2007 Henry Allen Moe Prize

Spring General Meeting
Patricia M. Wald

The 2007 recipient of the American Philosophical Society's Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities is Patricia M. Wald for her paper "International Criminal Courts: Some Kudos and Concerns." It was presented at the Society's Autumn General Meeting in November 2004 and published in the June 2006 Proceedings.

Patricia M. Wald was Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1977 to 1979. She then presided at the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals for twenty years, serving as the Chief Judge for five years. From 1999 to 2001, she served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, a position appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General. It is from that experience that her paper begins. Judge Wald provides a candid yet comprehensive analysis of the complexities of international criminal courts and their attempts to provide a forum to address and prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity. She describes the development of the varied international courts, the problems that plagued these endeavors, and how the experiences of these previous courts are continually evolving into a more effective process, although one that is still "having a stormy adolescence." The final section of her paper discusses the creation of the new International Criminal Court (ICC), a permanent court that would not need to be reinvented for each new controversy. The United States was initially very much involved in setting up the ICC, but when the Bush administration came on board it withdrew and has adamantly opposed involvement in the court. Judge Wald looks at both sides of the argument and fully details the implications and unfortunate consequences if the United States continues to refuse to participate.

Judge Wald is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Open Society Justice Initiative, for which she was chairman. She recently served on the President's Commission on Intelligence Capabilities, the independent body that examined U.S. intelligence gathering in light of the war in Iraq. She was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 2000.

The Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities is awarded annually to the author of a paper in the humanities or jurisprudence read at a meeting of the Society. It was established in 1982 by a gift from the widow of Henry Allen Moe to honor the longtime head of the Guggenheim Foundation and president of the American Philosophical Society from 1959 to 1970. It pays particular tribute to his firm commitment to the humanities and those who pursue them.

The selection committee consisted of chairman Richard Herr, professor of history emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, Christopher Jones, George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics and History at Harvard University, and Elfriede R. Knauer, consulting scholar for the Mediterranean Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.