 I now invite Dean Daniel Jutra to present Professor Martha Minow that she may have conferred upon her the highest recognition that is within the power of this university to grant. Mr. Chancellor, I have the honor of presenting to you a world-class scholar, an inspiring academic leader, and a uniquely gifted public intellectual professor, Martha Minow, Dean of the Harvard Law School. Martha Minow is one of the best-known and most distinguished legal scholars in the United States of America today. During the course of a career that began over 30 years ago at Harvard Law School, Dean Minow has published 16 monographs and over 170 articles in peer-reviewed publications. As will become evident shortly, Martha Minow is also a charismatic and compelling public speaker. This morning's convocation address will add to a list of more than 70 named or endowed lectures and keynote addresses that she has delivered over the years. Martha Minow is an expert in human rights and advocacy for members of racial and religious minorities and for women, children, and persons with disabilities. Son enseignement et ses travaux savants s'étendent sur un champ très vaste qui couvre la philosophie du droit, la théorie féministe, le droit de la guerre, les conflits ethniques et religieux, la discrimination, la justice pénale internationale, la procédure civile, le droit de la famille, le droit des enfants et le droit de l'éducation. Toute sa réflexion est soutenue par une conception humaniste de la justice, du pluralisme et de l'équité. Dean Minow's career perfectly captures the values of public service that underlie the mission of the faculty of law at McGill University, putting scholarship into action in the service of the public good. From post-conflict Kosovo to the divided cities of America, Martha Minow's pursuit and ideal of peaceful coexistence established bridges between clashing communities, created standards for the inclusion of the disenfranchised and led public policy efforts for civil legal assistance in the United States. Above all, and most importantly, Martha Minow has been a humble and generous mentor to generations of lawyers and legal academics in North America. Their countless stories of how she touched the lives of young men and women gave meaning to the idea of lawyering at the margins and inspired careers in the service of public interest, including that of a certain Barack Obama, now president of the United States of America, who was her student. Many of my own colleagues here at McGill are among those whose identity as lawyers and scholars was shaped by her example. Mr. Chancellor, for her continuing contributions to legal research and scholarship, her critical and innovative conception of legal education, her humanistic spirit, and her unwavering commitment to public service and community outreach, I respectfully present to you Martha Minow, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor of Law and Dean of the Harvard Law School so that you may confer upon her the degree of Doctor of Law, honoris causa. I want Dr. Minow to get too comfortable because, ladies and gentlemen, it's my great pleasure to invite Dr. Martha Minow to deliver the convocation address, Dr. Minow. Merci mille foie. I am honored beyond words to be a graduate of this extraordinary school. Chancellor Arnold Steinberg, Chair of the Board, Stuart Cobbett, Principal Heather Monroe Blum, Dean Daniel Jutrach, Madam Justice Abella, faculty members, Professor Campbell, parents, friends, and most of all, fellow graduates, for the tremendous honor of joining you and addressing you as we celebrate your achievements. I am thrilled to be here. The last time I felt so honored, it was actually a brief feeling. One student wrote on a course evaluation, if I had but one more hour to live, I would want to spend it in your class. I was so thrilled. I took it home and showed it to my husband. He read it, and then he said, wait a minute, what's this? And after the sentence, there was an asterisk. It said, in very small writing, see other side. So we turned it over, and what did it say on the other side? It said, because then it would seem like an eternity. I will try not to seem like an eternity today. Because graduates, Felicitas y'all, you are amazing. You have done it every exam, every requirement, except the very last one, listening to the commencement address. I will take my moment with you to celebrate the work each graduate has pursued in comparing legal systems. My message is simple. You have a gift and a duty because of your expertise as comparativists. The unique trans-systemic program at McGill reflects this school's grand tradition in comparative law and its marvelous commitments to pluralism and human rights. By equipping you all with both civil and common law traditions, your school has not only given you two diplomas, keeping the picture frame business in business, but also given you a head start, enabling you to work and move in and between these systems. In addition, and this is key, the resource you have sets you on a course of creative problem solving, and I hope you pursue it. Let me tell you three reasons why. The first reason you can pursue a path of creative problem solving is exemplified in a conversation I had when I was just starting law school. I talked with a government official and asked for advice about what to study. She told me comparative law. I was puzzled as she worked entirely on domestic matters designing administrative procedures. She explained that's the only course where I learned over and over. It could be different. We could do this in an entirely different way. The second reason you can and should pursue creative problem solving stems from the power of comparison in legal thinking. Indeed, as you have found in law school, you learn that in many ways the essence of legal thinking is compare and contrast, draw analogies, and find differences. If you graduates have not yet told your friends and family, I'm going to let them in on one of law school's secrets. Law students learn how to analyze and persuade in no small measure by simply asking, is this like or unlike something we've done before? The children's television show Sesame Street, for a time it was called Sesame Park here, is that right? Used to broadcast a song quite to the point. You can sing it with me. Which one of these things is not like the others? The screen would show four items. For example, a bed, a book, a chair, and a table. And the song would then ask, which one of these things is not like the other? I'm not gonna sing, I promise. But so which one is it? Focus on this example, a bed, a book, a chair, and a table. You got it? Is it the book? Cause it's not furniture? How many say yes? Is it the bed? Because it's only occasionally used for studying? The graduates here know what it took the Sesame Street folks a while to realize. The right answer to which one of these things is not the other is, it depends. It depends on the purpose for which the comparison is being drawn. Over time, the producers change the song so that at least in some instances, kids are encouraged to find more than one answer, depending on how things can be categorized. This kind of thinking requires singing. No, no, no, that just helps the YouTube clips. What it really requires is thinking, both about details and about big pictures. The reasons behind the analysis. With that, you have the skeleton key to unlock so many doors. And here's the third reason I urge you to fortify your comparative thinking. There is something beyond conventional legal analysis that comes from comparing systems and thinking systematically about differences. It's like bilingualism. Researchers show that children with knowledge of two languages display enhanced creativity, increased test scores, and literacy skills, as well as greater cultural understanding, not to mention greater options on the job market. Creative thinking can have similar benefits when it draws on comparison, particularly in addressing problem solving. Creative problem solving involves challenging, rearranging, and connecting information in new ways. Creative connections are also fun. Laughter is often a sign of surprise and novelty. Creative thinking often calls for stepping out of the situation, thinking out of the box. Consider the judge in a Michigan child custody case who went beyond the usual thinking about how much time each child should spend at the homes of each parent. Instead, putting the children first, the judge decided that the children would stay right where they were in the home that they knew and the parents would move in and out with them on alternating weeks. Then there's the student who said that his school could make the drinking fountains accessible to kids using wheelchairs without spending thousands to lower each drinking fountain simply by adding cups within reach of the water. And consider the lawmakers in South Africa after the fall of apartheid, who drew on lessons from both Germany and Canada in crafting their new constitution. Comparative thinking is facilitated by working in groups with diverse members. Studies from natural experiments and laboratory exercises show that when diverse individuals work together, they generate new and fresh solutions to problems. They debate and deliberate more carefully than do homogeneous groups. Researchers Scott Page shows that groups whose members come from different classes, schools, races, and genders, produce a wider range of perspectives, knowledge, and inferences than do groups with members who are alike. This diversity contributes to improved understanding, efforts, and results. And Page notes the diverse groups sometimes start out performing worse but end up performing better than homogeneous groups if the members feel their identities have been validated and their contributions are valued. One of the crucial values in thinking comparatively comes with the challenge to think about the things that we take for granted. A Chinese proverb says, if you want a definition of water, do not ask a fish. Sometimes it takes someone outside your own sphere to see and describe something that you take for granted. And there's nothing like learning how to sum you or other to become adept at questioning your own assumptions. To think outside the box, you first need to know that there is a box. Insights about the role of diversity and creativity helps to explain why cities with diverse populations so often create economic growth and flourishing creative arts. Research about creativity and diversity points also to the wonder of Canada where the strength of diversity is celebrated and multilingual and multicultural are constitutional values while some other societies we won't mention try to restrict bilingual education and anoint one culture despite diverse populations. One thing is certain, the years ahead demand creative thinking. Law practice in this quickly globalizing economy requires innovation. In the structure, the compensation methods, the transnational expertise of law firms and legal organizations and in the solutions to unprecedented problems. Revolutions in information technology and in biomedical technology call for new guidelines about privacy, ownership, secrecy, security and self-determination. Resource scarcity, energy demands, environmental degradation, global climate change require fresh forms of governance across borders and professions. Creative thinking is indispensable in dealing with tragedies too. In my own work in international responses to mass violence, genocide and crimes against humanity, learning across nations and cultures offers crucial tools like truth and reconciliation commissions. The International Criminal Court in The Hague draws on ideas from across the globe and comparisons across regions bolster the spirit. The Divided Cities Initiative, for example, joined civic leaders from Mitzovica in the former Yugoslavia, from Kierkuk, Iraq, from Nicosia in Cyprus and then from a city in Northern Ireland that is sometimes called dairy, sometimes London dairy, sometimes dairy slash London dairy because sometimes just slash city because the residents there can't agree on what to name it. Finding commonalities and differences in the experiences of cities with ethnic and religious divisions, participants in the project of divided cities find renewed energy as well as ideas when they talk across their experiences. Each day generates fundamental questions whose answers will alter the shape of human experience. Remember that Facebook, if it were a nation, would be the third most populous nation in the world after China and India, did you know that? And it did not exist 10 years ago. The internet, cloning, computer program decisions to buy and sell stocks, these will be built upon as succeeded by new developments. We are at an inflection point in world history. When the ways we learn and teach, do business, handle conflict, pursue freedom, equality and security will change and creative problem solvers will shape those changes. For that we especially need people who can think about things in more than one way. It reminds me of the job candidate who was asked how many days of the week begin with the letter T? Candidate thought for a minute and he said, two. Okay, said the interviewer, what are they? And the candidate said, today and tomorrow. Today and tomorrow, you each will make a real difference in tackling how we all deal with difference and how we make our world. And as you do, I hope you will remain grounded in ties with family and friends, as you build the bridges enabled by comparative thinking to address the challenges and opportunities we all face. I will always remember this day, I wish you the best, congratulations, class of 2011.