at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, in order to hear and resolve claims of violations of the Geneva Convention in connection with a bloody war between Eritrea and Ethiopia from 1998-2000. In retirement, he greatly enjoyed life near and on the water along the Choptank River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, in particular sailing and bird watching, and spending time with his grandchildren. He was a vital and active member of the Third Haven Society of Friends, in Easton, Maryland. Jim will be sorely missed and warmly remembered as a man of enormous personal integrity and constant dedication to the cause of those for whom the rule of law and human rights were too often an illusion rather than an unremarkable fact of life. He was a thoughtful and inspiring teacher, a scholar and idealist who devoted his life to legal education. And he will surely be remembered as a loving husband, father, brother, grandfather and great-grandfather to many, and a friend to countless others. Jim is survived by his wife of 63 years, Peggy Paul of Trappe, Maryland; a sister, Margaret P. Kingsland, of Catonsville, MD and a brother, Peter C. Paul, of Cambridge, MD; two daughters, Martha M. Paul of Concord, MA and Adelaide S. Paul of Philadelphia, PA; a son, Nicholas N. Paul of San Diego, CA; seven grandchildren; and two great granddaughters. Jim’s life will be celebrated, and remembered, at a service to take place at Third Haven Friends Meeting, 405 S. Washington St., Easton, Maryland, on October 8, 2011, at 1 p.m.

James Paul

April 30, 1926 - September 13, 2011