HARVARD LEGAL THEORY FORUM

Hello everyone!

The new semester is off to a good start, and now so is Legal Theory Forum. As we discussed in the fall, we will dedicate this semester to reading some texts on legal pragmatism.

We will have our first meeting of the semester this coming Tuesday, February 15 at 7:15pm in Pound 203. Dinner will be provided. For Tuesday, we’re going to start with two short background readings on philosophical pragmatism. The first is a short chapter on the European origins of pragmatism from Native Pragmatism: Rethinking the Roots of American Philosophy by Scott L. Pratt. The other is a short text by Williams James, What Pragmatism Means. Both of these pieces are available here and here.

Also, we would like your help to have some more events this coming semester. If you have any academic papers you would like to present or have workshopped, please contact us ASAP, and we can try to schedule a time. Or, if there is a professor or speaker you would like to have present, we have a budget and would be happy to help facilitate and sponsor a lunchtime talk.

We look forward to seeing you all next week.

Sincerely,
Anthony & Gustavo

Hi,

Thanks to everyone who made it to the reading group last week. A few quick updates:

1) Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 19 at 7pm in Pound 203. Continuing with the Law & Econ theme, the reading for next week is a response to the Posner piece by Ronald Dworkin entitled “Is Wealth a Value?” Journal of Legal Studies, 9, 1980, pp.191-226 (available here).

We’ll be ordering food this time (Thai). If you can, please let us know in advance if you’re planning to come so we don’t order too much or too little.

2) Let us know if you’ve been working on a paper that you’d like to present or workshop.

3) We’d also like to pass on some information about the 2010 Harvard Graduate Conference in Political Theory.

The Department of Government (FAS) at Harvard University will host a conference for graduate students in political theory and political philosophy on November 5-6, 2010. The conference will take place at the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS). All events will be held on the concourse level of the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS) South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Additional information, including a detailed schedule, can be found here http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k16266 or by emailing or e-mail politicaltheory.harvard@gmail.com.

Cheers,
Anthony & Gustavo

Hi everyone!

Thanks to everyone who signed up for the Legal Theory Forum at the Student Activities Fair. I wanted to share two quick announcements and encourage everyone to attend our first meeting next week.

1) We’re planning our first session of the semester for Tuesday, October 5 at 7pm.

In the past Legal Theory Forum has read some canonical pieces in legal theory and also read works in social theory, philosophy, and political theory as they relate to the law. Several people have expressed interest in reading some theoretical works on Law & Economics, so we thought we would start with Richard Posner’s “The Ethical and Political Basis of the Efficiency Norm in Common Law Adjudication.” 8 Hofstra Law Review 487 (1979-80).

Depending on people’s interests, we could move on to another topic or go on and read some of the theoretical and normative debates surrounding the law & economics movement. The goal is to pick readings people are actually interested in discussing, and we can adjust as the semester goes on.

2) The HLS Program on the Legal Profession is sponsoring a Theory-Practice Colloquium modeled on the Summer Theory Institute. The Colloquium will be meeting five times during the academic year. They’ll be reading short excerpts from a number of social theorists and discussing those readings in the context of public interest law practice. I’d like to encourage anyone interested to apply. There’s more information available through the PLP website here: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/plp/pages/theory-practice_colloquium.php.

If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the board, please please email us: hltf@mail.law.harvard.edu.

The Legal Theory Reading Group will meet on Tuesday, March 23 at 7:15 PM in Lewis 102. We will discuss “Originality,” by Jeannie Suk, 115 Harv. L. Rev. 1988.

The Legal Theory Reading Group will meet on Tuesday, February 23 at 7:15 PM in Lewis 102. We’ll discuss a couple pieces by G.A. Cohen: his short book on “Why Not Socialism?” (a preliminary manuscript is available at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/jurisprudence/docs/08_coll_cohen.pdf if you don’t wish to purchase the book) and his paper on “Rescuing Conservatism,” a draft of which is available at http://politicalscience.stanford.edu/politicaltheoryworkshop/0708papers/GACohenConservatism.pdf. A video of G.A. Cohen presenting a slightly more recent iteration of this paper is also available, at http://mediacast.ic.utoronto.ca/20081016-ETH/index.htm.