About the Institute
Since its founding in 1989, the George W. and Jean H. Pugh Institute for Justice has been providing support for research and educational activities that promote justice for individuals in the administration of the criminal and civil justice systems in Louisiana and elsewhere. The Institute achieves its mission in partnership with Louisiana Law Review, sponsoring symposia that foster publication and electronic distribution of related research. Each year, the Pugh Institute sponsors a series of free lectures for the LSU Law community and public.
Upcoming Events
- Anniversary and Implications of the Brown II Decision
Tuesday, Oct. 14 · 5 – 7 p.m. · McKernan Auditorium
Join us as we revisit the Brown v. Board of Education II decision on its 70th anniversary and explore its implications on school desegregation in Baton Rouge. The event is free and open to the public.
- The Law of Slavery in Louisiana Under the Code Noir
*Monday, Nov. 3 · 12:40-1:40 p.m.· McKernan Auditorium (*Event moved from Monday Oct. 27)
Tulane University Law School Professor Vernon Palmer presents on “The Law of Slavery in Louisiana under the Code Noir.”
About George and Jean Pugh
George W. Pugh (1925-2020) and his wife and lifelong collaborator, Jean H. Pugh (1929-2012), were beloved members of the LSU Law family who influenced generations of Louisiana lawyers and made immense contributions to the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center.
George grew up along the banks of Bayou Lafourche in Napoleonville, Louisiana. He joined the U.S. Army in 1943 and served in France during World War II. After returning home, he earned an undergraduate degree from LSU in 1947 and in 1950 he graduated from LSU Law at the top of his class.
Over his distinguished career, George would become known as the “intellectual father of the Louisiana Code of Evidence.” Fittingly, he taught his classmates evidence during his final year at LSU Law after a faculty member became ill. After graduating from LSU Law, he received a scholarship to continue his studies at Yale Law School.
George was wrapping up his studies at Yale in 1952 when he happened to meet Jean Earle Hemphill while traveling by train back to campus from an out-of-state trip. Raised in the seaside town of Spring Lake, New Jersey, Jean graduated from Vassar College in 1951 with honors and was working for Nielson Company in New York City. They fell in love, were married within a few months of meeting one another, and moved to Louisiana to begin their lives together in 1952 after George earned his Doctor of Judicial Science from Yale. He joined the LSU Law faculty that fall and taught at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center through his retirement in 1994.
Soon after moving to Louisiana, Jean “read law” and passed the Louisiana Bar Exam while she and Geroge started a family. They eventually raised four sons: William W.H. Pugh III (’79), George W. Pugh Jr. (’82), David N. Pugh, and James H. Pugh.
In 1998, George and Jean established the George W. and Jean H. Pugh Institute for Justice at LSU Law to promote justice for individuals in the administration of the criminal and civil justice systems in the state of Louisiana and elsewhere.
Beyond his 43 years of teaching at LSU Law, George served the Louisiana bench and bar in many capacities, including as Louisiana’s first Judicial Administrator; an ad hoc judge on the Louisiana Court of Appeal; and a prolific writer on the law of evidence and the administration of justice. He was the coordinator and co-reporter of the Code of Evidence for the Louisiana State Law Institute, which was enacted into state law in 1988. A consistent voice for reason, moderation, and intellectual honesty in the administration of justice, he was noted for his expertise in Evidence, Criminal Justice, Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure, and Comparative Law.
Among his many accomplishments and accolades, George was honored with the Distinguished Professor Award from the Louisiana Bar Foundation in 2012. In 2019, the Louisiana Legislature honored his career with a resolution that lauded him as “a legal theorist without par and one of Louisiana’s most influential legal scholars,” adding: “his expertise reshaped Louisiana evidence law and his teaching has produced multiple generations of law professionals, attorneys, judges, and professors.”
Among generations of LSU Law graduates, George is best remembered as a beloved teacher and mentor. His classes were intense, marked by close attention to the facts, rigorous examination of the text, and an immense fund of knowledge that could be brought to bear on any issue. He taught his students profound lessons about what the law can—and should—be. Those lessons continue to resonate today, in the lives of his students and in the work of the Geroge W. and Jean H. Pugh Institute for Justice.
Directory
Raymond T. Diamond
Professor of Law, Director of the George W. and Jean H. Pugh Institute for Justice
Office: 434APhone: 225-578-5292
Fax: 225-578-5935
Email: rdiamond@lsu.edu