"This was the best seminar I have ever attended. The setting was so intimate, the arguments crisp and the wisdom precise." - Onyeka Aralu, NYU Law Student Seminar Participant

We are thrilled to recap our busy winter visiting three different campuses to host the James Wilson Institute's Law School Seminars.

The law school seminars provide a unique and impactful jurisprudential approach where these approaches are needed most. Each seminar spans one-to-two-days and introduces students attending top law schools across the nation to the philosophical concepts and practical applications of Natural Law. At their core, the seminars provide students with commonsense principles of moral judgement; principles that are unfortunately ignored by the academy and underappreciated by many -- even in the conservative legal movement. One Harvard Law School seminar attendee stated that he “learned more in two days with the James Wilson Institute than in [his] entire semester-length course on Constitutional Law.” It comes as no surprise, then, that these seminars have become our fastest-growing program. 

We were pleased to host a weekend seminar at Duke Law from January 31st to February 1st. Led by JWI Co-Director Prof. Gerry Bradley and Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker, the seminar explored the moral grounds of American constitutionalism through a Natural Law lens. Students from the University of North Carolina Law School also joined the seminar, temporarily sidelining the 'tobacco road rivalry' to collaborate with Duke students during the weekend. Our thanks to both law schools' Federalist Society chapters for helping host this memorable seminar.

We were also pleased to host a weekend seminar in New Haven, CT for law students from Yale Law and NYU Law from February 21st to 22nd. JWI Founder & Co-Director Hadley Arkes led the seminar, marking JWI’s first trip to YLS since 2018. Held at the historic Elm City Club, five intensive sessions over two days immersed students in unique scholarly discourse on the moral roots of our law. "The JWI New Haven Natural Law Seminar was a highlight of my academic experience," remarked seminar participant Onyeka Aralu of NYU Law. "I was in awe of the engagements on difficult topics and the willingness of participants to offer viewpoints that test the foundations of Natural Law." 

Another student testimonial from New Haven further speaks to the legal formation JWI's seminars offer: "The seminar was over two whole days of thought-provoking roundtable conversations spearheaded by the legendary Professor Arkes," recounted Fidelis Oguche of NYU Law. "It was also a veritable opportunity to interact and network with some very interesting and engaging people. Before the seminar, I was a Positivist, but I fear that I may now have been proselytized. And I don't regret it."

Special thanks to the NYU students who traveled to be with us and the Federalist Society chapter at YLS for helping organize the seminar.

From February 28th to March 1st, Co-Director Gerry Bradley and Prof. Bradley Rebeiro (JW ‘17) co-led a seminar in Provo, UT at Brigham Young University’s Law School. The seminar explored the moral foundations of the American legal system through five enlightening sessions. Covering topics including moral truth and constitutional conservatism, life after Dobbs, historicism, natural rights-originalism, and the morality of punishment, the seminar offered a comprehensive dive into the law's philosophic underpinnings. Our thanks to the students at Utah Valley University as well as the students in the BYU Law Chapter of the Federalist Society for attending.

To meet students' increased demand for our work, JWI has substantially expanded its Law School Seminar offerings in recent years. Previously, we only held two law school seminars annually. In 2024, however, we doubled our efforts by hosting seminars at four law school campuses. We are excited to announce that, thanks to the generosity of the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation, our 2025 seminar offerings will grow to a total of six seminars (three per semester). We look forward to hosting seminars at three additional law school campuses in Fall 2025 and introducing the Natural Law Jurisprudence of the American Founders to the next generation of lawyers.