Symposium explores Michelman’s contributions to comparative constitutional law and law and philosophy

 

An array of luminaries from academia and the bench—and from around the world—came to Harvard Law School to celebrate Professor Frank Michelman ’60 and his influential work, as he prepares to retire after nearly half a century on the HLS faculty.

A symposium in honor of Michelman, Robert Walmsley University Professor, held on Feb. 10 and 11, focused on two of his signal achievements: his comparative constitutional law work, particularly his counsel to South Africa in the drafting of its post-apartheid constitution, and his scholarship on law and philosophy. Additionally, many speakers offered personal testimonials saluting Michelman for his kind and inquisitive nature and, as Dean Martha Minow noted, the “contagious zest and passion” that he conveys to his colleagues and students.

Watch the Feb. 10 panel on Comparative Constitutional Law:

Watch the Law and Philosophy Panel:

Provocations: Dean of Yale Law School Robert Post and Thomas Scanlon, Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, Harvard University. Panelists: Rosalie Abella, justice, Supreme Court of Canada; Guido Calabresi, judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; Nancy Rosenblum, Senator Joseph S. Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government, Harvard University; Margaret Jane Radin, Henry King Ransom Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School; Michael Sandel, Anne T. Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, Harvard University. Moderated by Harvard Law School Professor Charles Fried.