"Constitutions and Capabilities: a Dialogue about Political Philosophy and the Judge's Role"  
 
Professor Martha Nussbaum and Judge Diane P. Wood 
 
Professor Nussbaum will discuss her "capabilities approach," a normative approach to basic political principles that has implications for how constitutions should be both written and interpreted.  Judge  Wood will approach the topic pragmatically, asking to what extent a judge could really use such a normative approach of this sort, and what the consequences might be.

Martha Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago Law School. Diane P. Wood is a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School.

Chicago’s Best Ideas, a lecture series begun in honor of the University of Chicago Law School’s Centennial, highlights the intellectual innovations of the School’s distinguished faculty.