Around the Schools: Harvard Law School

Held every three years, the Holmes Lectures at Harvard Law School (HLS) are the institution’s most prestigious talks honoring a most prestigious legal scholar. The lecture series was established in 1954 as a result of the 1861 bequest of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., an HLS graduate and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932.

On October 5, 6, and 7, HLS will host New York University School of Law Professor Jeremy Waldron for the Holmes Lecture series. Waldron, whose well-known scholarship focuses on political theory and jurisprudence, will deliver three lectures on the theme “Dignity and Defamation: The Visibility of Hate.”

Born and educated in New Zealand, Waldron earned his doctorate in legal philosophy from Oxford University, where he studied under legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin and political theorist Alan Ryan. He has held appointments at the University of Edinburgh, Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, and Columbia University. Waldron’s books include “God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations of Locke’s Political Thought” and “Law and Disagreement.”

Past lecturers have included United States Judge Learned Hand, Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer, and Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Cass Sunstein.

The lectures will begin at 5:15 p.m. in the Austin Hall North classroom on the HLS campus.