Pound Lecture Series

What is the Pound Lecture Series?

Roscoe Pound is widely considered to be one of the giants of twentieth-century American legal thought. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Pound studied law at Harvard Law School. Returning to Nebraska to practice law, he joined the faculty of the University of Nebraska College of Law in 1899. In 1903, he became the dean at the Nebraska College of Law. Pound would then go on to be a professor and the dean at Harvard Law School. In 1949, the Nebraska State Bar Association funded a lectureship series in Dean Roscoe Pound’s honor, the Pound Lecture Series. “New Paths of Law,” the first Pound Lecture, was delivered in 1950 by Roscoe Pound himself.

  • Keith Whittington, Princeton University, Diversity Statements and the First Amendment, February 2024
  • Robert P. George, Princeton University, Modern Legal Philosophy, October 25, 2022
  • Stephen M. Bainbridge, UCLA School of Law, Corporate Purpose in a Populist Era, March 2019
  • Saul Levmore & Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago Law School, Unreported Sexual Assault, Spring 2018
  • Jody Freeman, Harvard Law School, The Limits of Executive Power: The Obama-Trump Transition, Spring 2017
  • Douglas Laycock, University of Virginia, Generally Applicable Law and the Free Exercise of Religion, March 3, 2016
  • Richard Epstein, NYU Law School, The Upside-Down Law of Property and Contract: Of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and San Jose Pensions, March 2014
  • Sandy Levinson, University of Texas, “Reflection and Choice”: A One-Time Experience?, March 2013
  • Jeremy Waldron, University Professor and Director, Center of Law & Philosophy, Columbia Law School-New York, Safety and Security, January 26, 2006.
  • Geoffrey Hazard, Trustee Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania and former Executive Director of the American Law Institute, Modeling Class Counsel, 2002. 
  • Cass R. Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Chicago, Outrage & Retribution: Turning Emotions into Punishment, 1999.
  • Harold Hongju Koh, Gerald C. & Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, Yale Law School, Transnational Legal Process, 1994
  • Jesse H. Choper, Dean and Earl Warren Professor of Public Law, University of California at Berkeley, The Rise and Decline of the Constitutional Protection of Religious Liberty, 1991.
  • Richard A. Posner, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Reflections on the Reading of Statutes, 1988
  • Sir Zelman Cowen, Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, In the Rear and Limping a Little: Some Reflections on Medicine, Biotechnology, and the Law: The Roscoe Pound Lectures, 1985.
  • Archibald Cox, Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, Freedom of the Press and the Individual.
  • Ronald M. Dworkin, Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Oxford, Equal Protection and the Concept of Law, 1979.
  • Erwin N. Griswold, Solicitor General of the United States, Search and Seizure: A Dilemma for the Supreme Court, 1974.
  • James Willard Hurst, Vilas Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin, Legal History of Money, 1970.
  • Eugene V. Rostow, Undersecretary of State, The Quest for International Order and Law, 1966.
  • Julius Stone, Challis Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law, University of Sydney, Australia, Aggression in International Law, 1957.
  • Curtis Bok, President Judge, Court of Common Pleas No. 6, Philadelphia County, Problems in Criminal Law, 1955.
  • Warren A. Seavey, Bussey Professor of Law, Harvard University, Cogitations on Torts, 1953
  • Arthur T. Vanderbilt, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, The Doctrine of Separation of Powers and Its Present-Day Significance, 1952.
  • Dean Roscoe Pound, New Paths of Law, April, 1950.