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8May

Laying Down the Law: Americans as makers of legal worlds in occupied Germany and Japan

Hosted by the Department of Law
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building
Tuesday 08 May 2018 6.30pm - 8pm

Professsor Rande Kostal will explore the aims, reach and grasp of American power in the construction of liberal models of the rule of law in occupied Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan following the Second World War.

His ideas come from writing his forthcoming book entitled Laying Down the Law: The United States and the Legal Reconstruction of Germany and Japan which will be published by Harvard University Press.

This lecture will argue that while the governing elite of the United States possessed the military, financial and psychological resources required to attempt the simultaneous reconstruction of two captive legal systems, it lacked sufficient political, moral, intellectual and administrative capacity to fully realize these goals. Indeed, the advent of Cold War with the Soviet Union led American leadership to halt, even to undermine, its liberal reconstructive projects in occupied Germany and Japan.

Rande Kostal LL.B. (Western University) 1981, M.A. (McMaster) 1983, Ph.D. (Oxford) 1989, called to the Bar of Ontario in 1984.

Michael Lobban, Professor of Legal History Department of LSE Law.

LSE Law (@lselaw) is an integral part of the School's mission, plays a major role in policy debates & in the education of lawyers and law teachers from around the world.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSELawRandeKostal

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LSE holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at LSE events do not reflect the position or views of the London School of Economics and Political Science.