Chief Judge Emeritus J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has been selected to receive the 2022 Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law. Judge Wallace will be honored during a ceremony in San Diego, Calif., on March 18, 2022.
Through more than 50 years of service to the federal courts, Judge Wallace has led multiple efforts to improve the administration of justice in his circuit and in the federal courts, served his community and church through a wide variety of leadership roles, and advised judiciaries around the world on the development of the rule of law and the administration of justice. Judge Wallace has traveled to more than 70 countries, often at his own expense, to work with judges and governments to strengthen judicial processes, improve court structures, and develop innovative solutions to logistical and legal challenges.
The Susan and Carl Bolch Jr. Prize for the Rule of Law is awarded annually by the Bolch Judicial Institute of Duke Law School to an individual or organization who has demonstrated extraordinary dedication to the rule of law and advancing rule of law principles around the world. By honoring those who do this work, the Bolch Prize draws attention to the ideals of justice and judicial independence and to the constitutional structures and safeguards that undergird a free society.
“Few people have done more to build up and advise judicial systems around the world than Judge Clifford Wallace,” said David F. Levi, director of Duke Law School’s Bolch Judicial Institute. “Judge Wallace’s record of leadership within the federal courts is alone worthy of acclaim. He has led efforts to improve diversity and gender equity, to make the courts more effective and efficient, and to improve communication between the courts and the legislative branch. But his efforts to strengthen the role of judiciaries through teaching, collaboration, and service around the world over his long judicial career are unique. By emphasizing and supporting the proper functioning of courts and the effective and ethical service of judges, Judge Wallace has advanced the rule of law in substantial and remarkable ways.”
“Chief Judge Emeritus Wallace has had an enormous and positive effect on the administration of justice and promotion of the rule of law, both in the United States and throughout the world,” said Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. “His innovations in judicial administration have had a lasting impact, and the breadth of his accomplishments is simply astonishing.”
A life of service
Judge Wallace was born in San Diego in 1928. By his own account, he grew up in a poor home and was a below-average student. A school counselor once tried to dissuade him from pursuing law school based on his lackluster academic performance. But after three years in the U.S. Navy in the 1940s, he was determined to pursue a career in the law. He attended San Diego State College (now San Diego State University), where he earned a degree in economics with a minor in political science. He then earned his law degree from the University of California-Berkeley, where he was a member of the law review.
For the next 15 years, Judge Wallace practiced as a trial lawyer in San Diego before President Richard M. Nixon nominated him to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (in October 1970) and then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in June 1972). Judge Wallace served as chief judge of the Ninth Circuit from 1991 until 1996, when he took senior status. Now, at age 92, he still hears cases as a senior judge. He was twice widowed and is now married to Dixie Jenee Robison Wallace; together they have 15 children, 50 grandchildren, and 62 great-grandchildren.
Judge Wallace has devoted many years of service to committees, commissions, community organizations, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church he joined as a teenager. As part of the Church’s lay leadership, he has presided over church congregations (as a bishop and a stake president), taught religion classes, and served as president of the San Diego Temple, in a mission presidency, and as a Regional Representative of the Twelve (the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is the church’s global governing body). His religious and civic volunteering commitments have often demanded 20 or more hours of work a week — in addition to his full workload as a lawyer and judge.
Throughout his career, Judge Wallace has maintained an abiding interest in finding ways for the courts to work more efficiently. As a summer scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 1976, he studied the basic problems of judicial administration, leading to numerous innovations in the Ninth Circuit and in courts around the country. As chief judge of the nation’s largest federal circuit, he created a long-range strategic plan for his circuit, and he established task forces to study gender and racial bias in the federal courts — efforts soon replicated by other circuits. He has served as chair of the Conference of Chief Circuit Judges, a member of the Judicial Conference of the U.S. and its executive committee, and Committee on International Judicial Relations, a board member of the Federal Judicial Center, and on many other judicial panels and organizations that work to improve the administration of justice.
At the behest of United States Chief Justice Warren Burger, Judge Wallace led a study on the future of the judiciary in 1982. After exploring his ideas, Chief Justice Burger asked him to establish the American Inns of Court in the early 1980s; the Inns of Court are today a staple of the legal profession and involve nearly 30,000 judges, attorneys, and legal scholars in legal training and mentoring programs. Judge Wallace also worked to help the Judicial Conference of the United States create processes for more effective communication with Congress on issues relating to the judiciary.
Judge Wallace said one of his proudest achievements is his effort to develop a case management and court mediation process at the appellate level. “It is a modified procedure that takes what we have learned from the trial court and, where relevant, recreated it to fit the appellate process,” he explained, that has proven to be highly successful in “bringing an end to litigation more promptly and more effectively. There is no ‘rule of law’ until a litigant has a judgment from the highest court that the law allows in his or her appeal. These procedures have decreased delay in finalization of litigation. Thus, the rule of law is implemented more quickly.”
Global impact
Judge Wallace’s interest in finding ways to make courts work more effectively has also motivated his work with judges and courts around the world. He first became involved in international judicial work with a trip to the People’s Republic of China in 1972. For several years afterward, he consulted with judges there to help establish “economic courts” that could facilitate a more reliable legal system to attract international financial investments.
It was the beginning of a lifelong mission to do what he could to support and strengthen the rule of law, whenever and wherever the opportunity arose. He has since helped to establish judicial training centers, advised on case management filing systems and alternative dispute resolution programs, counseled governments on combatting corruption among judges, and organized conferences, seminars, and judicial exchanges in nearly every corner of the world.
The Conference of Chief Justices of Asia and the Pacific, which Judge Wallace organized in 1984, has facilitated a biennial conference of chief justices ever since, fostering exchange and collaboration and leading to the Beijing Statement of Principles of the Independence of the Judiciary, which has been adopted by 32 countries in Asia and the Pacific. In 2009, Judge Wallace joined the conference in Ho Chi Minh City and gave a presentation on mediation to the Malaysian judicial delegation.
That meeting, said Hon. Zaki bin Azmi, Chief Justice of the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) Courts and the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Malaysia, “changed the way and speed that the Malaysian courts disposed of some of its pending cases. Court-annexed mediation conducted by the courts in Malaysia substantially contributed to the reduction of its caseload, which was recognized by the World Bank, as a showcase, amongst countries facing similar case backlog problems.”
In Africa, Judge Wallace worked to help establish administrative processes to improve court efficiency. In Thailand, where he introduced mediation programs and advised on restructuring Supreme Court procedures and assisted in developing a judicial training academy, he is known as the “Father of the Courts.” In Guatemala, he helped create a mobile court system to ease access to the courts in remote, rural areas. With Judge John Walker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Judge Wallace developed the Conference of Chief Justices of Central and Eastern Europe. The list goes on. Before he retires at the age of 100, he says, he hopes to facilitate a conference of chief judges in the Middle East.
“Implementing the rule of law should be considered a worldwide project,” said Judge Wallace, adding that he also learns and benefits from the judiciaries he works with in all parts of the world. “If one country has developed an effective procedure for ending litigation more effectively and more efficiently, that will be a benefit to a relatively few litigants. By taking what we learn and adapting it to local conditions internationally, the prompt implementation of the rule of law becomes a worldwide goal.”
“The rule of law is only a theory until we develop our courts to ensure prompt and fair application,” he continued. “We have not yet devised the perfect judicial system to implement the rule of law, and various countries have different challenges. However, each can do better.”
Respected and decorated
For his many contributions to the U.S. court system and to the courts of so many countries, Judge Wallace has received numerous awards and honors. He was the 2005 recipient of the Devitt Award, presented by Justice Kennedy, and the 2016 recipient of the American Inns of Court A. Sherman Christensen Award, presented by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. He also received the Daughters of the American Revolution Medal of Honor in 2018, the U.S. Department of State award for contributions to judiciaries worldwide (2014), and the Award for Distinguished Service in Promoting Religious Freedom from the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University (2009). He has authored more than 40 scholarly articles, delivered countless lectures, and mentored 122 clerks, several of whom have become judges.
“Judge Wallace is engaged, intelligent, even-keeled, wise, efficient, and affable,” said Judge David Campbell, a senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona who clerked for Judge Wallace from 1979 to 1980. “Working as his law clerk was one of the great learning experiences of my life. Decades later, I am still striving to be more like him.”
About the Bolch Prize
The Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law is awarded in accordance with the Bolch Judicial Institute’s founding documents, which specify that the Prize “shall be given by the Bolch Judicial Institute to recognize the lifetime achievement of an individual or a single or series of acts of an individual or an organization creating, promoting, or preserving the importance of the rule of law nationally or internationally.”
The recipient is selected by the Bolch Judicial Institute’s Advisory Board and honored during a ceremony at Duke University. The Prize includes a custom artwork and a significant monetary award. The first prize was awarded in April 2019, to Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy (retired) at a ceremony held on Duke University’s campus. The 2020 and 2021 prizes were awarded to Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke of the South Africa Constitutional Court and retired Chief Justice Margaret Marshall of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, respectively, during a virtual ceremony in June 2021.
To receive information about the Bolch Prize ceremony in March 2022, please contact Melinda Vaughn at Melinda.vaughn@law.duke.edu.