By Kathy R. Pharr
Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig will analyze means to govern the Internet in the School of Law’s 88th Sibley Lecture, to be held in the law school auditorium Feb. 16 at 3:30 p.m. The  lecture, open free to the public, will be followed by a reception in the auditorium foyer.
“There is much talk these days about ‘governing’ the Internet,” says Lessig. “Much of its governance is achieved through its code--through the architectures, embedded in the software--that defines the Internet as it is. In this lecture, I consider the relevance of the ‘Open Source Software Movement’ to this governance effected through code.”
Lessig, the Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Studies, joined the Harvard law faculty in 1997 after serving six years as a faculty member at the University of Chicago Law School. He served as judicial clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court following his graduation from Yale Law School.
Lessig specializes in the areas of constitutional law, contracts, comparative constitutional law and the law of cyberspace. A few of his recent publications include “The Path of Cyberlaw” in the Yale Law Journal, presented in a symposium on emerging media technology and the First Amendment; “The Zones of Cyberspace” in the Stanford Law Review; “Reading the Constitution in Cyberspace” in the Emory Law Journal, presented in a symposium on legal issues in cyberspace and hazards on the “information superhighway”; and “Social Meaning and Social Norms” in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.
Lessig earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from Cambridge. Before clerking for Justice Scalia, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the United States 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“We are particularly pleased to bring a scholar of such breadth to campus,” says Associate Dean Paul Kurtz. “He is an original thinker who undoubtedly will provoke thought on this topic of tremendous currency.”
The Sibley Lecture Series, established in 1964 by the Charles Loridans Foundation of Atlanta, is designed to attract outstanding legal scholars of national prominence to the law school. It honors the late John A. Sibley, a 1911 law school graduate who served for many years as chair of the board of the Trust Company of Georgia.
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