Diaza-Cope rearrangement is used to make a variety of alpha-substituted syn-alpha,beta-diamino acids. The rearrangement takes place with complete transfer of stereochemical integrity (>97% de and >98% ee) giving only one of four possible stereoisomers as determined by X-ray crystallography, (1)H NMR, and chiral HPLC. The observed stereospecificity can be explained in terms of DFT computation. This represents the first 1,4-diaza-Cope rearrangement with a ketone.