AMBASSADOR Robert Holmes Tuttle

Speeches, Remarks & Events

16 September 2006
Address at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Trial Lawyers

London

(as prepared for delivery)

When President Bush called me early last year in Los Angeles about taking up the post of Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, I was certainly surprised. It is not every day you get a wake-up call from the President of the United States!

I had worked in the White House with President Reagan, and I knew what government service is like. So there was a little voice in my head that said, “Although this would be the opportunity of a lifetime, your life will be taken over.”

On the other hand, I have been coming to London since I was a teenager. It is such a cosmopolitan city, with fabulous theater, fascinating architecture, and wonderful museums. (I hope you have been seeing some of those wonderful treasures.) It was also in London that I first fell in love with contemporary art - now a lifetime passion.

Maria and I decided that we would do the job together - as a team. And we have enjoyed every minute of it.

In fact, I have been trying to think of arguments I could use to convince the President that perhaps it should be a lifetime appointment. After all, Supreme Court judges get to stick around! Perhaps Chief Justice Roberts can give me some advice on that point. (Just kidding.)

But it is the best job in the world. I represent my country to our nation's most important ally, meet some of the most interesting people of our day - and come to conferences of trial lawyers at 7:30 on a Saturday morning - what else could a man ask for?

You are in good company in terms of visitors from the United States. In 2004, there were 2.4 million Americans visiting these shores for conferences and business meetings like this one. Two million more came for education and vacations.

Those numbers indicate just how close the relationship is between the United States and the United Kingdom.

Last year, 18,000 of those visitors were American officials from federal, state and local government. In the past year, the President has come to the UK, and the Secretary of State has come four times.

Sometimes, government officials come to collaborate, but often it is just to share their experience with their UK counterparts and to seek advice.

Your organization's “Anglo-American Legal Exchange” is just one of the hundreds of similar programs designed to ensure that we learn from each other.

Private sector involvement in London is also impressive. Right now, the United States accounts for half of all the international businesses establishing themselves.

U.S. companies add $30 billion annually to London's gross domestic product and employ nearly a quarter of a million people.

It is hardly surprising then, that American law firms are making such a success of their businesses - a trend that looks set to continue. Though I did see that Britain's top firms, those in the “Magic Circle,” as they call it, are fighting to gain those top slots back from U.S. firms.

Maybe we need some more regulation to ensure we keep our lawyers busy!

Certainly plenty of people here will tell you, Sarbanes-Oxley has done just that - or more recently, the issue of extradition.

I want to focus on extradition for a minute because I am sure you have been reading about it in the United States. There has been a lot of misunderstanding about it, both here and at home.

Far from creating an imbalance, the 2003 extradition treaty modernized our extradition arrangements with the UK.

After the treaty was signed, the British Parliament passed the Extradition Act of 2003, which corrected an imbalance in our extradition arrangements.

What the Act did was effectively create the environment in which the standard of proof -- in both jurisdictions -- would be the equivalent of “probable cause.”

The Act relieved the United States from having to meet a prima facie standard for extradition.

As you might imagine, the extradition to the United States of three people from a well-known bank has caused a great deal of comment in London.

We have been working hard, as have those in Washington, to try to create a better understanding in both capitals, in the hope that we might be able to work our way through this increasingly political - legal issue.

However, I have to say that I am concerned. The UK, our friend and closest ally, has been honoring this treaty for three years. And the fact that the U.S. Senate has not yet ratified it has become an unnecessary point of discord.

As Ambassador, I have been working on this issue, as has the White House and the State Department.

We are all concerned that without the ratification of this treaty, there is a real danger that we could go back to a more imbalanced situation - and, in the process, seriously damage a relationship that we need to maintain.

However, I am happy to report, we took a major step towards ratification just over a week ago, when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted unanimously in favor of the treaty. It will shortly be reported to the full Senate, and the Administration is hopeful for a speedy ratification.

But legal debates notwithstanding - Britain and the United States are interconnected in a way that I have come to see as unique.

I cannot think of two countries that have such a strong base of common understanding - such a deep and wide relationship between governments and business - and most importantly - such an intimate knowledge of each other on an individual basis.

One-to-one relationships that are built and nurtured by millions and millions of individuals - interested, inspired and involved in transatlantic affairs.

The President understood the importance of that dynamic, when he asked me to make public diplomacy a priority.

As a former board member of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication - I did not need convincing.

My wife and I have been on over 25 trips within the UK since arriving last year, and it is a pace that we intend to continue.

We have met with students and stockbrokers, religious and business leaders, country music fans and conductors, engineers and artists - you name it! We have been north and south, east and west.

Let me give you an example of one unusual - but most interesting trip. I was privileged to go to Blackburn with the former Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.

Blackburn is his constituency in Lancashire - or “up north” as they say (but not as far north as Scotland).

It was inspiring for me to watch a man I had only seen in action on foreign policy, dealing with local constituency concerns. To his constituents, he was not an important diplomat or statesman. He was just “Jack” - their Member of Parliament. And they were going to talk to him about that pothole, or that school, or the local garbage collection.

Most Members of Parliament hold these advice sessions with their constituents. They are called “advice surgeries”.

That sounded a little strange to me. I thought, I didn't know Jack had a medical degree. I was relieved to discover surgeries only meant individual meetings with constituents - and involved nothing sharper than a ballpoint pen!

It was fascinating - as well as an important reminder of the differences between the American and the British systems of government. It demonstrated the pressures - even on government ministers in this country - that are very different from our system.

Nothing I can say will do justice to all the conversations I have had with people right across the United Kingdom - and what they have taught me about this country.

Of course, we do not always agree with one another. I have faced some tough questions. And I have no doubt that will continue.

But even if we differ in approach or tactics, I feel that we consistently agree that the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is crucial.

It is clear to everyone I meet, that the world needs a strong transatlantic partnership, if we are to deal with the issues that face us all.

That is why organizations like yours are so important, as is their work on the specific issues that sometimes arise between our countries.

I mentioned Sarbanes-Oxley and extradition, but there is a long list of issues that, as often as not, involve you or your colleagues in other areas of the legal profession - laws on counterterrorism, legal education, the resolution of disputes and extraterritoriality when dealing with global business.

I have a business and government background - not a legal one - but something Clarence Darrow once said comes to mind and I will leave it with you today:

“. . . All that occurs in life is an endless sequence of events - resulting from the wildest chance.”

For me, a call from the President - and a whole new life opened up for us here.

The stakes may not be as profound as those in Darrow's courtrooms - but we work - day-by-day - to strengthen our transatlantic bonds and support those parts of the relationship that may need repair from time to time.

We call it, thanks to Winston Churchill, the “special relationship,” but that is not some kind of magic title. To me, the special relationship is about people - a weaving together of diverse and disparate interests into a unique fabric. One that becomes richer and stronger for the differences in texture and pattern we all contribute.

Tending that fabric is what I intend to do for President Bush - or longer if he likes my idea of making this a lifetime post!

But I hope you will also continue to consider this task part of your work. To participate in the “endless sequence of events” that brings together people and ideas, and ultimately creates the fundamental canvas on which we will all paint the transatlantic relationship of the future.

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