2018 Robert W. Kastenmeier Lecture
Justice Shirley Abrahamson, Wisconsin Supreme Court
Biography
Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1976. She was elected to ten-year terms in 1979, 1989, 1999 and 2009, serving as chief justice from 1996 to 2015. She earned an A.B. magna cum laude from New York University in 1953, a J.D. with high distinction from Indiana University Law School in 1956, and an S.J.D. in American legal history from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1962. She holds numerous awards, including 15 honorary doctor of laws degrees. Before her appointment, she practiced law in Madison for 14 years, taught on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Law School and lectured at Marquette University Law School.
Justice Abrahamson is a past president of the Conference of Chief Justices, a past chair of the board of directors of the National Center for State Courts, and presently serves on the council of the American Law Institute (emeritus), the board of directors of the Institute of Judicial Administration at New York University School of Law, the National Board of Academic Advisors of the William H. Rehnquist Center on the Constitutional Structures of Government, and the advisory board of the National Institute of Corrections Evidence-Based Decision Making Project. She was chair of the National Institute of Justice National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence and was on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology and Law.
Justice Abrahamson is featured in Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia (John R. Vile ed. 2003) and listed in The Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America (2005, 2011) and The Lawdragon 500 Leading Judges in America (2006).
About the Kastenmeier Lecture
This lecture is supported by the fund established to honor Robert W. Kastenmeier, an outstanding graduate of University of Wisconsin Law School, who served with great distinction in the United States Congress from 1958 to 1990. During his tenure, Congressman Kastenmeier made special contributions to the improvement of the judiciary and to the field of intellectual property law. He drafted the rules for the House Committee on the Judiciary that were used for the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon, as well as the articles of impeachment against Judge Harry Claiborne. In 1985, Congressman Kastenmeier received the Warren E. Burger Award, presented by the Institute for Court Management, and the Service Award of the National Center for State Courts. In 1988, American Judicature Society honored him with its Justice Award for his contributions to improving the administration of justice.
The Kastenmeier Fund was created to recognize these contributions by fostering important legal scholarship in the fields of intellectual property, corrections, administration of justice, and civil liberties. It is a fitting tribute to the leadership of Robert W. Kastenmeier in these areas.
View a complete list of Kastenmeier lectures
| 2017 | Maria A. Pallante, "I am the Captain Now: Resisting Piracy and Contortion in the Copyright Marketplace" |
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| 2016 | Sonia Sotomayor, "A Discussion with Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court of the United States" |
| 2015 | James Sensenbrenner, "A History of the USA FREEDOM Act" |
| 2014 | Bryan Stevenson, "Just Mercy: Confronting Mass Incarceration and Excessive Punishment in America" |
| 2013 | John Dean, "Crossing the Line: Watergate, the Criminal Law and Ethics" |
| 2012 | Mark A. Lemley, "Software Patents and the Return of Functional Claiming" |
| 2011 | Barbara Crabb, "Bridging the Divide between Congress and the Courts" |
| 2010 | Bob Herbert, "Afghanistan: What Are We Fighting For?" |
| 2009 | Walter Dickey, Cecelia Klingele and Michael Scott, "Re-Imagining Criminal Justice: Implications for Practice, Research and Teaching" |
| 2008 | David Obey, "Economic Injustice" |
| 2007 | Harold Hongju Koh, Tom Petri, and Russ Feingold, "The National Security Constitution in a Time of Terror" |
| 2006 | Carl Gulbrandsen (with remarks from Birch Bayh), "The Law in Action: What the Bayh-Dole Act Means to the University of Wisconsin and the State of Wisconsin and an Effective National Science Policy" |
| 2005 | George McGovern, "The Iraq War: Lessons from the Past" |
| 2004 | Frank Tuerkheimer, "Civil Rights Act of 1964: Hopes and Promises" Roger Wilkins, "Bob Kastenmeier and 1960s Civil Rights Legislation: Leadership Through Commitment and Foresight" |
| 2003 | Lawrence Lessig, "The Forgotten Balance of Robert Kastenmeier" |
| 2002 | Anthony Lewis, "Civil Liberties in a Time of Terror" |
| 2001 | Douglas Berman, Michael Smith, John Steer, and moderator Thomas W. Hutchison, "Sentencing Criminals: After a Quarter Century of Reform, Where Are We?" |
| 2000 | Martin Abrams, Deirdre Mulligan, Paul Schwartz, and moderator Robert Gellman, "From the Bill of Rights to the Internet: Protecting Privacy Rights and Interests in the New Millennium" |
| 1999 | Robert Drinan, Michael Gerhardt, Stanley Kutler, Frank Tuerkheimer, and moderator David Broder, "From Watergate to the Present: Impeachment, Presidential Accountability, and the Separation of Powers" |
| 1997 | Paul Goldstein, "The Transformation of American Copyright Law" |
| 1996 | Abner J. Mikva, "Political Extremism: Is It New, Is It Worse, Is It Curable?" |
| 1995 | Symposium: "Is Effective Crime Policy Possible?" |
| 1993 | Symposium: "Computer Software Protection: Reinventing Intellectual Property" |
| 1992 | William H. Rehnquist, "Seen in a Glass Darkly: The Future of the Federal Court" |
