Lecture Programs and Other Academic Opportunities

The regular curriculum at Yale Law School is supplemented by a host of events and activities that augment and enrich legal education and scholarship. Under the auspices of various academic programs, faculty members, and student organizations, distinguished speakers—lawyers, judges, public figures, government officials, scholars, and other prominent individuals—give talks or participate in panel discussions on a wide variety of topics throughout the academic year. In addition, an abundant resource of endowed funds allows the School to invite specially designated fellows and lecturers.

Lecture Programs
The regular curriculum at Yale Law School is supplemented by a host of events and activities that augment and enrich legal education and scholarship. Under the auspices of various academic programs, faculty members, and student organizations, distinguished speakers—lawyers, judges, public figures, government officials, scholars, and other prominent individuals—give talks or participate in panel discussions on a wide variety of topics throughout the academic year. In addition, an abundant resource of endowed funds allows the School to invite specially designated fellows and lecturers.

A sampling of endowed lecture programs from the 2001-2002 academic year follows.

The Robert L. Bernstein Lecture in International Human Rights, which was inaugurated in 1998 by Wei Jingsheng, the political prisoner released in 1997 after almost twenty years of continuous captivity in a Chinese jail, was given in 2002 by Justice Albie Sachs of the South Africa Constitutional Court. His talk focused on “South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

The Ralph Gregory Elliot First Amendment Lecture was established in 1992 with an inaugural lecture by U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stephens. Professor Lawrence Lessig ’89 of Stanford Law School gave the 2001-02 Elliot Lecture, “Free Labor, Free Culture.”

The Harper Fellowship, which sponsors a prominent figure selected for distinguished contribution to the public life of the nation, hosted two visitors in the 2001-2002 academic year. Newark City Councilman Cory Booker ’97 spoke in the fall of 2001 on “Change and Challenge: Personal Lessons and Urban Effort.” Alan D. Bersin ’74, superintendent of the San Diego public school system, visited Yale in the spring of 2002 to deliver a talk, “Urban Public Education: Separate Again, Still Unequal.”

The Arthur Allen Leff Fellowship brings to Yale Law School individuals whose work in other disciplines illuminates the study of law and legal institutions. In the spring of 2002 the Leff Fellowship sponsored a lecture by Nobel Prize-winning economist and University of California at Berkeley Professor George A. Akerlof, whose lecture was entitled “Economics and Identity.”

Bill Joy, co-founder, chief scientist, and corporate executive officer of Sun Microsystems, Inc., Aspen Smallworks, delivered the Charles S. Mechem, Jr. Fellowship Lecture, “Technology and the Rule of Law,” during the Law School’s annual alumni reunion weekend. The Mechem Fellowship was made possible by a grant from Charles S. Mechem, Jr. ’55 to foster an understanding of decision making in the business environment.

The Raben Fellowship, which brings to the Law School individuals with special expertise in securities law, financial accounting, or related subjects, sponsored the visit of Ronald J. Gilson ’71, Charles J. Meyers Professor of Law and Business at Stanford Law School and the Marc and Eva Stern Professor of Law and Business at Columbia University, who spoke on the topic “Engineering Venture Capital Markets.”

The Storrs Lectures, one of Yale Law School’s oldest and most prestigious lecture series, were established in 1889 for a series of lectures given by a prominent scholar within the broad topic of fundamental problems with law and jurisprudence. Two scholars were denoted Storrs Lecturers in the 2001-2002 academic year. In the fall, George P. Fletcher, Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia Law School, delivered three lectures on the topic “Liberals and Romantics at War: The Problem of Collective Guilt.” The spring Storrs Lecturer was Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University, who spoke on “Civic Engagement in American Democracy: How America Became Civic.”

Other named lecture and fellowship programs at Yale Law School include the following:

The Robert P. Anderson Memorial Fellowship, established in 1987 in memory of the senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, provides a forum for distinguished judges to speak on matters of general importance to law and society.

The Timothy B. Atkeson Environmental Practitioner in Residence Program, established in honor of Timothy B. Atkeson ’52, a former assistant administrator for international affairs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, sponsors the visit of an environmental law expert to the Law School.

The Robert M. Cover Lectures in Law and Religion, established to honor the memory of Yale Law School Professor Robert Cover, bring speakers to Yale to explore the intersection of legal thought and practice and religious thought and practice.

The Preiskel/Silverman Program on the Practicing Lawyer and the Public Interest sponsors lectures and other events celebrating the contributions of private lawyers to public service.

The Sherrill Lectureship brings to Yale Law School distinguished visitors with special expertise in problems of international law and international relations.

The Stupski Fellowship in Education, sponsored by the Larry and Joyce Stupski Public Interest Ventures Fund, invites prominent educators to offer their perspectives on their field.

The James A. Thomas Lecture Series, which was established by Yale Law School students in 1989 to honor Associate Dean James A. Thomas ’64, recognizes scholars with innovative perspectives on the relations among law, jurisprudence, and communities of people with color.

Beyond the endowed lecture and fellowship programs, student organizations and other groups regularly invite speakers to present topics of particular interest. Among those invited in the 2001-2002 academic year were Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, who was invited by the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal to speak on “Civil Liberties after September 11”; and Edward J. Nicoll ’97, CEO of Datek Online, who was a speaker in the Yale Law and Enterprise Forum’s CEO Speaker’s Series. Many student organizations sponsor lecture series throughout the academic year, including the Yale Law and Technology Society, the Yale Law School chapter of the Federalist Society, and Yale Law Women.

Students in the Knight Journalism Fellowship program sponsored a number of lectures in the 2001-2002 academic year, including “Hiding the President’s Secrets: The Fight over Access to Presidential Records,” a talk given by noted author and journalist Richard Reeves; and “U.S.A. v. bin Laden et al: A Conversation with Mary Jo White,” which was given by White, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Other regularly scheduled talks are given around a specific academic or intellectual interest. The Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights sponsors a weekly Human Rights Workshop for students, scholars, and practitioners in the field of human rights. The Legal History Forum brings together law students, graduate students, and scholars from a variety of disciplines who have an interest in history and the law. The Law, Economics and Organization Workshop is both a forum for ongoing scholarly research in law and economics and a Law School course. With the Quinnipiac University Law School, Yale Law School sponsors regular workshops on Dispute Resolution. Students also have the opportunity to learn about current Yale Law School faculty research in Faculty Teas scheduled periodically throughout the academic year.

In addition, Yale Law School faculty members often organize extemporary lectures and panels to respond to current events. For example, "The Attack on America: Thoughts and Reactions" was the topic of a faculty panel scheduled shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In the spring of 2002 the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law organized a panel discussion on "The Enron Situation: A View from the Professions."

Further information about the origins and history of all endowed fellowships and lectures at the Law School appears under Alumni, Yale Law School Fund, and Endowment Funds. Lectures and other public events are also described in the online Master Calendar of Events, which is updated daily during the academic year.

Special Initiatives
The Yale Law School is shaped by the intellectual interests of its faculty and students. Those interests find expression not only in our established curriculum and other academic opportunities, but also in new activities that emerge from time to time.

For example, the growing importance of international perspectives has yielded two major initiatives. The Global Constitutionalism Seminar, directed by Professor Paul Gewirtz, is an annual event in which Supreme Court and constitutional court judges from around the world meet with faculty members to discuss issues of common concern. With generous funding from David A. Jones ’60 and David A. Jones, Jr. ’88, five seminars have already been convened. While the seminar proceedings are largely confidential, some events are open to the Law School community.

A second initiative is designed to promote democratic institutions and practices in Latin America through linkage activities with two law schools in Chile, one in Argentina, and one in Brazil. Now in its eighth year, this program permits up to six Yale students to spend the month of June in Chile or Argentina, and three students to spend the month in Brazil, in order to work with Latin American law students in small study groups and clinics, and on law journals. In February, students from the Latin American linkage law schools visit Yale for three weeks to participate in study groups and attend classes. In addition, in June, legal scholars from Yale and from cosponsoring law schools in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Spain convene for the Seminario en Latino-américa de Teoría Constitucional y Política, a four-day conference exploring the foundational ideas of constitutional democracy.

The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy
The center, established in 1994 by Yale Law School and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, draws upon resources throughout Yale University to develop and advance environmental policy locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. The center’s mission is to introduce students to environmental law challenges, policy tools, and research methodologies; encourage debate and creative thought on environmental issues; develop and advance policies responding to critical environmental problems on the local, regional, national, and global levels; and provide a forum where scholars, environmental advocates, businesspeople, government officials, and representatives of international organizations can exchange views. The center supports a variety of research projects. These include the Global Environment and Trade Study, which provides research on environmental questions arising in the context of trade liberalization and environmental integration; the Global Environmental Governance Dialogue, which seeks to identify ways to strengthen the international environmental regime; and the Environmental Sustainability Index Project, an initiative focused on developing environmental “metrics” to evaluate governmental performance in pollution control and natural resource management—with a report on the environmental sustainability of 122 economies presented at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos and a new initiative on “Information Age” environmental protection.

The center runs the Environmental Protection Clinic, where law students have opportunities to address environmental law and policy problems on behalf of client organizations. In recent years, Yale student teams have worked with a range of community groups, environmental groups, think tanks, government agencies, and international organizations.

The center also sponsors an Environmental Law and Policy Lecture Series, which provides a forum for visiting scholars, politicians, and environmental professionals. The director of the center is Professor Daniel C. Esty, who holds a joint appointment in the Law School and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

The Center for Studies in Law, Economics, and Public Policy
The Center for Studies in Law, Economics, and Public Policy is designed to facilitate the scholarly interests of the many distinguished law and economics scholars at Yale, including Professors Ackerman, Alstott, Ayres, Calabresi, Coleman, Ellickson, Graetz, Hansmann, Klevorick, Kronman, Mashaw, Priest, Romano, Rose, Rose-Ackerman, Schuck, Schwartz, and Winter. The center supports a broad range of scholarly work. Under the center, the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics supports John M. Olin Scholarships to students interested in law and economics, to students conducting law and economics research projects over the summer, as well as to students who wish to obtain joint degrees in law and economics; the John M. Olin Prize for the best student paper on a law and economics subject; the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, edited by Professor Alan Schwartz; the center’s Working Paper Series; and the Law, Economics, and Organization Workshop, at which scholars from other institutions and from Yale present papers for student and faculty criticism. The center also provides an umbrella for two programs: the Program in Civil Liability, established to promote comprehensive reanalysis of the modern law of torts, products liability, professional malpractice, insurance, and other subjects related to our civil liability system; and the Program for Studies in Capitalism, which supports research on the operation of capitalism as a mechanism of economic growth; the ethical bases of capitalism; the relation between capitalism and the poor, and between capitalism and democracy. The center’s codirectors are Professors George L. Priest and Susan Rose-Ackerman.

The Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law
The Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law was created to facilitate research and teaching in the business law area. The center’s research and teaching interests include corporate law and the law of other nongovernmental organizations; the regulation of financial markets and intermediaries; and the legal framework of finance, including the law of bankruptcy, corporate reorganization, and secured transactions.

Every year the center hosts a roundtable, open to the Law School community, which is attended by leading corporate lawyers, public officials, and scholars. The roundtables are one-day events that seek to foster a dialogue between academics and practitioners on the important corporate law issues of the day through presentations of scholarly papers and panel discussions. The center hosts the Raben Fellowship, which brings to the Law School a leading expert in securities law for a public lecture. The center also sponsors an occasional breakfast program in New York City, which features panel discussions on current topics in corporate law by alumni and faculty. For more information, visit the center’s Web site at www.yale.edu/law/ccl/.

Professor Alan Schwartz is the director of the center. The center has a board of advisers, chaired by Robert Todd Lang ’47, consisting of YLS alumni Roger Aaron ’68, Curtis H. Barnette ’62, Boris Feldman ’80, Arthur Fleischer, Jr. ’58, Stephen Fraidin ’64, Benjamin F. Stapleton ’69, Craig M. Wasserman ’86, and Judge Ralph K. Winter ’60. In addition to Judge Winter, an adjunct professor at YLS, other members of the Law School faculty serving on the board are Dean Anthony Kronman and Professors Ian Ayres, Henry Hansmann, and Roberta Romano.

The China Law Center
The China Law Center was established at Yale Law School to increase understanding of China’s legal system and to assist in China’s legal reform process. To these ends, the center is sponsoring research, promoting academic exchanges, and undertaking a variety of cooperative projects on important legal reform issues. Since the center was launched, it has begun in-depth cooperative projects with leading Chinese legal experts and institutions in the areas of judicial reform, criminal procedure, administrative law, regulatory reform, and legal education. These projects involve a range of activities, including research visits to Yale and to China, workshops and seminars in the United States and China, and publications. Yale Law School students are encouraged to participate in the center’s work. The center also provides research grants to support law students wishing to do research in China during the summer. The center has received generous support from David A. Jones ’60 and David A. Jones, Jr. ’88, Lawrence J. Stupski ’71, Yale parents Henry Fan and Robert Ng, the Yung Family Charitable Trust, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Luce Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. The director of the center is Professor Paul Gewirtz. The deputy director is Jonathan Hecht and the associate director is Jamie Horsley.

The Information Society Project
The Information Society Project was created in 1997 to study the implications of the Internet, telecommunications, and the new information technologies on law and society. Much of its work has focused on issues of freedom of speech, democracy, and the growth and spread of cultures on the Internet. In past years the ISP has studied the free speech implications of filtering and rating systems, and designed a voluntary labeling system that has been endorsed by the European Commission and adopted by the Internet Content Rating Association. It has also studied civic participation on the Internet, the civil liberties implications of intellectual property protection, memetics and the evolution of cultures and ideologies, and the effects of the new communications technologies on globalization. The project embraces a variety of activities, including fellowships for young scholars and advice and education for policy makers, business leaders, nonprofit organizations, and the legal community. It also runs a Weblog, Lawmeme, which offers commentary on developing technology issues. The project director is Professor Jack Balkin.

The Arthur Liman Public Interest Program
The Arthur Liman Public Interest Program was established in 1997 by family and friends of the late Arthur Liman ’57 to honor his commitment to public interest law.

The Liman Program funds fellowships for Law School graduates working in public interest law, provides funding for student associates in residence at the Law School, awards grants to qualifying organizations for public interest projects, and holds colloquia for attorneys, academics, and students on relevant topics in legal services.

Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellowships are awarded annually to Yale Law School graduates. The fellowships provide support to work full time for a year in an ongoing or start-up project in any area of the legal profession devoted to the public interest. During the fellowship year, Liman Fellows may spend time in residence at Yale Law School to conduct seminars based on their work. In the past, Fellows have engaged in projects securing rights for workfare recipients, criminal defendants, migrant workers, the elderly, and immigrants.

Each year, law students work as associate fellows, providing substantive assistance to graduate fellows and helping to plan and participate in the annual Liman Colloquium. Topics for the colloquium series have included The Future of Legal Services, Valuing Low-Wage Workers, Welfare “Reform” and Response, and Encountering the Criminal Justice System.

Since its establishment, the range of programs funded by the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program has reflected the breadth of interests, concerns, and commitments of Arthur Liman. While working as a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, and providing counsel to a range of corporate and individual clients, Liman also led several major institutions devoted to providing services to those who could not afford lawyers, including the Legal Aid Society of New York; the board that created the Legal Action Center; the Vera Institute for Justice; Neighborhood Legal Services of Harlem; and the Capital Defender Project of New York.

The Arthur Liman Professor of Law is Judith Resnik. The director of the Liman Program is Deborah J. Cantrell.

The Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights
The Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights was established at Yale Law School in 1989 in honor of Orville Schell, a distinguished New York City lawyer and partner at Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, who was vice chairman of Helsinki Watch and chairman of Americas Watch from its founding in 1981 until his death in 1987.

International human rights practitioners rarely have the opportunity to consider the theoretical issues their work entails, while scholars studying human rights lack a forum for interdisciplinary dialogue. At the same time, law students are eager to apply the lessons they are learning in the classroom to further the cause of human rights. The Schell Center addresses these needs by seeking to increase knowledge and understanding of international human rights issues; equip lawyers and other professionals with the skills needed to advance the cause of international human rights; and assist human rights organizations.

The Schell Center conducts the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Law Clinic every term. The center also sponsors frequent lectures, panels, symposia, and informal discussions on a wide range of human rights issues. During 2001-2002, the center organized panels on “The Rule of Law in Chile since the Return of Pinochet” and “Argentina in Crisis”; the weekly Human Rights Workshop: Current Events and Issues; many lectures and panels; and “Fundamentalism and Modernity,” the annual Robert L. Bernstein International Human Rights Fellowship Symposium. Workshop topics included: “International Criminal Justice and the Protection of Human Rights: The Rule of Law or the Hubris of Law?”; “Indonesia: Transition, Regional Conflict and the Prospect for Human Rights”; “The Prosecution of Gender-Based Crimes in International Law”; “Exceptionalism and Universalism in the Case Against Ariel Sharon”; “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide”; “The South African Amnesty from the Victims’ Perspective”; and the impact of the September 11 attack on civil liberties, immigrants’ rights, and international justice.

The center also organized workshops on possible summer and postgraduate human rights work and sponsored talks by the president of the Supreme Court of Israel, students and faculty from the human rights clinic at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone that was started with the assistance of Yale Law School students, and Schell Summer Fellows discussing the issues raised by their summer work. Other talks addressed “Human Rights and HIV/AIDS in Nigeria”; “Police and Law Reform in UN Peacekeeping Missions: Lessons from Haiti and Kosovo”; “Institutional Imperatives v. Cultural Norms: The UN Mission to Somalia”; “Naming Evil: The Meaning and Usefulness of Emerging Genocide Claims”; and “From Rage to Reconciliation: Victims’ Families Against the Death Penalty.”

The Schell Center administers several human rights fellowships. The Robert L. Bernstein Fellowship in International Human Rights, inaugurated in 1997, funds one or two recent Yale Law School graduates annually to engage in full-time human rights work for a year. In 2001-2002, Bernstein Fellows worked in the Washington, D.C. offices of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and EarthRights International. The center also invites established scholars and advocates to visit the Law School as Schell Fellows to conduct research, teach seminars, and meet with students. Each summer, the center provides students with travel grants for international human rights work. In 2001, Schell Summer Fellowships allowed more than thirty students to spend all or part of the summer doing human rights internships or research throughout the world. The Robert M. Cover/Allard K. Lowenstein Fellow in International Human Rights Law spends two years at the Law School, working on all aspects of the center’s work, including supervision of the Lowenstein Clinic. The Schell Center also supports the Lowenstein International Human Rights Project, the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, and other student projects related to human rights.

The center has received generous support from the John Merck Fund and friends and associates of Orville H. Schell, Jr., as well as the law firm of Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, the Merck Pharmaceutical Foundation, and the Arthur Ross Foundation.

The director of the Schell Center is Professor Paul W. Kahn. The executive director is James J. Silk. The Cover/Lowenstein Fellow is Deena R. Hurwitz. The Schell Center’s e-mail address is schell.law@yale.edu.

Opportunities for Study in Legal History
The study of American, English, and European legal history occupies an important place in the Law School’s curriculum. Recent and current offerings include courses on the history of the common law, the history of criminal procedure, constitutional history, American legal history, and European legal history. Seminars and lectures by outside scholars in legal history supplement the regular curricular offerings. An informal legal history program brings together students and faculty interested in legal history; it includes students and faculty from the Law School and the Yale Department of History as well as from elsewhere within and outside the University. The Law School also encourages advanced study and original research in American, English, and European legal history. A few students pursue the joint J.D.-Ph.D. program in History or in American Studies.

Visiting Scholars
Each year the Law School has in residence a few visiting scholars engaged in nondegree research. Visiting scholars may audit one or two courses per term (with the consent of individual instructors) and make use of library facilities for their work. There are no set requirements for admission; most visiting scholars are college and university teachers from law and other disciplines who are engaged in law-related work, but applications will be considered from any person of outstanding qualifications. Each visiting scholar is charged a minimum accommodation fee of $4,524 per term, or $9,048 per academic year. No financial aid from the Law School is available for scholars in this program.

Application can be made by letter to Visiting Scholar Program, Yale Law School, PO Box 208215, New Haven CT 06520-8215. Applications should include biographical information, a description of the proposed research, including a statement explaining why Yale Law School is a particularly appropriate affiliation for your work, and the proposed date of arrival and length of stay.

International scholars should see Living at Yale for information on the Office of International Students and Scholars at Yale.

Irving S. Ribicoff Fellowship for Post-Graduate Research
The Irving S. Ribicoff Fellowship for Post-Graduate Research is awarded each year to a recent Yale Law School graduate interested in becoming a law teacher. The recipient spends a year in residence at the Law School working on a scholarly writing project and preparing for a teaching career in law. Any recent Yale Law School graduate is eligible to apply, including those with J.D., LL.M., M.S.L., or other graduate law degrees. A currently enrolled Yale Law student who will graduate before the term of the fellowship commences also may apply. The fellow receives a yearly stipend of $25,000, standard University benefits, and a private, lockable carrel in the Law Library. The fellow must be in residence in New Haven during the term of the fellowship. The deadline for applications for the 2003-2004 academic year is February 1, 2003. For more information, contact Annette Michaels, Director of Graduate Programs, at annette.michaels@yale.edu.

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