Pictured Above: Paul W. Grimm (left) presents the Bolch Prize to Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani. Photo Credit: Les Todd
Click here to watch the recording of the full ceremony on YouTube.
The Bolch Judicial Institute honored former Chief Justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jillani with the 2025 Bolch Prize for his lifelong efforts to strengthen the rule of law.
At an evening ceremony at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art on April 16, the Bolch Judicial Institute of Duke Law School honored Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, the 21st Chief Justice of Pakistan, as the recipient of the 2025 Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law.
The Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law is awarded annually to an individual or organization who has demonstrated extraordinary dedication to the rule of law and advancing rule-of-law principles around the world. Throughout his career, Justice Jillani has stood for human rights, religious liberty, and the protection of judicial independence in Pakistan and around the world. The Bolch Prize recognizes Justice Jillani’s steadfast commitment to his country’s constitution and the rule of law and his groundbreaking judicial opinions, which have advanced gender equality, religious liberty, and judicial independence in South Asia and globally.
In 2007, after General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency to subvert Supreme Court decisions relating to his reelection, Justice Jillani was among a group of senior judges who refused to take a new oath of loyalty to Musharraf and were relieved of their judicial duties. This ignited the Lawyers’ Movement, in which lawyers throughout Pakistan protested the Musharraf regime’s assault on judicial independence. Justice Jillani was reinstated in 2009 after Musharraf resigned.
“To me, this award symbolizes our shared values of democracy, of freedom, of the rule of law, of human dignity, of religious freedom and tolerance — values which are under severe threat today,” said Justice Jilliani after accepting the award. “I have been deeply moved by the vision reflected in the Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law. It’s indeed in accord with the best elements of your nation’s moral ethos. Democracies around the world would immensely benefit from such initiatives.”
In his remarks, Justice Jillani noted that the “judiciary alone may not be sufficient to create a society where rights are respected, and where there is tolerance, and where believers of every faith are free to live by their respective belief.” He spoke of the important role that citizens play in democracy — “irrespective of your choice of career, your vocation your religion, or sectarian or ethnic affiliation.” He added, “Countries have witnessed persecution, tyranny, and intolerance, only because citizens did not play this role, leaving the demagogues, the fundamentalists, and the religious zealots to have their way.”
Justice Jillani directed his final remarks to United States citizens.
“Your country today is at the pinnacle of its soft and hard power,” he said. “You have a proud legacy of wrestling independence through blood and sweat, by holding certain truths to be self-evident, of risking civil war to secure human rights and judicial independence.” He concluded with the words of President George Washington: “Observe good faith and justice towards all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. . . . It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by exalted justice and benevolence.”
Justice Jillani delivers keynote remarks at the 2025 Bolch Prize ceremony.
The 2025 Bolch Prize Ceremony
Click here to watch a recording of the 2025 Bolch Prize ceremony. View and download the ceremony program here.
The evening began with a greeting by Dr. Joshua Salaam, director and chaplain at Duke University’s Center for Muslim Life. Dr. Salaam reflected on Martin Luther King Jr.’s distinction between negative peace, which is the absence of conflict, and positive peace, which is the presence of justice. He noted that Justice Jillani embodies “a sense of peace borne with him” that comes from “his life’s work of pursuing fairness, dignity, and justice for all.”
A welcome message from Kerry Abrams, the James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke Dean of Duke Law School and Distinguished Professor of Law, highlighted Justice Jillani’s judicial opinions, which “advanced human rights, religious pluralism, gender equity, and modernization of education — even when those decisions defied political pressure, religious tradition, and public opinion.” She noted one groundbreaking opinion denouncing honor killings, a tradition that turned a blind eye to the murder of disgraced family members, in which Justice Jillani wrote: “No tradition is sacred, no convention is indispensable, and no precedent worth emulating if it does not stand the test of the fundamentals of a civil society generally expressed through law and the Constitution.”
Taiyyaba A. Qureshi, founding president of the North Carolina Muslim Bar Association, called Justice Jilliani “the true paradigm of a Muslim lawyer.” She recalled that she was a young law student in North Carolina in 2007, “learning to be a lawyer while watching Justice Jillani and his colleagues on the court face this constitutional crisis.” She later wrote a law review comment about the events in Pakistan. “[Justice Jillani is] an example to all of us on how to uphold justice and speak truth, especially when it’s hard, especially when it’s dangerous, and especially when an executive gathers together and flaunts its power, breaks down the rule of law and demands that we accept it as the new normal,” said Qureshi.
Justice Adèle Kent, Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, Canada (retired), spoke of the importance of judicial independence, thanking Justice Jillani for his “bravery and leadership,” which, she said, provides “courage and hope that the judiciary can resist attacks upon its independence and impartiality.” Justice Kent added, “[W]e can never remind ourselves too often: a strong, independent, well-educated, ethical judiciary is ultimately for the protection of the citizens of our countries.” She further cautioned against taking judicial independence for granted: “Just as judicial independence has been won by long struggle, so it is by struggle that it will be carried forward into the future.”
Bill Neukom, co-founder and chief executive officer of the World Justice Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the rule of law around the world and for which Justice Jillani is an honorary chair, noted that Justice Jillani has “an enviable sense of humility about his work and his life” and a “quite remarkable and rare combination of intellect, discipline, and a willingness to take on the most important and contentious issues of his day from the bench. By means of his mastery of constitutional law in Pakistan, and his powers of persuasion, he led his colleagues to clarify and reinforce notions like freedom of religion for minority folks . . . [and] to recognize gender equality, the right of a woman to choose her spouse, and the right to an education for all Pakistanis — trailbreaking stuff.”
Judge Paul W. Grimm, the David F. Levi Professor of the Practice of Law and Director of the Bolch Judicial Institute, presented the Bolch Prize to Justice Jillani, who, he said, “offers an important example to all of us and to so many judges and lawyers here and around the world who face growing challenges to judicial independence, attacks against judges, and the legal profession.” Justice Jillani “has shown how judges, through fidelity to the law and dedication to fundamental human rights and liberties, can gain the trust of the people, and therefore the authority needed to act as a bulwark, against the government abuse of power.”
Susan Bass Bolch, founder of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law, closed the ceremony with a message of “hope . . . that each of us will leave this evening inspired and determined to stand up for the rule of law, and to work together to protect the ideals that undergird our democracy, because without the rule of law, there can be no democracy.”
The ceremony concluded with the sounds of “Justice for All!,” the judicial anthem of Pakistan, which was written by Justice Jillani. The song highlights the importance of minority rights, lauds the legal profession as a noble calling, and warns against abandoning unity and pluralism.
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