Influence of Roman law is the topic of Eason Weinmann Lecture Oct. 26

Tulane Law School is bringing its Eason Weinmann Lecture on International and Comparative Law to the public Tuesday Oct. 26 at 5:30 p.m.

The lecture, the first of the law school’s lecture series to be held in person in over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, also will be online via webinar. The in-person event will take place at a in the law school’s John Giffen Weinmann Hall, 6329 Freret St. in Room 110, the Wendell H. Gauthier Moot Court Room.

The lecture, titled “The Spirit of Roman Law Re-Evaluated,” will be delivered by Okko Behrends, Professor Emeritus and former Dean and Vice President of the University of Göttingen, a renowned expert on Roman Law and its influences in contemporary law.

The lecture's online format is available here.

Dr. Behrends’ interests and research focus on the relation between, on the one hand, the social reality of law as an entitling and objective guide of human behavior, supervised by the legal profession and guaranteed by the judiciary, and, on the other hand, the relevance of philosophical thought attempting to explain the human condition.

Behrends received his first doctorate in law from Goettingen University in 1967 and in 1972 he completed his habilitation (a higher doctorate), also at Goettingen.  From 1975 until his retirement in 2007 from Goettingen University he was professor of civil law, Roman Law, and modern history of private law. During these years he also directed the university’s Institute of Roman and Civil Law, and in 2005 he founded and became the director of the Institute of Legal History, Legal Philosophy and Legal Comparison.

The Eason Weinmann Lecture is one of the Law School’s oldest and most significant lectures and showcases Tulane Law's strength in international and comparative law, while bringing some of the world’s most influential voices on the subject to New Orleans. It is funded by the Eason Weinmann Center for International and Comparative Law, established in 1981 through the generosity of Virginia Eason Weinmann and John Giffen Weinmann, a distinguished Tulane Law School graduate (L'52). Ambassador Weinmann is the former Chair of Tulane's Board of Administrators, and the law building is named for him.