#  2025 Lester Kissel Lecture in Ethics "Ordinary People and the Rule of Law" with Jeremy Waldron 

 



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####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **February 13, 2025** 

 04:30PM - 06:00PM EST 

 [ Register Here  arrow\_circle\_right ](https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/4s4cep4/lp/eeda573b-7f54-4f43-a4db-bfc890350135) 

 



 

#### ***About "Ordinary People and the Rule of Law":***

The rule of law is a doctrine that affects the way political power is exercised. With its leading principle that no one is above the law, it directs itself at the upper echelons of society and ensures that presidents, legislators, judges, agency heads, and other officials are bound by law in the exercise of the powers entrusted to them. But what does the rule of law require of ordinary citizens? Does it require anything more than law and order—basic compliance with ordinary legal obligations? That in itself is worth further investigation in the context of moral and political disagreement: the obligation to comply with laws one judges unjust is business as usual for the rule of law. But we also need to consider the ordinary citizen’s obligation not to press for the exemption of high officials from legal constraint and also citizens’ obligations to play their part in keeping the legal system in good shape, fit for the purpose of governing the power of political office-holders. This lecture will argue that citizens’ modes of legal compliance—from the acceptance of political defeat, when it happens, through the self-application of rules and standards with which one disagrees—must provide a model for the sort of constraint we expect officials to submit to, in a system governed by the rule of law.

#### ***About Jeremy Waldron:*** 

Jeremy Waldron is University Professor at New York University School of Law where he teaches legal and political philosophy.

He has written and published extensively in jurisprudence and political theory. His books and articles on theories of rights, on constitutionalism, on the rule of law, and on democracy, judicial review, property, torture, security, and homelessness are well known, as is his work in historical political theory (on Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and Hannah Arendt). His most recent books are “*Political* Political Theory: Essays on Institutions,”, “One Another’s Equals: The Basis of Human Equality,” and “Thoughtfulness and the Rule of Law,” published by Harvard University Press in 2015, 2017, and 2024.



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Civil Discourse ](/event-categories/civil-discourse)
 
 

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