History of Law

An expert in American legal history, John Fabian Witt joined Yale Law School in 2009 and was named the Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law in March 2010. He is also a Professor of History at Yale. He previously taught at Columbia Law School for eight years and was a Harrington Faculty Fellow at the University of Texas in the Fall of 2004 and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in the spring of 2005.

In this book discussion, Yale Law School’s Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law Reva Siegel ’86 and Knight Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence Linda Greenhouse ’78 MSL discuss their book, “Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling.” Yale Law School Professor Jack M. Balkin provides an introduction and commentary to frame the discussion.

Professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin '97 asks "What would the story of the mid-twentieth struggle for civil rights look like if legal historians de-centered the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, and the NAACP and instead considered the movement from the bottom-up?

Philippe Kirsch, President of the International Criminal Court, discusses the creation and inner workings of the International Criminal Court and its future challenges. President Kirsch's lecture was the Inaugural Judge Jon O. Newman Lecture on Global Justice at the Yale Law School.

Dan Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law & Policy at Yale Law School and the Yale Forestry & Environmental Studies discusses the history of environmental law at Yale Law School.

Carla Hills, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Ford Administration, discusses her work under the late president. Hills’ speech reveals the dynamic of the Ford cabinet and issues of administration, providing a first-hand account of the president. (March 30, 2007)