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| 2021/09/30 22:24:35瀏覽1058｜回應2｜推薦20 | |
| (The Acknowledgments are posted in celebration of the Teachers’ Day just passed and the upcoming National Day of Mainland China, the National Day of former East Germany, my birthday, and the Double Tenth Day- the National Day of the ROC.)
Acknowledgments (4th Version in September 2011) (Note 1:Although this is the 4th version of the Acknowledgments, its contents have remained largely the same as the previous versions of the Acknowledgments.) It is my great pleasure to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the many people to whom I am greatly indebted for their assistance in the dissertation writing process. However, due to the rush to complete my dissertation, I have not been able to spend enough time on the important task of recording my debts to the multitude of people who contributed to my doctoral journey. I seek the sympathetic understanding of those whose contributions I have either neglected to record, or have done so inadequately. This section is normally situated at the beginning of a dissertation. I have chosen to follow my great friend Arun’s example to include it at the end so that I may write freely, unencumbered by concerns that my displays of emotions and verbosity in recording the several debts I have incurred might irritate, or unnecessarily delay those who only seek the legal contents of this dissertation . (Note 2:With Arun’s kind permission, most of the contents of this paragraph have been quoted from Arun K. Thiruvengadam’s Acknowledgments in his J.S.D. dissertation, “The Common Illumination of our House”?: Foreign Judicial Decisions and Competing Approaches to Constitutional Adjudication- A study of trans-judicial influence in six jurisdictions 251, 251 (2006) (unpublished J.S.D. dissertation, New York University School of Law) (electronic version for oral defense on file with author) The first set of people I would like to thank are, of course, the members of my dissertation committee. My utmost gratitude goes to Professor Mattias Kumm, who kindly offered to serve as my primary supervisor after I gained admission to the J.S.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science) Program. Ever since Professor Kumm took on this responsibility, he has devoted an incredible amount of time to my project and has provided extensive supervision throughout the process. Without his intensive supervision, I could not have come up with the current framework and thesis. In the several months preceding the oral defense, Professor Kumm has provided me with incredible mental support and administrative assistance. Otherwise, the oral defense would not have been possible. I am much obliged that I have such a wonderful supervisor who is also part of the body of the Christ. When my Committee was formed in January 2005, Professor Stephen Holmes was the only member whom I have not studied with. I had, however, learnt about his thoughts in a seminar on the theoretical foundation of liberal democracy. I have read more of his writings ever since. His theories of constitutionalism and liberal democracy are major sources of inspiration for my dissertation and for my life as well. By a happy coincidence, he offered a class on the Federalist Papers in Fall 2005, which I immediately decided to audit and have learnt much about the constitutional thoughts of the American founding generation. I took Professor F’s Colloquium to fulfill the requirement of the J.S.D. Program in my first year of the J.S.D. Program. I have much enjoyed both his class and his writings. Professor F’s constitutional theory has been very illuminating for my project. It is a great pity that because of an overwhelming collision of obligations, Professor F discovered that he could not attend my oral defense shortly before the oral defense and thus had to withdraw from my Committee. To my great relief, Professor Victor Ferreres Comella, who is a Spanish expert in comparative constitutional law, kindly agreed to replace him to serve on my Committee on this short notice. I am really grateful to Professor Comella’s kindness in serving as the “firefighter”. Otherwise, the oral defense would not have been possible. Professor Comella had read my dissertation closely and provided quite a few valuable insights during the oral defense. He also suggested a modified title of this dissertation, which I gladly accepted after the defense. However, upon further reflections, I have decided to reinstate my original title of “Absolute Entrenchment” instead of “Entrenching Liberal Democracy”, to make sure that the readers would not misunderstand the theme of this dissertation. I apologize to those who are confused by the two titles that are used at different times. Then I would like to thank the New York University (“NYU”) School of Law for offering a wonderful academic environment and for providing me with financial support during my five years of studies here through the Hauser Global Scholarship and the J.S.D. Fellowship. In addition, I would like to thank Professors William Allen and Larry Kramer without whose letters of recommendation, it would have been impossible for me to have gained admission to the J.S.D. program. As far as I know, Professor Larry Kramer went further to write an addendum letter of recommendation after he read the revised version of my term paper on his own initiative! I also would like to thank Professor Jerome Cohen for his help in many aspects and Professor Joseph Weiler for his teachings on methodology and critical thinking. In addition, besides being a considerate and responsive teacher, Professor Eleanor Fox kindly volunteered to write an e-mail letter of recommendation for me to a first-rate U.S. law school whose JSD program I applied for. I have been much obliged to her for her graciousness. Furthermore, I would like to thank Professor Frank Upham for his friendship at NYU. Last but not least, I would like to thank Professor Estreicher for his sympathy for Taiwan’s isolation in the international community. It is a great pleasure to thank my colleagues and friends at NYU who have made my four and half years of stay in New York a pleasant experience. I would like to thank all my colleagues in the JSD program, particularly Ming-Hsi Sung, who gave me extraordinary support when I applied to NYU’s J.S.D. program. I also would like to thank Arun Thiruvengadam for his friendship and for his feedback on Indian law, which constitutes a major portion of the comparative law case studies in my dissertation. Besides, Arun’s Acknowledgments have also inspired my Acknowledgements. I enjoyed his Acknowledgments to such an extent that I quoted a substantial portion of the introduction to his Acknowledgments in my own Acknowledgments with minor revisions. I have to thank him for allowing me to quote his Acknowledgments. In addition, I would like to thank Christine Bateup, Vik Kanwar, Roy Schoendorf, Yair Sagy, and Yun-Chien for their valuable comments on my dissertation. Thanks are also due to the Visiting Doctoral Researchers in academic year 2006/2007 (Claes, Emily, Niels, Yaron), who are now integrated into the J.S.D. program to a much greater extent. Ari (J.S.D. Officer), Arianne, Colin, Doreen, Eran (Lempert and Shamir-Borer), Kirsty, Noa, Omer, Shelly, and Shmuel have all offered their valuable friendship and assistance to me. Moreover, special thanks are due to my English proofreader Terence, without whose help, the language of this dissertation would not have flowed so well (though the corrections made were minor). The academic Year 2002/2003 was crucial for my study at NYU as it was my first year here as both an LL.M. student and a Hauser Global Scholar. My colleague Felix in the Hauser Program has been an incredible blessing to me, providing me with mental support (when we went to see the opera “Die Fledermaus”) without which I might have given up my application to the J.S.D. program. Fengchun and Franchette, among other fellow Hauser Scholars, have made my stay memorable. In addition, Macel, Alfonso (King), Howard (Ho and Shiu), Chin-Bo, Gleb, Shinji, Jacqueline, Yair, Mingli, Camila, and many friends, have together made that year colorful and memorable for me. Christian Legal Fellowship at NYU Law has long been a great support to me. In my first year, James was the great host of the prayer meetings on Sunday nights. Jon kindly proofread my lengthy and awkwardly-written term paper (as it was my first English term paper). Peter and Jon recommended the wonderful church New Life Fellowship to me. Peter’s twin brother Drew has been a wonderful community pastor and friend. Da-Deh, Paul, Wangui, Sanghyun, Eddie, Carlin, Stephen, Yen-Mei, Tony, Bukola, Minjue, Troy, Troels, Sabrina, Edgar, and Jessica have been friends at CLF in different years. Anna Lee of the InterVarsity Graduate Students Fellowship also made my life more colorful in my first year in the J.S.D. Program. The Acknowledgments would be incomplete without mention of my friends outside NYU School of Law. Many of my Christian and non-Christian friends have been a wonderful support for me. Many times, when I felt overwhelmed by the dissertation writing or other matters, I would not hesitate to call them, ‘msn’ them, or e-mail them to seek their support. A list of my core supporting friends would include without limitations Chia-Hsin Hsu, Yoshing Chang, Kaizon Yang, Anthony Lee, Chi-Tsun Chiu (and his wife Chien-Ju), Chao-Hung Chen, Chi-Wei Huang, Shopping Hsiao, Lydia Lo, Hsi-Ming Hong, Yang-Hung Wei, Jason Chiu, Ting-Mao Chao, Guo-Shi Li, Shiou-Fen Tsai, Peter (Pang and Ni), You-Hwa Wu, Ching-Chang Chen, Jinda Su, Howard (Ho and Ting), Chengcheng Qu, Chung-Lin Lee, and Shaunson Liang. Two other friends that deserve special mention are George Ding and George Cheng, who have been the major contributors to my blog during its establishment stage. George Ding is also a great friend who frequently responded to my group e-mails to my friends. Besides, I would like to thank my friends at my two home churches, namely the New Life Fellowship Church in New York (such as Jose, Alan, Amanda, Meghan, Jusup, Tina Chang, Tina Ng, Tina Park, Dan, May, Frank, Aabye, Mike”s”, and William) and the New Life Church in Taipei (such as little Bai, Mei-Jyun, Mary, Ollie, Mingyi, Steve, Hou-Bai, “Uncle” Mai, Jeany Lee, Deborah Yang, Mary, Yu-Lin, Kanny, Jasmine Chung, Sheng-Yao Huang, Yi-Cing Zhong, and little Goo). Pastor Koo in Taipei New Life and Pastor Pete in New York are like my spiritual fathers. Elder Ho is another senior in the Christ that I would like to thank. His teaching on how to study the bible has had tremendous impact on me, having shaped my way of biblical interpretation, which in turn has profound impact on my way of legal interpretation. Last but by no means least, I would like to thank Pastor Chang, Mrs. Becky Chang, Shina (and her parents), Allen Tsai, Yu-Syun, Guei Siang and other friends in Taipei Heavenly Bread Church of Christ for their friendship and love in the Christ in the last few months before I completed the oral defense. The Chinese/Taiwanese Teacher’s Day just passed about a month ago (as of the time when I wrote the first version of the Acknowledgments) and therefore I believe it proper to give special thanks to some teachers of my life who have influenced and/or supported me tremendously. In my elementary school years at “Deep Hole Elementary School”, Ms. Mei-Luan Hsu was the teacher who influenced me the most and we spent much time together. Her loving kindness made my elementary school days particularly memorable. Lady Yuan and Lady Cheng are also great teachers who showed respect and tolerance to their students. In my junior and senior high schools years, Mr. Jheng-Syong Huang, Yuan-Kun Wang, and Dai-Ren Wu were my “teachers in charge”. Of them, I cherish Mr. Huang and Mr. Wu more, but I have also learnt from Mr. Wang. In my college years, many professors have shaped my thoughts and influenced me. Among them, Professor Ming-Ru Zeng-Chen was my mentor for all four years; Professor Fang-Chi Ke introduced me to the study of commercial laws and I was awarded my highest grade in college in her class; Professor Hong-Si Li introduced me to the study of constitutional law; and Professor Shiou Shieh has long been both a good friend and teacher. When I practiced law as an attorney in Taiwan, Mr. Wellington L. Koo and Mr. Nigel Nien Tsu Li were two wonderful mentors to me. When I applied for the LL.M. programs, Professors Yueh-Sheng Weng, Paul S.P. Hsu, Chang-Fa Lo, Jiunn-Rong Yeh, Tsung-Jung Liu, and Wen-Yeu Wang have provided recommendations and/or assistance. Besides, Justice Feng-Zhi Peng, though not my teacher formally, graciously helped me to collect German materials in my dissertation writing process. Now it is time to thank my family. Without my parents, I would not have been in the world and this dissertation would not have been written! My mother loves me dearly and in Christ I know that her love and prayers for me have great power in the spiritual realm. Moreover, my father has been very supportive of my studying at NYU both mentally and financially. I also would like to thank my sister Joan and my brother-in-law Abraham for their abundant love in the Christ. But for their rescue, this dissertation would not have been completed. Besides, I would like to thank my two aunts (Jean and Susan) and two uncles (Yee-Jen and Yee-Horn) in the United States for their frequent concerns through phone calls, e-mails, or personal visits. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank the trinity God in whom I believe. Without the Lord, I certainly could not have sustained all the struggles along the path toward the consummation of this dissertation. If I must choose one “person” to whom I would dedicate my dissertation, it must be the Lord! May all honor, glory, and power be unto Him/Her/It for ever and ever. Amen! By Mu-Te Yu, J.S.D., New York University School of Law Adjunct Assistant Professor (of Law), Ming Chuan University PS: I also would like to thank Mr. Hu, my math teacher in the last two years in the senior high school, whose teaching much improved my math ability. 20210930 (Thursday) 10:24 PM (Taipei time as shown on my DELL notebook computer)； adding Mr. Hu’s part at 2:46 AM, 20211002 (Saturday). |
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