Gerald Rosenberg on the Rule of Law: Formal and Informal Requirements

The University of Chicago Center in Beijing
20th floor, Culture Plaza
No. 59A Zhong Guan Cun Street
Haidian District Beijing 100872

What is required to create a judicial system that respects the rule of law?  In this talk, Professor Gerald N. Rosenberg of the University of Chicago Law School examined the formal, structural requirements for a judicial system that embodies the rule of law.  In addition, he highlighted the equally important informal practices and culture that make the judicially-supported rule of law synonymous with courts in the United States.  Finally, Rosenberg distinguished between the rule of law and judicial review, suggesting that China could adopt the former without the latter. The talk ended with a vibrant question and answer session in which Rosenberg engaged in a discussion with audience members on a range of topics related to the rule of law and judicial systems in the United States, China, and Africa.

Gerald N. Rosenberg is Associate Professor of Political Science and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago.  He has taught at Yale University, Northwestern University School of Law where he served as the Jack N. Pritzker Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law, the National Law School of India University, and at the Law School of Xiamen University in China as a Fulbright Professor.  He has served as a Visiting Fellow in the Law Program of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University.  Rosenberg graduated from Dartmouth College and holds a master’s degree in Politics and Philosophy from Oxford, a law degree from Michigan, and a doctorate in Political Science from Yale.  His work focuses on the interaction between courts, social movements, and the larger society.  A member of the Washington, D.C. bar, his work has appeared in the University of Chicago Law Review, the University of Virginia Law Review, NOMOS, Supreme Court Review, and other law reviews and journals.  Rosenberg has contributed to multiple edited collections and is the author of The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? and a textbook on American Government.  His awards include the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Laing Prize from the University of Chicago Press, and the Teaching and Mentoring Award as well as the Wadsworth Award from the American Political Science Association.

Professor Rosenberg also visited China in 2012 to lecture at the Center in Beijing and speak to students and faculty at universities across the country. You can read more about this trip here.