Macedo to direct Law and Public Affairs
Stephen Macedo has been named the founding
director of Princeton's new Program in Law and
Public Affairs (LAPA). An expert in political
theory and American constitutionalism, he is also
editor of NOMOS, the yearbook of the American
Society for Political and Legal Philosophy.
A joint venture of the Woodrow Wilson School,
the Department of Politics and the University
Center for Human Values, LAPA will sponsor
research, teaching, scholarly collaborations and
public discussion in law and public affairs,
beginning in the fall of 2000. The program will be
located in the Wallace social sciences building,
currently under construction.
After receiving his PhD in politics from
Princeton in 1987, Macedo taught at Harvard
University and held a named professorship of
constitutional law and politics at Syracuse
University before returning to Princeton this year
as Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics
and the University Center for Human Values.
As director of LAPA, he will oversee the
appointment of Princeton faculty associates and
visiting faculty fellows, who will bring both
scholarly interest and practical experience in law
and public affairs to the program's research
projects, seminars, lectures, conferences and
colloquia. Many of the visiting fellows are
expected to teach freshman seminars or other
courses in their areas of interest.
"Law is such a vital part of our society," said
President Shapiro, "that the question for Princeton
has never been whether we should include it in what
we teach and study, but how. We have a
distinguished tradition in the teaching of
constitutional law, beginning with Woodrow Wilson
and Edward Corwin and continuing over recent
decades with Alpheus Mason, Walter Murphy and
Robert George.
"This program seems to me the right next step
for us. It will bring leaders of the legal world to
Princeton to work with our students and faculty. It
will expose our students to the distinctively
rigorous mode of legal thinking, to the place of
law in our intellectual tradition and to the ways
in which the law is dealing with the increasingly
complex and interrelated public policy questions of
our time. At the same time, lawyers and legal
scholars who come to Princeton will have an
opportunity to learn first-hand about some of the
research that is changing our world and posing new
challenges both to our legal system and to our
policy makers."
Said Michael Rothschild, dean of the Woodrow
Wilson School, "This program is a vital addition to
Princeton's intellectual life. Many public policies
are implemented through laws. The consequences are
profound and often unanticipated. A program for the
study and teaching of law and public affairs will
add greatly to our ability to teach how to make and
implement public policy. Professor Macedo, a
political philosopher with a deep interest in how
law affects society, is an ideal choice to be the
program's first director."
Fundraising to support the program has already
begun. "How quickly and fully we are able to
achieve our goals for the program will, of course,
depend on the level of financial support we are
able to obtain," Rothschild said.
"For me," said Macedo, "this program is an
exciting opportunity to help build intellectual
bridges: across departments and programs at
Princeton, among people who study and teach about
law, and between Princeton and the larger world of
legal scholarship and practice. I hope the program
can help deepen our understanding of how law
contributes, or fails to contribute, to governance
and human betterment."
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