During a November 21 ceremony in Argentina, Ronald Dworkin, Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law, gave an acceptance speech for an honorary doctorate from the University of Buenos Aires School of Law. The university conferred the degree upon Dworkin in recognition of his contributions to scholarship on human rights and democracy, as well as the influence of his writing on Argentine law and constitutional jurisprudence.
In the resolution accompanying the honorary doctorate, the University of Buenos Aires said that Dworkin “has tirelessly defended the rule of law, democracy and human rights,” calling him “one of the most important jurists of our time.”
The day after the ceremony, Dworkin delivered a lecture at the school’s Carlos Nino Conference about the main thesis of his recent book Justice for Hedgehogs. The lecture preceded a public discussion of the book, in which Dworkin argues that what truth is, what life means, what morality requires, and what justice demands are different aspects of the same large question. Nino was an Argentine legal and political philosopher strongly committed to the modernization of legal teaching, institutional reform, and the protection of human rights.
Posted on November 22, 2011