World-renowned German author, jurist
and law professor to speak

Bernhard Schlink, German judge, law professor and author of the internationally acclaimed novel “The Reader,” will speak at U.Va. on Monday, Dec. 5, at 5 p.m. and on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 8:30 a.m.

Schlink is a professor of public law and legal philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin, and sits on the Constitutional Law Court for the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Munster. He is a visiting law professor this semester at Yeshiva University in New York City. He has written several books on constitutional law, fundamental rights and the issue of separation of powers, and edited, with Arthur Jacobson, “Weimar: A Jurisprudence of Crisis.”

Schlink’s novel, “The Reader,” about a young German man who must confront the Nazi past, is described by the New York Times as “arresting, philosophically elegant, morally complex.” The book is a philosophical exploration of the nature of freedom and responsibility, and the relationship between law and emotion. It raises fundamental questions about personal integrity, ethics and public life, and is regularly studied in U.Va.’s interprofessional seminars with medical and law students.

These public talks are cosponsored by the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life; the Office of the Vice President for Research’s humanities initiative; the Department of Germanic Languages & Literature; and the Center for Humanism in Medicine.

Please RSVP to rg3r@virginia.edu if you plan to attend.

Topic: “Freedom of Speech: The American and German Perspectives” When: Monday, Dec. 5, 5 p.m. (reception follows) Where: Caplin Pavilion, Law School Topic: Bernhard Schlink will discuss his book, “The Reader” When: Tuesday, Dec. 6, 8:30 a.m. Where: Commonwealth Room, Newcomb Hall