David Luban to Address 'Torture and the Professions' at Bell Lecture

David Luban

WOOSTER, Ohio - David Luban, the Frederick Haas Professor of Law and Philosophy at Georgetown University, will present "Torture and the Professions" at the 10th annual Bell Distinguished Lectureship in Law on Monday, April 23, at The College of Wooster. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in Lean Lecture Room of Wishart Hall.

Luban's talk will examine ethical problems when professionals become involved with torture. "Since Abu Ghraib, we have learned a great deal about the involvement of government lawyers in creating a policy approving harsh treatment of detainees in the War on Terror - treatment that many regard as torture," he said. "But other professions have been involved with harsh interrogations as well, including physicians, psychologists, and even anthropologists (some of whom are consultants on cultural traits of detainees)."

An expert in legal ethics, Luban's research interests include political and moral philosophy, the ethics of academia, white collar crime, jurisprudence, and organizational moral responsibility. He is noted for his numerous books on law and ethics: The Good Lawyer (1984), Lawyers and Justice (1989), and Legal Ethics: A Case Book (2004).

Luban joined the faculty of Georgetown University Law Center in 1997, coming from the University of Maryland's Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy and its School of Law. He received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University. He taught philosophy at Yale and Kent State Universities, before moving to Maryland. He has held visiting appointments in law at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale Law Schools, and visiting appointments in philosophy at Dartmouth College and the University of Melbourne. In addition, he has been a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and held a Guggenheim Fellowship. Other honors include the Keck Fellowship for distinguished scholarship in legal ethics, the Sanford D. Levy Award of the New York State Bar Association, and Georgetown's Frank Flegal Teaching Award. Luban has published numerous books and articles, most recently Legal Ethics and Human Dignity (Cambridge UP, forthcoming in 2007).

The Bell Distinguished Lectureship in Law was endowed in 1999 by Jennie M. Bell and Samuel H. Bell, a 1947 College of Wooster graduate and a Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The purpose is to engage students, faculty, members of the legal profession, and members of the community in a legal issue that has broad implications for society. The Bells hope, by way of this lectureship, to bring the best minds of the legal profession to Wooster students and the local community. This lectureship also joins their long-held affection for the law and faith in the values derived from a liberal arts education.

The Bell Distinguished Lectureship is sponsored by The College of Wooster's Pre-Law Program. For additional information, call 330-263-2380.