SEAL News: September 2, 2008 – Various Announcements
Dear SEAL Members:
I hope you have all had productive and enjoyable summers. This newsletter includes a number of important announcements:
- Winner of Second SEAL Junior Faculty Writing Prize
- New Board position and call for nominations
- Third SEAL Junior Faculty Writing Prize — Receiving Nominations and Submissions
- Student Representative
- Membership – Student Outreach
- Membership – General
- Links to drafts of evolutionary analysis of law papers
- SEAL 10 — Save the Dates
As usual, the links, journals, etc., have been added to the SEAL website at http://www.sealsite.org/ — a source for your research. And, as usual, if you have similar materials to recommend to the membership, just send me an e-mail at owen.jones@vanderbilt.edu.
Truly yours,
Jeffrey Evans Stake
SEAL President
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1) Winner of Second SEAL Junior Faculty Writing Prize
I am delighted to announce that the second SEAL Junior Faculty Writing Prize will be awarded to Robin Kar of Loyola Law School, for his article, “The Deep Structure of Law and Morality”. The Prize commemorates the multifaceted contributions of Margaret Gruter (1919-2003), founder of the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research and former member of SEAL. She was an inspiration and a friend.
Entries were judged by a panel made up of professors in the disciplines of both law and biology. Entries were judged on the bases of breadth of research, accuracy, creativity, and clarity of thought and expression.
Analogizing to Chomsky’s deep structure of language, Robin argues that there is a deep structure of morality and that it parallels the deep structure of the law. The law and morality engage psychological adaptations that serve the natural function of solving social contract problems. Robin argues that these psychological adaptations are attitudes that he calls “obligata.” The article makes extensive use of philosophy along with evolutionary psychology and game theory in developing a deep understanding of the nature of law.
The committee was thoroughly impressed by the article and feels confident that it will continue to foster an impressive tradition for the SEAL Junior Faculty Writing Prize (the last recipient of which was Julie Seaman of Emory).
2) New Board position and call for nominations
The SEAL Directors recently voted to establish an additional position on the Board of Directors. We are now accepting nominations for this position. We encourage you to nominate anyone you think would be well-suited to being a SEAL director, keeping in mind that the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary are chosen from the Board of Directors. Self-nominations are welcome. Please send your nominations for the position and any other recommendations or comments to me at [ stake@indiana.edu ].
Those of you who wish to vote in the election of new directors must be current in the payment of your dues. If you are uncertain of whether your dues are current, please contact Christine Bishop, at christie.bishop@law.vanderbilt.edu . The few of you who need to pay your $45 annual dues should find it easy to do so by clicking the membership button at www.sealsite.org and clicking “membership,” then clicking “pay annual dues,” and then clicking “PayPal payments,” which will allow you to pay by credit card [you might need to click “continue” on penultimate line] or by PayPal. You may also send a check made out to SEAL to Vanderbilt University Law School, Christine Bishop, SEAL Admininstrative Assistant, 131 21st Ave. South, Nashville, TN 37203-1181.
3) Third SEAL Junior Faculty Writing Prize — Receiving Nominations and Submissions
Having congratulated Rob Kar on winning the second SEAL Junior Faculty Writing Prize, we are now accepting submissions for the third prize. Applicants, who must be untenured at the time of their submission’s publication, should submit a citation to, or link to, a publication not previously submitted for this prize. Send applications to seal@vanderbilt.edu .
Senior colleagues, please feel free to encourage junior authors to submit their work for this competition. Entries will be judged by a panel made up of professors in the disciplines of both law and biology, who will judge them on the bases of originality, breadth and depth of research, accuracy, creativity, and clarity of thought and expression. The Prize commemorates the multifaceted contributions of Margaret Gruter (1919-2003), founder of the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, former member of SEAL, inspiration and friend.
4) Student Representative
We are delighted to have Elon Slutsky of Cornell Law School as our new student representative. He is enthusiastic and has many good ideas and will be working to increase student membership, among other things. Student members are encouraged to contact him with ideas or concerns at: ebs72@cornell.edu
5) Membership – Student Outreach
Although a number of students have recently joined SEAL, students still make up only a small fraction of our members. We encourage you to encourage students to consider SEAL membership. Applications are open to students in law school, as well as graduate and undergraduate programs in such fields as biology, psychology, and anthropology. If you know of students who may be interested in SEAL matters, please direct them to the website (at www.sealsite.org).
6) Membership – General
SEAL has over 300 members, from 24 countries. To help grow the membership, we ask that you consider: a) adding a SEAL link (www.sealsite.org ) to your home-page; and b) nominating non-members whom SEAL should invite to join our membership. Send nominations to
7) Links to drafts of evolutionary analysis of law papers
If you have a draft paper on the web that takes an evolutionary look at legal topics, feel free to send the link to me for inclusion in a future SEAL update.
8) SEAL 10 — Hold the Dates
As separately announced, the 10th Annual SEAL Scholarship Conference will take place at Vanderbilt University Law School from April 17 to 19, 2009. Details soon.
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