On Nov. 17, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Elena Kagan ’86, former dean of Harvard Law School, discussed statutory interpretation in a conversation with Professor John Manning ’85 as part of the Scalia lecture series at Harvard Law School.
The lecture is named in honor of Kagan’s colleague Associate Justice Antonin G. Scalia ’60. “Justice Scalia has taught everybody how to do statutory interpretation differently,” Kagan said. Read coverage of the lecture from the Harvard Crimson.
The Scalia lecture series is aimed at promoting and advancing the understanding of the founding principles and core doctrines of the U.S. Constitution. The series, funded by an anonymous donor, began last November with a lecture by Judge Frank Easterbrook of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. It will include one lecture per academic year for ten years, with speakers drawn from the fields of political science, history, philosophy, law, government, religion and related disciplines.
On the day before the Scalia lecture, Kagan presided over the Ames Moot Court Competition, an annual student competition for appellate brief writing and advocacy. On Sept. 8, Kagan shared lessons learned from her career and offered a glimpse into the Court’s private world in a talk with HLS Dean Martha Minow.