Law and the Hero. No, this is not an apt example of an oxymoron in the dictionary. The law has had, and still has, many heroes. For example, the federal judges in the South who implemented the desegregation mandate of Brown v. Board of Education were, as Jack Bass has written, unlikely heroes who maintained a steadfast commitment to the rule of law despite facing constant political opposition and personal attacks. Ronald Dworkin argued that judges should aim to be heroes – specifically, like Hercules, acting with superhuman wisdom and patience to, in the words of Eric Posner, "bring order to the Augean stables of our law." (Posner did not agree with this view of the judge, arguing that judges should avoid making controversial constitutional decisions in order to allow such decisions to be worked out in the political process.) Atticus Finch has long been hailed as heroic lawyer, albeit a fictional one, although Malcolm Gladwell has asked whether we should rethink Finch's heroism.
What qualities define a hero in the law? What role do heroes play in the law? How is our thinking about heroism and the law influenced by other disciplines, such as history, literature, and philosophy? And who are your heroes in the law? This program will explore these issues with both invited panelists and panelists accepted through the Section’s call for papers.
Business meeting at program conclusion.