How the law deals with such controversial and emotionally charged issues as abortion, assisted suicide, capital punishment and other life-and-death decisions will be explored in the next DeVane Lecture series, which will be presented during the spring term by federal judge and former Law School dean Guido Calabresi.
In his 12-part DeVane Lectures, titled "Life, Death, and the Law," Judge Calabresi will also discuss legal decisions pertaining to medical experimentation, the allocation of scarce organs in transplants, limits to procreation and wartime military service.
"Most of these involve decisions which cannot be made decently, let alone well, and yet must be made," said Judge Calabresi in a course description for "Life, Death, and the Law." "We will be concerned both with how the law makes these decisions and frequently hides the decisions that are made."
The DeVane Lectures will begin Jan. 20 and will be presented on Mondays through April at 4 p.m. in Levinson Auditorium of the Law School, 127 Wall St. Undergraduates are given the opportunity to attend the lectures for course credit; the public is invited to hear Judge Calabresi's lectures free of charge.
Known worldwide for his work on tort law, Judge Calabresi is a Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law. He earned an undergraduate degree at Yale College in 1953 and a LL.B. from the Law School in 1958. A year later, he joined the Law School faculty. He was appointed a full professor in 1962 when he was only 29 years old, making him one of the youngest to achieve that status, and was named to the prestigious Sterling Professorship in 1978. He served as dean of the Law School from 1985 to 1994, when he was sworn in as a federal judge.
Judge Calabresi is the author of more than 75 articles and five books, including the 1970 volume "The Cost of Accidents," which served as the basis of many reforms in the law of torts over the past 20 years. His other books, "Tragic Choices" (with Philip Bobbitt), "A Common Law for the Age of Statutes" and "Ideals, Beliefs, Attitudes and the Law," have extended his influence into such diverse areas as the interpretation of statues, law and medicine and constitutional law.
An invitation to deliver the DeVane Lectures is considered by faculty members to be a major tribute. The individual selected to deliver the semester-long lecture series holds the William Clyde DeVane Professorship. Established in 1969 with a grant from the Old Dominion Foundation, the professorship honors the former dean of Yale College by addressing his concern that undergraduate education not become excessively narrow and departmentalized. Previous DeVane Professors include Jonathan Spence, Jaroslav Pelikan, Paul Kennedy, Sidney Altman, Martin Klein, Harold I. Bloom, Vincent Scully, Charles Lindblom and the late Alexander Bickel.
The individual titles of Judge Calabresi's lectures will be announced in a future issue of this newspaper.