Kicking It Off

My name is Brett Walker and I would like to welcome you to my blog. I am a first-time blogger and hope that I can learn from this experience. I would love to know what you have to say about the subject matter that I will choose to explore. I will be organizing this blog based upon the subject of the legal profession with specific emphasis on international justice efforts. This is an area in which I am highly interested. However, I am fully aware of the fact that I currently possess very little substantive knowledge about the subject. I am an undergraduate and a prospective law student. I was raised in a devout Protestant home and have always aspired to incorporate my faith into every aspect of my life. I plan to attend law school in the future, and I hope that this blog can serve to foster my interest in this possible career path.

One particularly inspiring leader in the field of global justice is Mr. Gary Haugen. Haugen is President, CEO, and founder of the International Justice Mission (hereafter IJM), a non-profit international human rights agency that works to rescue victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression worldwide. Haugen, a Harvard-educated lawyer, founded IJM in 1997 in response to both his own experiences abroad and his contact with countless humanitarian aid workers and missionaries who had encountered cases of injustice. IJM's organizing mission is to provide legal aid and advocacy for victims of oppression. I consider Haugen to be an incredible leader because he has succeeded in mobilizing Evangelical Christians towards renewed social engagement, and has also brought about a resurgence in global and humanitarian focus within the legal profession.

Good leaders are said to be especially adept at reacting to the dynamics of their contemporary culture. Haugen has done just that. He has recognized that in the present era of globalization, the humanitarian legal field needed to expand towards a global network. By founding IJM, he has established a global nexus for lawyers and human rights workers to coordinate their efforts. Also, he was sensitive to the contemporary dynamics of the evangelical Christian sub-culture, and recognized that a large portion of the Evangelical population felt disconnected from social engagement, and would likely rally to support such an organization. Indeed, IJM has received tremendous support among Evangelicals since its founding.

Haugen can be said to exhibit some characteristics of both the religious and the economic archetypes of leadership that have emerged throughout history. With regard to the religious archetype, Haugen has sought to imbue IJM with meaning and significance. The concept of international justice as defined by IJM is biblical-based. His campaign for support of IJM has appealed largely to the consciences of Evangelical Christians, and IJM is portrayed as an organization that stands for authentic Christian values. With regard to the economic archetype of leadership, Haugen has stated that a widespread campaign to disseminate knowledge and information regarding issues of global justice must be a necessary aspect of IJM's function. Additionally, Haugen and IJM are attempting to provide victims of injustice with a robust livelihood in order to support themselves and their families economically in a market-dominated world.

Personally, I believe that Gary Haugen has been an inspiration to those who wish to apply their personal faith to every aspect of their lives, including their professional careers. The current philosophical debate surrounding lawyers has emphasized that in order for lawyers to be most effective, they must inhabit an amoral realm which subjects their own personal morals and beliefs to the interests of their clients. However, Gary Haugen has demonstrated that this need not be the case. Contemporary lawyers can choose to apply their faith and their professional skills simultaneously towards a worthy cause. Indeed, Gary Haugen and the International Justice Mission have demonstrated that faith-based morals and globalization are not mutually exclusive, and that lawyers in their professional lives need not inhabit an amoral vacuum.