U.VA. LAW PROFESSOR A.E. DICK HOWARD TO BE HONORED BY
CZECH REPUBLIC FOR CONSTITUTIONAL WORK IN EASTERN EUROPE

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., April 16 -- A.E. Dick Howard, the
White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the
University of Virginia, will be honored by the Czech Republic in
Prague this month for his work in developing democratic
constitutional and legal systems in Eastern Europe.
	Howard, a constitutional scholar who has consulted with
emerging and resurgent democracies throughout the world, will be the
first foreigner to receive a prestigious annual medal given by the
Czech Republic's bar association, the Union of Czech Lawyers.  The
Antonin Randa Medal, established in 1991 and named for one of
Czechoslovakia's most eminent legal figures, will be awarded to
Howard on April 26 by the President of the Czech Supreme Court.
	Howard has assisted the Czech Republic and the former
Czechoslovakia, as well as Poland and Hungary, in developing systems
of constitutional rights after the fall of Communist regimes in
Eastern Europe.  He is one of a small group of leading American
constitutional law scholars to whom countries behind the former Iron
Curtain have turned for advice in drafting new legal systems.
	"Professor Howard's contribution to constitutional
development in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as his support
and promotion of the concept of a civil society, is highly
appreciated in the region in general and the Czech Republic in
particular,"Ęsaid Ladislav Venys of the Czech Center for Democracy
and Free Enterprise, who has helped coordinate the award.
	Antonin Randa, who died in 1914, co-founded the Union of
Czech Lawyers in 1864 and also served as a member of the Supreme
Court, chair of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and dean of the law
school and rector of Charles University in Prague. 
	Howard will lecture at a seminar on legal ethics in
conjunction with receiving the honor.
	"It is very flattering but also very touching that they
would do this," he said.  "It recognizes the close ties between the
American and Czech republics over the years.  We are both heirs to
vibrant democratic traditions."
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April 15, 1996
	For interviews A.E. Dick Howard may be reached at (804)
924-3097.  He will be away to receive the medal between April 21 and
April 28.  Television reporters should contact our TV News Office at
(804) 924-7550.