PUBLISHED:March 11, 2012

Lives in the Law: Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III will discuss his experiences as a federal judge and legal scholar during an interview with Dean David F. Levi on Tuesday, March 13, at 12:15 p.m. in Room 3041.

Part of the “Lives in the Law” series sponsored by Duke’s Program in Public Law, the event is open to the public. Seating is limited; overflow seating will be provided in Room 3037. Parking is available at the Bryan Center.

Judge Wilkinson has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit since his appointment in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. He served as chief judge of the court from 1996 to 2003.

The author of several books on law and history, Judge Wilkinson recently published Cosmic Constitutional Theory: Why Americans Are Losing Their Inalienable Right to Self-Governance (Oxford University Press 2012). The book argues that the constitutional theories developed by prominent legal thinkers have helped to increase the power of the judiciary while eroding the role of representative institutions in America.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Wilkinson served as a professor at the University of Virginia Law School, as editorial page editor of the The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., and as deputy assistant U.S. attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. He served in the U.S. Army in 1968-69. He is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law; after law school, he served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Read Wilkinson's March 11 op ed in the New York Times.