Yale Bulletin and Calendar

August 29, 2003|Volume 32, Number 1|Two-Week Issue

Guido Calabresi

Former Law School dean honored
with the Fleming Award

Guido Calabresi, former dean of the Yale Law School and currently a federal judge on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, has won the John G. Fleming Award in Torts.

This is the second time the award has been presented, and Calabresi is the first American winner.

The award was created in 1997 following the death of Fleming, who served as dean of the Australian National University Law Faculty starting in 1956. While in Australia, he wrote the first edition of what became a famous treatise on torts. Born in Germany and educated at Oxford, Fleming came to the United States to join the Berkeley (Boalt Hall) law faculty in 1960. There, he served as editor in chief of the American Journal of Comparative Law for 25 years.

The Fleming Award is presented every two years. The recipient of the award is selected by an international committee comprised of Justice Michael McHugh, who sits on the High Court of Australia; Lord Cooke of Thorndon, a member of the House of Lords and widely considered to be New Zealand's leading jurist; Basil Markesinis from University College, London; Justice Allen Linden, a leading torts scholar in Canada and a judge on the Federal Court of Canada; and Berkeley professor Stephen D. Sugarman.

Like Fleming, Calabresi is an immigrant to the United States. He, too, was educated at Oxford (as a Rhodes Scholar) and, as Fleming did, holds the distinction of being a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.

Calabresi has received many honors, including more than 30 honorary degrees. This is the first occasion on which he has been honored as a torts scholar by other torts scholars from around the world. At the award ceremony on June 20 in New York City, Sugarman cited among Calabresi's accomplishments his book "The Costs of Accidents," his article on "One View of the Cathedral" (to which the Yale Law Journal devoted an entire issue 25 years after the article's original publication) and Calabresi's scholarly exchange of articles with University of Chicago professor Harry Kalven, including the former Yale Law School dean's tribute to Kalven in an article on "causation." He also noted that recent judicial opinions by Calabresi are already making their way into the torts casebooks. Sugarman said that, by bringing considerations of economic efficiency to bear on problems of accidents, Calabresi is the seminal figure in what is now the entire field of law and economics.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

A Message to the Yale Community

Refurbished Sprague Memorial Hall is an 'architectural . . . triumph'

Concerts celebrate the reopening of Sprague Hall

Professorship honors memory of Donald Cohen

Damaged law books are taken out of a deep freeze

Renowned neuroscientist Patricia Goldman-Rakic dies

Exhibit offers look at ancient forms of life on Earth

Wildfire costs are higher than accounted for, report charges

Computer-generated designs featured in architecture gallery

Artist's works portray Christianity through Thai art forms

Exhibit explores influences on American furniture design

Women veterans are found to be at higher risk for homelessness

Day of Caring drive will put books into hands of area children

Documentary on contemporary artists to be screened on campus

Alumni group supports students' summer service

Quest camera will aid scientists in astronomical research

Grant to Child Study Center supports evaluation of home-based care

Historian Jaroslav Pelikan is honored for contributions

Former Law School dean honored with the Fleming Award

'What Is a Good Death?' among topics of Bioethics Project programs