The Program in Law and Public Affairs (LAPA) at Princeton University invites outstanding faculty, independent scholars, lawyers, and judges to apply for appointments as fellows for the academic year 2009–2010. Each year, through its Fellows program, LAPA brings to Princeton world-class experts on the law. Successful candidates will devote an academic year in residence at Princeton to research, discussion, and scholarly collaboration on topics broadly related to legal studies. Under exceptional circumstances, applications for only one semester in residence may be considered.
For 2009-2010, we plan to name four general LAPA Fellows plus one Microsoft/LAPA Fellow who specializes in intellectual property or the economic organization of society, and one Mellon/LAPA Fellow in Law and the Humanities. Applicants to the program will be considered for all of these fellowships. Applying with a stated interest in the designated fellowships (see below) will not prejudice an applicant from being considered for one of the general fellowships and vice versa. All fellows have the same salaries, privileges and conditions.
LAPA Fellows devote the major portion of their time to their own research and writing on law-related subjects of empirical, interpretive and/or normative significance. In addition, LAPA Fellows are expected to participate in LAPA programs, including a biweekly faculty-graduate seminar and a weekly discussion group, as well as some public lectures and conferences. Fellows should be in residence at Princeton at least four days a week during the academic term. They enjoy access to Firestone Library and a wide range of other activities and intellectual resources throughout the University. Some Fellows also have the opportunity to teach a course in one of Princeton’s graduate or undergraduate programs, subject to the approval of the Dean of the Faculty and the sponsoring academic department.
The Fellows program is open to all regardless of citizenship, but it does not support work toward the completion of a degree. All applicants should have received a doctorate or a professional postgraduate degree by the beginning of the fellowship.
About LAPA
Since Princeton does not have a law school, LAPA is the primary site on the Princeton campus for law-related activity. The Program in Law and Public Affairs is housed in the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at on the Princeton campus and is co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School, the University Center for Human Values and the University. LAPA faculty and graduate associates of the program come from all over the university and from all disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, as well as from the sciences and engineering school. LAPA encourages its fellows to develop ties with relevant departments and disciplines around campus.
Financial Support for Fellows
Salaries vary according to individual circumstances but will not exceed a maximum that is set each fall. Fellows from academic institutions normally receive one-half their academic-year salaries for the appointment period at Princeton up to an annually set maximum amount for those on the high end of the salary spectrum and above an annually set minimum amount for those on the lower end of the salary spectrum. Additional salary may be paid to Fellows who teach a course. In general, we anticipate that Fellows visiting from other universities will come with sabbatical support from their home institutions in order for them to maintain their full salaries, though this is not a requirement for receiving a LAPA fellowship. It has generally been the case in the past that Fellows have been able to live modestly in Princeton for the year just on LAPA support without more. If applicants do not have sabbatical funds but would like to get their full salaries for the year, we recommend also applying for other sources of funds to supplement LAPA salaries.
Fellowship Residency Requirements
Fellows are expected to be in residence at Princeton at least four days each week during the academic term. Each fellow will be provided with an office equipped with a computer and telephone. Fellows should plan to attend both the LAPA Seminars, held on alternating Monday afternoons followed by dinner, as well as the fellows’ lunches held each Thursday. They should also plan to attend major LAPA events for which advance notice will be provided. Fellows are welcome but not required to participate in any University conferences, programs, or events in their field(s) of interest.
Research Proposal
In evaluating an application, the selection committee looks particularly closely at the proposal outlining work the applicant proposes to do while in residence at Princeton. Successful LAPA applicants should demonstrate substantial expertise in law-related matters, but in explaining research projects, applicants would be well advised to write for an audience of academic generalists. LAPA is particularly interested in potential Fellows with interests in policy or in normative or interpretive inquiry.
The program does not normally support, as a primary activity, off-site fieldwork, development of course materials, work in legal practice, direct advocacy of causes or residence elsewhere. The program is designed to give Fellows a year at Princeton for scholarly reflection and writing, and prospective Fellows might consider timing their applications for a year in which time devoted to reflection and writing on a substantial project would be most crucial for them.
Selection Criteria
The selection committee, made up of Princeton faculty associated with the program, will evaluate applicants on the basis of (1) the quality of their achievements in their field of specialization and their ability to benefit from the activities of the program; (2) the quality and significance of their proposed projects; (3) the contributions they are likely to make in the future to legal scholarship and practice; (4) their ability to contribute to intellectual life in legal studies at Princeton; and, where relevant, (5) their ability to contribute to the curriculum of the Woodrow Wilson School's graduate program and the University more generally. In any given year, the program tries to get a mix of senior and junior scholars, domestic and international scholars, and those based in law schools or in the practice of law on the one hand and those whose homes are in other disciplines on the other.
The General LAPA Fellows Program
Drawn from law schools, the social sciences, the humanities, and from the world of policy-making and legal practice, LAPA's Fellows are engaged during their stay at Princeton in cutting-edge research about the law, legal practices and legal institutions, and many of the Fellows teach courses while at Princeton. The Fellows enhance Princeton's tradition of excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching about the law, and they provide an intellectual critical mass for innovative scholarly collaborations about law and legal institutions. The Fellows also add to the group of normatively engaged scholars on campus who consider either policy or ethics as a substantial component of their work. With the new fellowship in Law and the Humanities, we will increase our contributions to the humanistically oriented fields on campus as well.
LAPA does not announce annual themes for its Fellows so applications on all law-related subjects are welcome for the general Fellows program. That said, the selection committee in any given year does give consideration in the last phases of the decision process to whether a particular set of Fellows would complement each other, bring synergies to the program and otherwise show signs of being more than the sum of their individual proposals. Because LAPA gets more outstanding applications than it has fellowships to award, one of the final elements of the selection process is the coherent composition of the group. Intellectual clusters are often favored, as are mixes of senior and junior Fellows, domestic and international Fellows, and Fellows based inside and outside law schools.
One of our general Fellows who will teach an undergraduate course through LAPA will be named the Martin and Kathleen Crane Fellow in Law and Public Affairs.
Microsoft/LAPA Fellow in Law, Property, and the Economic Organization of Society
Thanks to the generosity of the Microsoft Corporation, LAPA will bring to Princeton in 2009-2010 one fellow who is making important contributions to research and teaching in law, property, and the economic organization of society. While we prefer to find someone whose primary interests are in intellectual property and/or in information technology and the law, the description of the fellowship also reaches more broadly:The law plays a crucial role in defining property rights and constituting markets. LAPA fellows appointed to this position will study important problems related to defining and regulating property. Issues related to information technology now loom especially large. Such issues embrace many areas of the law, including copyright, patent, antitrust, free speech, privacy, telecommunications law, tax law, and international trade law. LAPA will make a special effort to secure fellows who have some expertise relevant to information policy issues. The position may also support study of other topics related to the economic organization of society. For example, some countries are now seeking to establish free markets in societies dominated by distrust, corruption, or heavy regulation. Other countries must find ways to adapt institutions so that they remain competitive in the new economy of the 21st century. Whether their economies are old or new, countries must decide how to protect the interests of workers, how to ensure corporate accountability, and how to deal with the huge inequalities produced by modern capitalism.
We anticipate that the Microsoft/LAPA Fellow will be involved with the growing group on the Princeton campus interested in intellectual property and information technology. As with the general Fellows program, the Microsoft Fellow will have the opportunity to teach a course at Princeton, subject to the approval of the Dean of the Faculty and the sponsoring academic department.
Mellon/LAPA Fellow in Law and the Humanities
In two of the next three years, beginning in 2009-2010, LAPA will appoint a fellow whose research is concentrated within the general field of Law and the Humanities. We anticipate that a LAPA Fellow in Law and the Humanities will be interested in explorations of the language, rhetoric, presuppositions and cultural rituals associated with the law – or in linkages between law and literary and cultural studies, including literary theory, anthropology, linguistics, and related fields. The description of this fellowship reaches broadly across humanistic inquiry:Legal scholars and practitioners read and argue within the constraints of the law and its traditions. Yet law does not stand alone: it is embedded in social practices and cultural understandings. The pragmatic horizon of most legal studies may exclude, or repress, crucial issues. What, for instance, is the relation of law to violence? What its relation to persuasion, and the rhetorical tradition that long ago was so closely identified with law speech, but now is studied within departments of literature? While law schools necessarily emphasize knowledge and expertise that are useful to understanding and practicing the law, there is much to be gained from thinking about law in relation to other fields of inquiry, especially those that are centrally concerned with interpretation, evidence, and persuasion.
Applicants may indicate their interest in this fellowship without prejudicing their consideration for a general LAPA Fellowship.
APPLICATIONS FOR ALL FELLOWSHIPS SHOULD BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE ON-LINE PROCESS. THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS 5:00 pm EST NOVEMBER 3, 2008
Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and in keeping with our commitment, encourages Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities and Vietnam Era and Disabled Veterans to apply.
For more information, see our web pages devoted to current and previous fellows.
