JURIST Celebrates 10 Years

Professor Bernard Hibbitts speaks at the JURIST conference.

Photography by Luis Torrefranca, School of Law

“At the Council of Europe, we are regular users and great fans of JURIST...a highly respected source of information on legal developments around the world.” With those opening remarks delivered via video from Strasbourg, France, Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis kicked off a daylong conference at the School of Law on March 29 celebrating JURIST’s tenth anniversary.

Called “Law As a Seamless Web|Site: JURIST Celebrates 10 Years of Documenting Law to Empower People,” the conference covered topics ranging from the legal implications of war and war crimes trials, to rights and social justice concerns, to how the media report legal news.

Emmy award-winning former CNN Supreme Court and legal affairs correspondent Charles Bierbauer delivered the conference keynote address. Bierbauer examined how the Internet and technology are changing the way in which legal news is reported and presented.

Other conference headliners included Jonathan Freiman, counsel to Jose Padilla; David M. Crane, former chief prosecutor for the UN war crimes court in West Africa; Edward A. Adams, editor of the ABA Journal; and FindLaw founder Tim Stanley.

In its 10-year history, JURIST (jurist.law.pitt.edu) has mirrored the same dramatic changes evidenced in the Internet itself. First begun as a small Web site for law professors, JURIST has evolved into a live, dynamic legal news and research service read by more than 100,000 legal professionals, academics, journalists and interested citizens every week.

JURIST provides real-time legal news plus analysis and commentary by some of the world’s most distinguished policy makers, practitioners and legal analysts. Based at the School of Law, JURIST is powered by 40 Pitt Law students and managed by JURIST’s founder and Editor-in-Chief Professor Bernard Hibbitts and Executive Director Jeannie Shawl.