Soldier and scholar
New faculty member trades a remarkable military career for the academic life
TESTING MILITARYWATERS:
Dehn
chose to attendWest Point, where
he majored in engineering physics,
“because I knew I wanted to give
something back to the country that
had given me so much,” he says. After
he graduated, though, he wasn’t
sure whether he’d be a good fit for a
military career. “I felt my leadership
style was effective in persuading
others, not necessarily in making
demands,” he explains.
MORE THAN ONE KIND OF LEADER:
As a commissioned United States
Army artillery and logistics officer in
mostly paratrooper units, including
the famed 82nd Airborne, “I quickly
found that being a good problem
solver and clearly communicating
solid ideas garner respect.” Serving
for five years after West Point, Dehn
played important roles in Hurricane
Andrew relief and Haiti deployments.
ON TO LAW SCHOOL:
Accepted
into a competitive government
program that funds law school for
servicemembers who will serve in
exchange as judge advocates, Dehn
earned his JD with highest honors
from the University of Oklahoma
College of Law. “Law school forced
me to think logically about and
require evidence for many things
I’d previously taken on faith,” he
remembers. “It was a transformative
experience in terms of how—and
how deeply—I thought about things.”
INTO THE JAG CORPS:
Dehn’s first
assignments as a lawyer were at Fort
Riley, Kansas, where he was chief
prosecutor, chief of administrative
law (the functional equivalent
of a city attorney), and chief of
legal assistance. At the US Army
Forces Command, he was specially
appointed to advise on very high-
profile cases: criminal investigations
and prosecution of detainee abuse
allegations surrounding the 2002
deaths of two detainees at Bagram
Airfield, Afghanistan.
EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL
ENDEAVORS:
As a law student,
Dehn was a teaching assistant for a
A
ssistant Professor of Law John C. Dehn, whose teaching and research
interests include national security, criminal, military, international,
constitutional, and administrative law, joined the Loyola faculty this fall. A
military lawyer and scholar who’s served in the Judge Advocate General’s
Corps since 1998 and taught most recently at West Point, Dehn’s areas of focus mesh
with issues dominating national discussion about apparent conflicts between war
policymaking and our understanding of constitutional and international law.
››
FACULTY PROFILE: JOHN DEHN
legal research and writing course.
“I found I really enjoyed teaching,
and after my assignment at the
Army Forces Command, I decided to
pursue my academic interests,” he
says. Twenty years to the day after
he enteredWest Point as a cadet,
Dehn returned as a faculty member
teaching constitutional and military
law. “Unlike at other universities, you
knew you were helping to prepare
them for the same specific profession,”
he says. “Law is a very important
part of that, because as officers
they will have law enforcement
responsibility and authority. It was
a rewarding feeling.”
TIMELY TOPICS:
Dehn is the author
of numerous articles and a frequent
invited speaker on subjects ranging
from targeted killings to military
commissions and conflicts between
national war policy and international
law. “My interest in national security
law and the law of war grew out of
my work on the Bagram detainee
cases,” he says, “and continued as I
was teaching at West Point”—where
he took a time-out to earn his LLM
degree from Columbia University
Law School. Now a candidate for
the JSD degree at Columbia, his
dissertation is tentatively titled “The
Laws of War, the Rule of Law, and
Civil-Military Relations in Armed
Conflict.”Dehn notes of his ongoing
scholarship, “We haven’t resolved
some fundamental questions
about the constitutional separation
of military powers or conflicts
between presidential orders and
international law, and by extension,
what obligation military lawyers
and officers have. I’m interested in
exploring these questions to see if
we can divine some clarity.”
AT HOME AT LOYOLA:
At Loyola,
Dehn teaches Criminal Law and
Procedure as well as Military
Law, bringing his diverse legal
background to bear. “I’ve advised
both individual and institutional
clients, been a prosecutor and
military magistrate—lots of different
lawyering experiences in a variety of
settings. I think that experience can
bring a lot to the classroom,” he says.
“So many Loyola students reflect the
school’s social justice mission and
are trying to do something with their
lives that makes a difference. That
resonated with me and reminded
me of the kids at West Point, who are
also trying to do something larger
than themselves. I couldn’t have
asked for anything better than the
Loyola environment.”
■
“I knew I wanted
to give something
back
to the country
that had given me
so much.”
—John Dehn
John C. Dehn joined the faculty this fall after stints teaching at West Point and serving in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
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LOYOLA LAW
FALL 2013
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