Free tickets are available at http://pedrick2010.eventbrite.com/.
“Justice O’Connor is, as we all know, a towering figure in Arizona and national politics and law, and her Pedrick Lecture promises to be a major statement from her on the importance of protecting one of the crown jewels of our democracy: an independent judiciary,” said Paul Schiff Berman, Dean of the College of Law.
Justice O’Connor will speak on preserving judicial independence, the importance of merit selection processes for judges and the danger in electing judges in Arizona and elsewhere, particularly in a world of unlimited campaign contributions.
She also will talk about Our Courts, (http://www.ourcourts.org/), a joint venture of the College of Law and the College of Teacher Education and Leadership at ASU and the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary at Georgetown Law University Center. Our Courts is a civics education project designed to teach middle school students about the judiciary and other parts of government, using a Web-based learning environment. The Web site has three games, with more to be added later, and teacher guides, information about state and tribal governments and other learning tools.
The lecture is hosted by the Pedrick family, and was established in 1997 in memory of the founding dean of the College of Law. The annual lecture brings to the law school outstanding legal scholars, jurists or practitioners to enrich the intellectual life of the College and the community.
Previous lecturers and their titles at the time were:
2008-09: The Honorable Harry T. Edwards, Senior Circuit Judge and Chief Judge Emeritus, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
2007-08: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer
2006-07: Martin D. Ginsburg, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
2005-06: Sir Neil MacCormick, Regius Professor of Law, University of Edinburgh
2004-05: Mary M. Schroeder, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
2003-04: Frederick Schauer, Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
2002-03: Lee C. Bollinger, President, Columbia University
2001-02: Ronald Dworkin, Frank H. Sommer Professor of Law, New York University Law School
2000-01: Yale Kamisar, Clarence Darrow Distinguished University Professor of Law, University of Michigan
1999-2000: Martha A. Field, Langdell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
1998-99: Andrew D. Hurwitz, Esquire, Osborn Maledon, P.A.
1997-98: Kathleen M. Sullivan, Stanley Morrison Professor, Stanford University
1996-97: Robert Post, Professor, University of California Berkeley, and Benjamin Barber, Professor, Rutgers University