Martha Fineman, the Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Feminist Jurisprudence at Cornell Law School, has been awarded the Harry Kalven Prize by the Law and Society Association (LSA).

The prestigious prize, which is awarded every other year by the pre-eminent professional group, is a lifetime achievement award. It honors a substantive body of empirical scholarship that has contributed to the advancement of research in law and society. Fineman shares the award with Joel Handler, a former colleague of hers, and will receive it at the LSA's annual meeting in Chicago at the end of May.

"Winning this prize is particularly significant for me," said Fineman. "Harry Kalven was my professor at the University of Chicago, and he was a brilliant and inspiring teacher and scholar. In addition, Joel Handler was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin when I began teaching at there in 1976. He became my mentor, encouraging my early interdisciplinary work. The honor of the Kalven Prize is enhanced by sharing it with him."

Fineman writes about what she terms "the legal regulation of intimacy -- the uses and implications of law in structuring relationships and institutions." Her research, which is interdisciplinary, touches on family law in its broadest sense, exploring how the institution of "family" is viewed by society and the law. She also does scholarly work in poverty and welfare law, social contract theory, feminist jurisprudence, and reproduction and sexuality.

"The Kalven award to Martha Fineman is heady stuff and richly deserved," said Cornell Law School Dean Charles Wolfram. "Martha has made a mark for herself in empirical research in law and society that will be long-lasting and indelible. And her work continues. With the award, she joins the most notable names in law and society scholarship, including scholars from fields far beyond law."

Fineman holds the first endowed chair in feminist jurisprudence in the United States and is considered by peers to be the leading scholar in feminist legal theory in the world. She is

the author of such seminal texts as The Illusion of Equality, The Neutered Mother, and The Sexual Family and Other 20th Century Tragedies.

In addition to her teaching and research, she directs the Feminism and Legal Theory Program at Cornell. The interdisciplinary program attracts scholars from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as the United States working in such diverse areas as anthropology, political theory and history -- and, of course, law.

Fineman was a chaired professor at Columbia University before coming to Cornell this January 1999.