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Stephen L. Carter, best-selling author and one of the nation’s leading public intellectuals, according to a recent New York Times book review, will deliver Northwestern University School of Law’s 2004 Julius Rosenthal Foundation Lecture Series, focusing on war theory, nationalism and the rhetoric of killing.

Carter, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University, will deliver three Rosenthal lectures, titled “Inconvenient Lives: Just War Theory,” “Nationalism” and “The Rhetoric of Killing,” at 4 p.m. March 30 and at noon March 31 and April 1 at the School of Law, 357 East Chicago Avenue.

Established in 1919 in memory of Julius Rosenthal (1827-1905), the Rosenthal Lecture Series has assumed a preeminent position in the legal world, and publication of the lectures has made a notable contribution to legal literature and scholarship for more than 70 years.

Carter’s non-fiction writings have won praise across the political spectrum. His 1993 best-seller, “The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion” (1993), received plaudits from commentators as diverse as Anna Quindlen, William F. Buckley and President Bill Clinton. His 1998 book, “Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette of Democracy” (1998), was lauded by, among others, Marian Wright Edelman and the late John Cardinal O’Connor.

Carter has taught constitutional law, contracts, intellectual property, law and religion, legal ethics, and law and science. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1982, he served as a law clerk for Judge Spottswood W. Robinson III, of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He also practiced law briefly with a firm in Washington, D.C.

Carter received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and his law degree from Yale. He also received honorary degrees from eight schools, including the University of Notre Dame, Colgate University, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. Carter was the first non-theologian to receive the prestigious Louisville-Grawemeyer Award in religion.

Julius Rosenthal was an eminent and beloved member of the Chicago Bar, and the Rosenthal Lecture Series is one of the principal programs supported by the Julius Rosenthal Foundation.

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