Tuesday, October 11, 2005

WRITER: Kristin Kissiah, 706/542-5172, lawcomm@uga.edu
CONTACT: Heidi Murphy, 706/542-5172, hmurphy@uga.edu

100th Sibley Lecture to spotlight U.S. Constitution

ATHENS, Ga. - Nationally prominent constitutional law scholar Akhil Reed Amar, Southmayd Professor of Law at Yale University, will deliver the University of Georgia School of Law's 100th Sibley Lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 4:30 p.m. in the Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom at the school. The lecture is open to the public.

Titled "Labor Pains in America's New Birth of Freedom: How the Reconstruction Amendments Were Enacted," the lecture will be based on excerpts from Amar's recently published book, America's Constitution: A Biography. The book's aim, in the author's words, is "introducing the reader both to the legal text (and its consequences) and to the political deeds that gave rise to the text." Scott Turow, a highly-acclaimed author, described Amar's book in a Washington Post book review as “an uncommonly engaging work of scholarship."

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale College who served as editor of the Yale Law Journal while earning his law degree, Amar joined the faculty at his alma mater in 1985 following a clerkship with Judge Stephen G. Breyer, then of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1994, he received the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy's Paul Bator Award, which recognizes those who have had a significant impact on the public through their legal work. In 1997, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of law by Suffolk University. Also, Amar's book The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction was awarded the prestigious American Bar Association Certificate of Merit and the Yale University Press Governor's Award.

Amar is widely published, having co-authored a leading constitutional law casebook and authored or co-authored three other books. His law review articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Northwestern Law Review, the Virginia Law Review and the Stanford Law Review. He has served as a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School and Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Amar has delivered endowed lectures at more than two dozen colleges and universities nationwide and has authored numerous articles on constitutional matters for publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine. Additionally, Amar's work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in over 20 cases, and he has testified before Congress on multiple occasions.

Established in 1964 by the Charles Loridans Foundation of Atlanta, the Sibley Lecture Series honors the late John A. Sibley, a 1911 graduate of Georgia Law. The series hosts renowned legal academics known throughout the country for their exceptional scholarship.

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