Law lecture explores how U.S. Supreme Court shapes national tort law

John C.P. Goldberg, Deputy Dean and Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence at Harvard Law School, will explore and expose some of the myriad occasions on which the U.S. Supreme Court has actively shaped 50-state tort law in the lecture “Supreme Torts”. This event, the 2019 Schwartz Lecture in Torts, will be held at 12:15 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Room 114 at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.  CLE: 1

The honoree of this lecture, Victor Schwartz, is equally at home in two ‘places.’ One is tort law. The other is Washington, D.C. This might seem an odd pairing. After all, tort law is overwhelmingly made in state courts and legislatures, not in our nation’s capital. Yet, as Victor himself has noted, Washington—and in particular the U.S. Supreme Court—influences tort law in ways both obvious and subtle. This lecture will explore and expose some of the myriad occasions on which our highest court (notwithstanding its foreswearing of the general common law in Erie Railroad v. Tompkins) has actively shaped 50-state tort law. At the same time, it will suggest, respectfully, that the Court’s decisions are often predicated on an impoverished understanding of tort law and its place in our legal and political system. Topics to be addressed will range from constitutional torts and proximate cause to federal preemption and punitive damages. 

After receiving his JD from New York University School of Law, Goldberg clerked for Judge Jack Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York and for Supreme Court Justice Byron White. He earned his BA with high honors from the College of Social Studies, Wesleyan University. He also holds an MPhil in Politics from Oxford University and an MA in Politics from Princeton University.