Former Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson

BGSU gains pipeline to former Supreme Court justice's legacy

With the signing today (June 20) in Jamestown, N.Y., of an agreement between the Robert H. Jackson Center for Justice and BGSU, Bowling Green students will have the unique opportunity to study and conduct research at the important historical center.

The Jackson Center is dedicated to preserving the memory and advancing the ideas of the former Supreme Court justice and chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. While on the Supreme Court, Jackson participated in the unanimous decision in the pivotal 1954 desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education. Earlier, he served as chief legal defender of such landmark legislation as the Social Security Act of 1935.

The agreement was signed by President Sidney Ribeau and center President Gregory L. Peterson. Representing the University at the center were Dr. Heinz Bulmahn, vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate College, and Dr. Douglas Neckers, McMaster Research Professor of Photochemical Sciences and executive director of the Center for Photochemical Sciences.

The agreement will help promote the center as an archival resource for study of Jackson’s influence and provide a variety of opportunities for BGSU students.

Private funding will be sought to develop an internship program for undergraduate students, and BGSU will establish a graduate assistantship to promote thesis or dissertation research related to Jackson.

In return, the Jackson Center will benefit from Bowling Green’s help with evaluating and archiving the collected documents and artifacts to make them more accessible to scholars, educators and students. BGSU will also serve as an outlet for dissemination of scholarly publications based on materials assembled at the Jackson Center.

The organizers say they see many possibilities arising from the partnership, which Bulmahn said will foster President Ribeau’s Scholarship of Engagement initiative.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for our students, and it should provide some useful work in developing the center as it unfolds,” said Neckers, who is from the Jamestown region of New York and brought the center’s existence to the attention of his BGSU colleagues. “We’re very excited about the opportunities we think will result from this for all concerned. We’re hoping this academic/historical center collaboration will be the first of many to come.”

The program will enable BGSU graduate students in history, political science, German and Russian to work at the center as they develop their master’s theses or Ph.D dissertations, Neckers explained. Also, BGSU students participating in the exchange program with the University of Salzburg have easy access to Nuremberg to investigate the archives there, he pointed out. Already, a graduate student double majoring in German and political science has expressed interest in developing a thesis related to materials at the Jackson Center.

In addition to the departments of German, Russian and East Asian languages (GREAL), history and political science, others that will especially benefit include philosophy and theatre and film. BGSU’s Institute for the Study of Culture and Society (ICS), with its ability to facilitate dialogue across disciplines and its research cluster focused on the Holocaust, will be a natural partner in the collaboration, according to Bulmahn.

Some of the faculty who will be working with students and the Jackson Center to develop mutually beneficial collaborations are Drs. Christina Guenther and Timothy Pogacar, both GREAL; Drs. Don Rowney, Gary Hess and Beth Griech-Polelle, history; Dr. Marc Simon, chair of political science; Dr. Fred Miller, philosophy, and Dr. Vivian Patraka, ICS director.

“This is the Jackson Center’s first collaboration with a nationally renowned institution of higher education for the joint study of Robert H. Jackson and international law," said Peterson, the center's president. “By far the most exciting possibility of working through Bowling Green is to explore Russia’s involvement at the Nuremberg trials.”

Jackson, a prominent trial lawyer, also served as U.S. Attorney General and Solicitor General in the first two Roosevelt administrations but viewed as his crowning achievement in public service the new standards in international law that were created when he served as the chief American prosecutor before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg following World War II, according to the center’s Web site.

“That individuals who commit war crimes or crimes against humanity could be tried by an international tribunal and be found personally responsible was new law in 1946,” said Rolland E. Kidder, Jackson Center executive director. “Jackson’s brilliance and courage in bringing Nazi war criminals to justice set a new standard in the field of international law. It remains the standard to which the world looks today.”

Founded in 2001, the Jackson Center is located in the former justice’s hometown. Peterson is a partner in the law firm of Phillips, Lytle, Hitchcock, Blaine and Huber. Kidder is also an attorney and a former state legislator.

Affiliated with the center is the Jackson Society, inaugurated in 2004 and committed to providing educational programs and events to the public.