HARVARD LEGAL THEORY FORUM

I know it’s a busy time of the semester, but I wanted to pass along informationabout two talks that might be of interest:

Jon Elster will be speaking on Thursday, December 2 at 4:30pm in Ames Courtroomon “Secrecy and Publicity in Jury Proceedings” as part of the Edmond J. Safra Centerfor Ethics Public Lecture Series. Jon Elster is Robert K. Merton Professor of SocialSciences at Columbia University, and his research interests include: Constitution-Making, Theory of Rational Choice, History of Political Thought (Tocqueville andMarx), Empirical Studies of Justice, Emotions and Social Theory.

Ronald Dworkin (professor of philosophy, and Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law,New York University) will be speaking on Friday, December 3 at 4:00pm on “Truth inInterpretation.” The event will take place in Emerson 105 at Harvard College and is sponsored by The Humanities Center at Harvard andHarvard Law School.

Hello:

The last Legal Theory Forum meeting of the semester will be Monday, Nov. 29, Pound 207. Food will be provided.

For the last session we’ll be reading two shorter pieces by Posner, representing his shift towards pragmatism. The first reading is the Pragmatist Manifesto (from Problems of Jurisprudence), which provides a brief theoretical overview of pragmatist jurisprudence. The second reading, a chapter on Pragmatism (from The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory), gives some concrete examples of pragmatic adjudication. If you’re pressed for time, feel free to focus on the first, although the second provides helpful illustrations.

The readings are available here.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Best,
Anthony & Gustavo