The Madison Lectures are the most important lecture series at the NYU School of Law. Begun in 1960, the lectures are designed to enhance the appreciation of civil liberty and strengthen the sense of national purpose.
The series was inaugurated by Justice Hugo L. Black, who propounded his famous theory of the absoluteness of the First Amendment. Since then, more than a dozen U.S. Supreme Court Justices and more than two dozen U.S. Court of Appeals judges have delivered the Madison Lecture.
Norman Dorsen has directed the James Madison lecture series since 1977, and it is now administered as part of the Hays Program. The first four lectures were published in The Great Rights (1963), edited by the late Edmond Cahn. Thirteen of the succeeding lectures appear in The Evolving Constitution (1987), which Norman edited, and twelve more recent lectures appeared in The Unpredictable Constitution (2002), also edited by Norman.
The Fall 2013
James Madison Lecture
presented by
The Honorable William A. Fletcher
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
6:00 p.m.
New York University School of Law
Vanderbilt Hall
Greenberg Lounge
40 Washington Square South
