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| On behalf of the Law School faculty,
faculty participants from other schools at Duquesne
University, our distinguished Advisory Board and
all of our colleagues, I am privileged to welcome
you to The Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic
Science and Law. |
| In creating the Wecht Institute,
many of us have struggled long and hard to craft
a single, coherent, defining purpose – a "mission
statement," as we like to say in the world
of education. While this site provides you with
a formal statement of our mission, please allow
me this brief attempt to express my personal views
and observations, based largely upon the thoughts
and work of my colleagues at the Law School and
the Institute. |
| In short, this Institute reflects
our collective belief in the principles of justice.
And if justice is the first virtue of our criminal,
civil and family legal systems, then it is our search
for the truth in these matters that provides the
foundation upon which that virtue rests. |
| The Wecht Institute is the product
of the consistent view that in criminal, civil and
family legal matters, a broad cross-section of professions
and academic disciplines must be engaged, jointly,
in our pursuit of certain truths. And while the
rule of law often resolves many doubtful questions
of fact, each and every day brings us more news
that science is entirely capable of introducing
a degree of precision that our justice systems and
the rule of law have yet to fully realize. |
| Social service professionals,
nurses and other medical professionals, teachers,
lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, professional
caregivers of children and the elderly, members
of law enforcement, private investigators, clergy,
journalists, insurance professionals . . . all of
these professionals and the institutions in which
they work, and more, are necessarily—if not
inescapably—crucial components of our systems
of justice. |
| We invite you to discover why.
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John T. Rago
Founding Director and Professor
of Law |
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