Keith Aoki@@http://www.law.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Aoki/@@ was not a typical legal scholar.
Instead of writing legal doctrines, he drew comic strips and spent law school playing in a rock and roll band@@I don’t understand this. Instead of writing legal doctrines, did he draw before he went into law school? Or during? I have no idea what happened when@@.
And though he was recognized as one of the leading national experts in his field, published some of the most highly circulated legal texts and was respected and admired by academic leaders and law professionals around the country, friends and colleagues described him as first and foremost an artist — a self-described “impostor of academia” — and one of the most humble and creative people they had ever met.
“He wanted to illustrate things in a different way,” Margaret Hallock@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Margaret+Hallock@@, director of the Wayne Morse Law Center, said of Aoki. “He had an incredibly creative approach to scholarship and the law.”
Aoki, who worked at the University School of Law for 13 years@@Okay, he worked both at the UO and U-Cal Davis (see latter part of sentence)? So, 13 years at the UO?@@, died of a prolonged illness April 26@@maybe we could put the information of the memorial service earlier? Otherwise, I am, like, “He died back in April? Why cover it now?”@@ at his home in Sacramento, Calif., where he was working as a law professor at the University of California, Davis. He was 55 years old and leaves behind his wife, Mona, and two 9-year-old daughters.
A memorial symposium to honor Aoki and recognize his contributions to the legal world is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Knight Law Center.
Immediately following Aoki’s passing, the Internet was flooded with blog posts and tribute pages from friends, colleagues and students praising him for his work, compassion and talent in academia, art and music.
“Keith was a wonderful, kind, funny, inspiring brilliant and incredibly accessible professor,” Amy Bilyeu@@http://www.superlawyers.com/oregon/lawyer/Amy-E-Bilyeu/2ce97dfa-46ac-477a-84d8-3bbd4a7e2434.html@@, Oregon law class of 2000, said in a tribute page. “I am so terribly sad that he is gone.”
“He’s revered,” University law professor Steven Bender@@http://www.law.uoregon.edu/news/article/728@@ said of Aoki’s relevance to the legal world.
Aoki is perhaps best known in academia for his contributions to intellectual property law, though he is also recognized as a leader in other topics, including Asian-American law, immigration law, geography and local government.
His legacy, however, does not lie merely in his teachings, but rather in his ability to use art, specifically comic books, to convey his message.
“He was going to speak through the medium that gave him the most creative outlet,” Bender said of Aoki’s comic strips, which were published in some of the nation’s leading legal journals.
“That was unheard of for law professors,” Bender added of Aoki creative approach to legal work. “He mocked the protocol.”
Aoki, Bender said, used comics because he wanted to reach an audience past the Ph.D-holding community that typically dominates legal publications.
“He would really write for the common man or woman,” Bender said. “He thought his points were important enough to be heard in broader audiences.”
Along with using art as his medium, Aoki made his work more accessible by offering it for free to download online. His text, “Bound by Law”, which he co-wrote with Duke professors Jennifer Jenkins@@http://www.law.duke.edu/fac/jenkins@@ and James Boyle@@http://www.law.duke.edu/fac/boyle@@, was downloaded by more than 500,000 people.
“Some legal scholars would be lucky if 12 people read your law-review article,” Bender said.
This belief in the importance of reaching a wide audience also reflects Aoki’s approach to intellectual property law. Convinced that the key to progress was through artistic freedom, Aoki encouraged artists, musicians and intellectuals to not limit the public’s access to their work.
“He was always railing against the encroachment of copyright rules,” Bender said. “His attitude was always share and share for free.”
Aoki did not only preach of these principles, friends and colleagues say, but also put them into practice in his own life.
“He never owned an idea as far as he’s concerned,” Hallock said, explaining that his approach to scholarship was through collaboration. “He was extremely valuable to people as a mentor and a guide.”
For Aoki, the lines between disciplines in academia were blurry, and by expanding his studies past law, he found means of weaving together topics in a way that most legal scholars never had.
“In one article, he could talk about Asian-Americans, politics and intellectual property,” Bender said. “He was three or four scholars in one.”
At the heart of Aoki’s work and faith in collaboration, his colleagues say, was a commitment to recognizing and ending social injustices.
“He wanted to know about how other disciplines approached problems,” Hallock said. “There was no one who looked at problems from so many different angles.”
Despite his accomplishments and seemingly natural genius in academia, friends say that throughout his life he maintained the attitude of a humble musician and starving artist.
“His roots as an artist and musician carried through in everything he did,” Bender said.
“As a musician he would cut across genres,” he added, explaining that in one jam session Aoki would play everything from jazz to rock and roll. “He did the same thing as a legal scholar. He saw no boundaries for his scholarship.”