Amherst College Professor Hadley Arkes, a leading American scholar on the subject of “natural law,” will speak on the subject this Friday, Aug. 8, noon at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Natural law was a primary principle of the American founding, and is an important part of the teachings of Catholic Church, which Professor Arkes joined four years ago. According to Arkes, neglect (or rejection) of the natural law has led to many of the decisional trends in today’s Supreme Court.
Arkes wrote First Things, the book that inspired the magazine First Things, and has taught several generations of students at Amherst College, where he is the Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions. He also teaches lawyers and other legal professionals through the James Wilson Institute On Natural Rights and the American Founding.
Professor Arkes was the main advocate, and architect, of the bill that became known as the Born-Alive Infants’ Protection Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002. The account of his experience in moving the bill through Congress is contained as an epilogue to his book, Natural Rights & the Right to Choose.
Cost of admission is $12 and includes lunch. For information, call (213) 680-5200.
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What a lovely article! I wonder how Professor Arkes’ talk went? I’ve always had a soft spot for men who wear bow ties and am delighted that such an intellectual treasure as he has joined our ranks! I used to subscribe to First Things when Fr. John Neuhaus was alive. It’s very heartening to know that a principled man of the faith is holding forth at such a liberal outpost as Amherst College and even bringing that Eastern edginess to California. Did anyone here attend?
God bless this man for writing and advocating the Born Alive Infants’ Protection Act.– a bill which President Obama would not sign. To let a child who survives abortion die on a counter or in sink with no comfort is so barbaric it is incomprehensible. We treat dogs better.
I agree Anne…if we just pause for a minute and think about what this nation has become and what our elected President has done and said and what he is leading us to, it’s almost beyond bearing. We’re truly becoming ignorant barbarians and disintegrating into warring tribes and clans. The deliberate use of hispanic gangs and other aggressive nationalities coming across the southern border is being used to put yet another nail in our country’s coffin. Any nation that not just condones but enforces the murder of its own young is doomed. “A nation divided against itself cannot stand’..A.Lincoln. “We have met the enemy and they is ‘us’.” Pogo