Justice Without Borders (excerpt from The Exeter Bulletin, Winter 2006)

Since 1990, Justice Nadeau '55 (right) has been advising judges in newly forming democracies; here he talks to Chief Justice Medhat Mahmood of the Iraqi Supreme Court

When New Hampshire Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Joseph P. Nadeau ’55 retired from the bench late in 2005, his final session of oral argument was heard where the seeds of his esteemed career germinated—at Phillips Exeter Academy. As part of a New Hampshire Supreme Court education program called “On the Road,” the five-member court convened on the stage of the Assembly Hall before an audience of more than 600 New Hampshire high school students, including 40 PEA seniors, to hear two cases.

Although the “On the Road” program held at PEA was actually the seventh such special session the court has held outside of the Supreme Court building in Concord, for Nadeau it had an unexpected resonance. “I suggested doing a session at PEA in 2004, long before I knew I would retire,” he says, “long before I knew that it would be the last day I would be sitting. It was unplanned, but there was something full circle about the session. Exeter was always the prime incident in my life. PEA was truly my defining educational moment, and the Supreme Court was my defining professional moment. To bring that to a close at the Academy, and to acknowledge publicly the importance of Exeter to me at that session, was compelling.”

But Nadeau is retiring in name only. He is now devoting his time to a project he first became involved with in 1990: advising and training judges in newly forming democracies as they draft their constitutions and establish impartial judicial systems. Nadeau’s work has taken him to many of the former Soviet bloc states and, most recently, to Slovakia for a program with the chief justice of the Iraqi Supreme Court, Medhat Mahmood, and 19 Iraqi appellate judges.

Education and the Law

The seeds of Nadeau’s respect for the law and education were planted by his family. He grew up in Dover, NH, the grandson of Lebanese immigrants who, he says, valued the law as a means of bringing order to society. His uncle became an attorney. “My father was a working man who felt education was the most important thing,” Nadeau explains. “He wanted to make sure his children had the best opportunity.” For 15-year-old Joe Nadeau, that opportunity turned out to be Exeter, where he enrolled as an upper in 1953.

Nadeau describes the education he received here as both significant and subtle. “At the Harkness table you’re part of a forum,” he says. “You overcome your fear of speaking up. You’re taught to be analytical, and that becomes part of the way you think. You take a position, a stand. It gave me confidence.” After Exeter, Nadeau went on to Dartmouth, where he majored in English. “With all due respect to Dartmouth,” he adds, “no single year there was as hard as my last year at Exeter. I always felt if I could get through Exeter, I could get through anything.”

That confidence has taken Nadeau to each ascending level of the New Hampshire judiciary. After graduating Boston University Law School, Nadeau returned to Dover to join a well-respected trial practice there. He became a partner in the firm, but eventually left to establish his own practice. His judicial career began in 1968 when he was appointed presiding justice of the Durham District Court, a part-time position he held until 1981 when he was named to the Superior Court, the state’s trial court. In 1992, then-governor Judd Gregg ’65 appointed Nadeau chief justice of the Superior Court. In 2000, following his nomination by then-governor Jeanne Shaheen, he became the 100th justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice John T. Broderick Jr. has known Nadeau for much of his career. “I was a trial lawyer for 22 years,” Broderick says. “I actually tried cases in front of Joe Nadeau. He was after the just result, and never let technical details get in the way. He has a reverence for the law. He is committed to the administration of justice, to the rights of our citizens and this has demonstrated itself in his opinions.” During his tenure on the high court, Nadeau authored decisions reaffirming the separation of powers in the New Hampshire constitution, allowing courtroom proceedings to be open to the media and extending privacy rights in New Hampshire.

Creating Moral Imperatives

Nadeau says he came to the law during what proved to be “a seminal time in judicial ethics. The American Bar Association (ABA) was a mover in promulgating guidelines regarding education and ethics. I went to their programs early on, even as a student.”

In 1987, Nadeau’s continuing education took him on a legal study tour to Moscow and Leningrad, where he met with Russian lawyers and judges. In 1990, an important transition time for the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, he joined the ABA’s Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) in Latvia. “Their new judges were just one year away from the Communist system and revolution,” Nadeau recalls. “During the period when these newly independent countries were adopting constitutions, they invited American judges to review their plans and make suggestions.” In Latvia, he met with the chief justice of the country’s Supreme Court, which was using the U.S. Constitution as its model. His subsequent trips to Albania, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan demonstrated just how challenging the process can be. “It was difficult for the judiciaries there to work with the legislative and executive branches and remain independent, to break away without creating the appearance of a power grab.”

One thing Nadeau discovered was how highly regarded the U.S. judicial system is in Europe. “Judges would ask, ‘How is it that in the United States a judicial decision will be followed?’ What I told them is that judges have to create moral imperatives. They must educate themselves, and conduct themselves ethically and impartially. While the judges I’ve met are concerned about pressure from their executive branches and fear they will suffer consequences for their independence, one single act of courage begets another and gets passed down. The inspiring thing is to see how eager and excited these judges are. It rejuvenates me. I come back with as much as I bring.”

Nadeau believes the best strategy for forging new laws, both at home and internationally, is to concentrate on broad constitutional principles and a framework of individual rights. Judges must, he stresses, never forget how their decisions affect people's lives. “I have a sense of real wonder at our system,” he says. “The more widely you travel, the more you appreciate how our founding fathers drafted federal and state constitutions that would endure and survive. The U.S. Constitution is amazing in its brevity, yet it allows for amplification. Its principles have taken us from horse-drawn buggies to cars. When we get to the Internet, we’re not stymied.”

Nadeau returned to Slovakia last year, more than 10 years after first conducting a program there for new judges. “They were effusive about what we had done for them,” he says. “They have refined their system and have better case management and technology now. These countries are coming to see that a strong judiciary is not a threat to the other two branches of government, but actually strengthens them and their economies.”

Iraq, which is in the very early stages of this process, is the primary reason for Nadeau’s early retirement from the bench: he wants to be available to Iraqi judges more often and on shorter notice, and to deepen his knowledge of their culture. “I am beginning to understand the essence of religion in a religious society,” Nadeau explains. “Iraqi judges are very devout, and their values come from their religious foundations.” When Nadeau and his colleagues spoke about the importance of earning respect, the judges responded that in Iraq, such respect already exists and goes back to Hammurabi, the early Babylonian king who codified the laws of what were then Mesopotamia and Sumeria. “They told us, ‘Leaders pick the wisest men. The Koran says good judgment is rewarded in heaven,’ ” Nadeau explains.

In addition to supporting Iraqi judges as they draft proposals for sections of Iraq’s new constitution, craft a judicial code of ethics and establish procedures for evaluating judges and lawyers, Nadeau hopes to someday work in Lebanon, where his grandparents were born. He also wants to teach at the CEELI training institute in Prague, which offers programs for Africa, Indonesia and Asia as well.

Pragmatic and Fearless

Nadeau and his wife, Catherine, live in Durham, not far from his childhood hometown. Although Nadeau calls himself a “small-town boy who didn’t go far,” he has gone farther than most, in all regards. The Nadeaus have three grown children. Tina Nadeau has followed her father into the law and serves as a judge at the Superior Court in Brentwood, NH. Daughter Diana is raising a family in Oregon. Their youngest daughter, Briana ’98, is working in California with Nadeau’s Exeter classmate David Rintels ’55.

A three-time Emmy award-winning writer and producer, Rintels also has a successful career in film and theater and is a past president of the Writers Guild of America, West. He is full of stories about his friendship with Nadeau, a bond forged in part during their classes with legendary English teacher Darcy Curwen. “Curwen was 14 feet tall,” Rintels says with a laugh. “He could be terrifying, but he was the best of Exeter. Of all the people who never coddled anyone, Curwen was at the top of the list. It was very important to have a friend in his class.”

Nadeau concurs. “Darcy Curwen was feared and loved. Your knees buckled when you saw you got his class, because he had extremely high standards. And Dave and I weren’t the stars of his class. We were working hard.”

“My principle contribution,” jokes Rintels, “was that someone had to be at the bottom of the class, and no one wanted it to be Joe! Darcy Curwen taught us that writing is not just about style, but about clarity and logic. He taught us first to know what you want to say and then to say what you mean. He didn’t dwell on style, style would come. Knowing how to think, how to express your thoughts, is the gift.”

Rintels, who knows both the public and the private Nadeau, calls him “a man of great character and decency. I’ve gone out fishing with him, watched the Red Sox with him. He’s comfortable to be with. For years, Joe has traveled the world teaching law and ethics for no compensation beyond expenses. His range is astonishing. Domestically he has served on presidential commissions and has worked on such issues as juvenile delinquency and alcohol and drug abuse. He brings an ethical approach to all that he does.”

Chief Justice Broderick calls Nadeau intense and complex. “I mean that as a compliment,” he says. “Joe Nadeau is a committed and honorable person. He is pragmatic. And he is fearless. You have to be fearless to be a good judge. When I heard he was retiring, concentrating his efforts on emerging democracies and judiciaries, I thought, ‘Peace in the Middle East is now possible.’ Joe Nadeau will be an energy force in the Iraqi endeavor."

Read the article in its original form in The Exeter Bulletin, Winter 2006...