Emory Law’s Robert W. Woodruff Professors of Law
Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff professorships honor “teacher-scholars of distinction who serve a broad constituency… and provide a unifying force to graduate education.” The awards, named after Emory College alumnus and former Coca-Cola Company president Robert W. Woodruff, are appointed by Emory University’s president and endowed by the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Fund. Emory Law is tremendously proud to have two current Robert W. Woodruff professors: Martha Albertson Fineman and John Witte Jr. This issue of Insights celebrates these prolific academics and examines some of their more recent work.
Martha Albertson Fineman is the creator of Vulnerability Theory and is a leading authority on critical legal theory and feminist jurisprudence. She is also the founding director of Emory Law’s Feminism and Legal Theory Project. In her book Vulnerability Theory and The Trinity Lectures: Institutionalizing the Individual, which is based on a series of lectures at Trinity College Dublin, Fineman explains how Vulnerability Theory is distinct from individualistic liberal frameworks and calls for a realignment of law toward a collective responsibility-based approach.
John Witte, Jr. is a renowned scholar of legal history and human rights, and he serves as director of Emory Law’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion. In The Blessings of Liberty: Religious Freedom and Human Rights in the Western Legal Tradition, Witte argues that freedom is an inherent human quality and claim. The text includes nine studies on human rights and religious freedom to support his claims that religion is a critical foundation and dimension of human rights, that religion and human rights need each other to coexist and thrive, and that today, the robust promotion and protection of religious freedom is the best way to protect other fundamental rights.
We hope you enjoy this survey of Emory Law scholarship. These books represent just two of the many important contributions from Emory Law faculty. To see more from our professors who ranked among the top 20 for scholarly impact, please visit our scholarship news archives and faculty pages.