Legal scholar and political scientist Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago Law School will deliver the inaugural Milton Konvitz Memorial Lecture, "The Public Forum: The Affirmative Side of Free Speech," Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 4:30 p.m. in 305 Ives Hall. The lecture honors the late professor in Cornell's Law School and School of Industrial and Labor Relations from 1946 to 1973. Konvitz was an authority on civil and human rights and constitutional and labor law as well as a scholar of Jewish studies. He was best known for his American Ideals course, which he taught to more than 8,000 students over the course of his career. Konvitz's work was cited in many Supreme Court decisions, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg considered him a mentor.

Sunstein is the Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence and a member of the Department of Political Science as well as the Law School at the University of Chicago. He is author of many articles and a number of books, among them "After the Rights Revolution: Reconceiving the Regulatory State" (1990), "Designing Democracy: What Constitutions Do" (2001), "Republic.com" (2001), "Risk and Reason" (2002), "The Cost-Benefit State" (2002), "Punitive Damages: How Juries Decide" (2002), "Why Societies Need Dissent" (2003), "The Second Bill of Rights" (2004) and "Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle" (2005).

Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects and has been involved in constitution-making and law reform activities in a number of nations, including Ukraine, Poland, China, South Africa and Russia. Among numerous honors and appointments, Sunstein is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been a member of the President's Advisory Committee on the Public Service Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters.