Rule of Law: Guest Speakers Fall 2008
Professor James Buchanan
On September 22, Professor James Buchanan will be a guest speaker for the class on The Theory of Government Failure. Professor Buchanan received the Nobel Prize for economics in 1986. He is best known for developing "public choice theory," which changed the way economists analyze political decision making. Professor Buchanan's work opened the door for the examination of how politicians' self-interest and non-economic forces affect government policy. James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy.
Ms. Cleta Mitchell (invited)
On Ocober 27 Ms. Cleta Mitchell, an attorney, will discuss the judicial decision process.
Professor Richard Pipes
On November 3, Professor Richard Pipes will be the guest speaker. A historian of Russia and communism, Pipes taught at Harvard from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. He was the director of Harvard’s Russian Research Center from 1968 to 1973 and is now Baird Professor Emeritus of History at Harvard University. In the 1970s, Pipes was a leading critic of detente, which he described as "inspired by intellectual indolence and based on ignorance of one's antagonist and therefore inherently inept." Richard Pipes has written 21 books including Russia under the Old Regime (1974), The Russian Revolution (1990) and Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime (1994), and is a member of several editorial boards.
The Innocence Project
On November 10, Ms. Shawn Armbrust, Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, will be the featured speaker. Topic: policing the criminal justice system. http://www.exonerate.org/ http://www.innocenceproject.org/
Professor Bradley A. Smith
On November 17, Professor Bradley A. Smith from Capital University Law School will speak on the issue of campaign finance reform. One of the nation’s leading authorities on Election Law and Campaign Finance, Professor Smith recently returned to Capital University after five years in Washington, DC, where he served as Commissioner, Vice Chairman, and Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Nominated by President Clinton in February of 2000 to fill a Republican-designated seat on the Commission, Professor Smith was confirmed by the Senate in May of 2000 and took his seat the following month. Prior to his nomination, Smith had become a fixture in the national discussion on campaign finance, and was called “the most sought after witness” when Congress considered campaign finance issues. In 2005 he founded the Center for Competitive Politics. http://www.campaignfreedom.org/
Mr. Peter Ferrara (invited)
On November 24, Mr. Peter Ferrara will address the class on Social Security reform and related issues. Peter Ferrara is Director of the International Center for Law and Economics and President of the Virginia Club for Growth. He served as a senior staff member in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under the first President Bush. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and has practiced law with firms on Wall Street and in Washington, DC. Bio & link to Institute for Policy Innovation.
Ambassador Richard Schifter 
On December 1, Richard Schifter will be our guest speaker. Ambassador Richard Schifter is an expert in the evolution of human rights in international relations since the end of World War II and the application of international human rights standards.
He served in several senior foreign policy positions in the U.S. government from 1981 to 2001. He was also U.S. representative in the UN Human Rights Commission; deputy U.S. representative in the UN Security Council, with the rank of ambassador; assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs; assistant to the president and counselor, National Security Council; and special adviser to the secretary of state. He is a graduate of the College of the City of New York and Yale Law School.
Available on usip.org:
Multimedia
The USSR/U.S. Dialogue on Human Rights, 1986-1990
July 6, 2006