Tomorrow, my family and I will be leaving for a week in Istanbul, which is a place I've always wanted to visit. Admittedly, this may not be the very best time in history to be visiting Turkey, given both the domestic tensions between secularists and Islamicists and the Turkish army's provocative shelling across the Northern Iraqi border. We made the arrangements about a week before the current round of unrest began and have been watching developments, especially the bombings, with some concern. So far, however, there do not seem to have been attacks in Istanbul itself, and we haven't called off the trip.
Our hotel in Istanbul promises wireless internet, but I've learned to be wary of such promises, and anyway, this is a holiday. So I'm turning the blog over to a guest until I get back on the 22nd (or more if he wants): my good friend and colleague Patrick Gudridge.
Patrick's willingness to guest blog is a very good thing for readers. Patrick either embodies or exemplifies most of the best things about the University of Miami School of Law. He is intellectually omnivorous, deeply thoughtful, and irrationally charitable and optimistic — all the things that make him a superlative commentator and conversationalist. He's also very nice. Best known, perhaps, for his recent Harvard Law Review article “Remember Endo?,” Patrick's interests range far and wide, but often return to issues of federal and state constitutional law. On the faculty, in addition to his intellectual reputation, Patrick enjoys a special status as a sort of utility player, someone ready, willing, and able to teach almost any course in the curriculum. Patrick is also fond of dogs, having raised, among others, champion bull mastiffs.
Here's the official bio:
Patrick O. Gudridge, Professor of Law, received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1972 and a J.D. in 1976 from Harvard Law School. Professor Gudridge served as a law clerk to Justice Mathew O. Tobriner of the California Supreme Court. He joined the faculty in 1977, and served as Associate Dean at the Law School from 1990 to 1994. He has published articles on the structure of legal interpretation and analysis. His teaching interests are eclectic, and have included courses in federal jurisdiction, U.S. and Florida constitutional law, jurisprudence, business associations, torts, and agency.
I have no idea what he's going to say (I rarely do), but I'm sure it will be interesting (it always is).
