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Todd Zywicki: The Rule of Law and Western Civilization: Origins, Influence, Impact

Picture of Todd Zywicki

This event took place on Thursday, February 9, 2023 at 5:30 – 7 p.m in CASE E422. 

Â鶹ӰԺ the Lecture

The concept of the rule of law is recognized as foundational to the individual freedom and economic prosperity in the West. But this broad consensus obscures important debates over the meaning of the rule of law and the cultural and institutional preconditions for its emergence in the West and continued maintenance over time. As concept of the rule of law have come under increasing attack, it is important to rediscover the meaning of the rule of law, the historical and institutional preconditions for its emergence in the West, and its continuing relevance to the maintenance of individual freedom and economic prosperity.

Â鶹ӰԺ the Speaker

Todd J. Zywicki is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and a Research Fellow of the George Mason Law & Economics Center. From 2015-2017 he was Executive Director of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. From 2020-2021 he served as Chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law and from 2003-2004 he served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. He is also a Senior Fellow of the F.A. Hayek Program for the Advanced Study of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at George Mason University and a former Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute and the Goldwater Institute. In 2021 he was inducted to the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers.
 
Professor Zywicki clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and worked as an associate at Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia, where he practiced bankruptcy and commercial law. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was executive editor of the Virginia Tax Review and John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics. Professor Zywicki received an M.A. in Economics from Clemson University and an A.B. cum Laude with high honors in his major from Dartmouth College. He has taught at Vanderbilt University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, Mississippi College School of Law, and China University of Political Science and Law.
 
Professor Zywicki is the author of more than 130 articles in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed economics journals. He is one of the Top 10 most-cited law professors in the field of Commercial Law and one of the Top 25 law professors on Twitter as measured by engagement levels.  He has testified multiple times before Congress on issues of consumer bankruptcy law and consumer credit and is a frequent commentator on legal issues in the print and broadcast media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Nightline, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Neil Cavuto Show, Fox & Friends, Smerconish, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg News, BBC, The Ingraham Angle, The Diane Rehm Show, Dennis Prager Show, Mike Smerconish Show, Lou Dobbs Show, Mike Gallagher, and The Laura Ingraham Show.

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