Ronald Dworkin, the Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law at New York University, will deliver the Truax Lecture at Hamilton College on Monday, Oct. 10, at 8 p.m. in the Chapel. The lecture, titled "The New Religious Wars," is free and open to the public.
Dworkin received two bachelor's degrees: one from Harvard University, and another from the University of Oxford. He received his law degree at Harvard and clerked for Judge Learned Hand of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He has taught jurisprudence at Yale Law School, University of Oxford and the University of London. His most recent books are Sovereign Virtue: the Theory and Practice of Equality (2000) and Freedom's Law: the Moral Reading of the American Constitution (1996).
Perhaps Dworkin's best known book is Law's Empire (1986), which received the prestigious Coif Award from the American Bar Association as the best book written on law over a three year period, and the Ames Prize of the Harvard Law School for the best book on law over a five-year period. Professor Dworkin is one of the most—if not the most—influential theorist of jurisprudence today and has been actively engaged in debates about fundamental rights, legal interpretation, and the relationship between moral commitments and the law.
The Truax Lecture Series was established in the mid-1950's by R. Hawley Truax, class of 1909, in memory of his father, Chauncey S. Truax, who was a member of the class of 1875 and also served on the Hamilton College Board of Trustees from 1899 to 1906. The Truax Lecture Series recognizes distinguished guest philosophers or lecturers in the field of philosophy.
