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Jon Van Dyke

A three-day symposium, “He Haliʻa Aloha No Jon–Memories of “Aloha for Jon,”” will honor and memorialize the life and work of the late University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor of Law Jon M. Van Dyke, and will bring to Hawaiʻi a prestigious line-up of international scholars and experts on the Law of the Sea, as well as on international, environmental, and nuclear law, sea level change, and human rights.

The symposium opens Wednesday, January 30, with an evening reception at the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, and runs through Friday, February 1. It is free and open to the public. Register online.

To honor Van Dyke, the symposium will bring together scholars from around the world, particularly from areas where his influence was directly felt such as China, Korea, Japan, Turkey, Guam, Palau, and the United States. Outstanding faculty members from the host institution where Van Dyke taught for 35 years—the William S. Richardson School of Law—will participate on the eight cutting-edge panels dealing with challenging global issues.

“Jon Van Dyke is truly irreplaceable as a scholar, teacher, mentor, lawyer, and colleague and we miss him terribly,” said Dean Avi Soifer of the law school. “Nonetheless, this conference highlights the extraordinary breadth of his accomplishments and the real difference he made across the globe.”

Van Dyke died of a heart attack in November 2011, at the age of 68. He was an internationally recognized legal scholar and lawyer dealing with Native Hawaiian and human rights, environmental, ocean, constitutional and international law. Deeply compassionate, Van Dyke spent a lifetime fighting for the underdog and breaking new legal ground in his battles for justice and equality.

For details on the symposium, read the UH Mānoa news release

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