Judge Wilkey's Contributions to International Law and the Foreign Relations Law of the United States

Abstract

Many federal judges treat international law like many historians treat military history: as "law" or "history" in name only, comprising "great" works not worth knowing and arcane intricacies not worth understanding. But not Malcolm Richard Wilkey. During his more than fourteen years in judicial robes, Judge Wilkey spent nearly as much time learning and loving internationallaw as he spent learning and loving military history. And when he retired from active service on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in December 1984 (only to be called from retirement less than a year later to serve as United States Ambassador to Uruguay), Judge Wilkey left behind a reputation as one of the foremost students of international and foreign relations law ever to have graced the federal bench.