Academic

Boston University School of Law is pleased to announce the Annual Distinguished Lecture

Justice: What?s the Right Thing To Do?

A Public Lecture and Symposium on Michael J. Sandel?s Recent Book

October 14, 2010

Boston University School of Law

Public Lecture: 12:30 to 2:00

Book Symposium: 2:30 to 6:00

Professor Michael J. Sandel will give the annual Boston University School of Law Distinguished Lecture concerning his recent book, Justice: What?s the Right Thing To Do?, followed by a symposium on the book. The symposium will feature commentators in law, philosophy, and political science along with a response by Professor Sandel. Boston University Law Review will publish the lecture, commentaries, and response.

Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he also teaches in the Law School. He is widely regarded as our nation?s leading civic republican political and constitutional theorist: his work focuses on citizenship, what we owe one another, and what way(s) of life a good society should promote. He is the author of Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge University Press, 1982, 2^nd edition, 1998), Democracy?s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy (Harvard University Press, 1996), Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in Politics (Harvard University Press, 2005), and The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering (Harvard University Press, 2007). A public philosopher, he also has published articles in The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, and The New York Times. A renowned teacher, Professor Sandel?s  famous course at Harvard, Justice, regularly enrolls nearly 1000 students and is now available around the world through webstreaming, podcasting, and a public television series (see http://justiceharvard.org/). In addition, he teaches ?Markets, Morals, and the Law,? ?Ethics and Biotechnology,? and ?Globalization and Its Discontents.? From 2002 to 2005, Sandel served on the President?s Council on Bioethics, a national body appointed by the President to examine the ethical implications of new biomedical technologies.

Boston University Law Review Lecture (Barristers Hall, 12:30-2:00)

            Welcome: Dean Maureen O?Rourke, BU School of Law

            Introduction: Associate Dean James Fleming, BU School of Law

            Lecture: Professor Michael J. Sandel, Harvard University

Book Symposium (Barristers Hall, 2:30-6:00)

            Panel 1 (2:30-3:30)

                        James Fleming and Linda McClain, BU School of Law

                        Gary Lawson, BU School of Law

            Panel 2 (3:45-4:45)

                        Hugh Baxter, BU School of Law and Department of Philosophy

                        Anna di Robilant, BU School of Law

            Panel 3 (5:00-6:00)

                        David Roochnik, BU Department of Philosophy

                        Judith Swanson, BU Department of Political Science

            Reception (6:00)

All ? including not only professors, visiting scholars, law students, graduate students, and undergraduates but also alumni and members of the general public ? are welcome to attend. There is no registration fee, but if you plan to attend, please RSVP to Andrea Larsen Rice, ajrice@bu.edu. If you have academic questions about the program, please contact Professor James Fleming, jfleming@bu.edu.