The Culmination of Another “American Semester” at the Faculty: Visit of Prof. Rakesh K. Anand from Syracuse University College of Law (USA)
The Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk had the pleasure of hosting Professor Rakesh K. Anand from Syracuse University College of Law, whose visit marked the culmination of another intensive “American semester” at our Faculty.
Professor Anand is a distinguished scholar whose academic interests focus primarily on legal theory, legal ethics, and European Union law. He graduated from Stanford University in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in political science with honors and distinction, and from Yale Law School in 1994 with a Juris Doctor degree. After completing his legal studies, he clerked for Justice Aharon Barak of the Supreme Court of Israel and subsequently worked as a civil litigator at Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe in San Francisco. Before joining Syracuse University, Professor Anand was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he taught legal ethics and criminal law and received the 2004 Faculty Member of the Year Award. In 2022, he was also awarded the Syracuse University College of Law Student Bar Association Faculty of the Year Award.
Professor Anand’s scholarly work develops in two principal directions. The first concerns the intersection of legal theory and legal ethics, with particular emphasis on law in the United States as a cultural practice and on the professional implications of the American commitment to the rule of law. His forthcoming publication is A Question for the Originalists, 21 FIU Law Review __ (2027), while his most recent publication is A Professionally Responsible Supreme Court?, 74 Case Western Reserve Law Review 903 (2024). The second area of his research concerns European Union law, especially its foundational questions. In spring 2023, Professor Anand explored these issues as a Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Law of the University of Białystok, at the Faculty of Law and Administration of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, and as a Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg.
Professor Anand was accompanied by Dr Justyna Kulikowska-Kulesza from the University of Białystok. The visit was organised on behalf of the Faculty by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Habil. Marcin M. Wiszowaty, who also moderated the seminar discussion.
The central point of the visit was a nearly two-hour seminar which took the form of a broad, multidimensional conversation on the present and future of the European Union and on European-American academic and legal cooperation. The discussion also addressed other issues falling within Professor Anand’s areas of expertise, including constitutional law, criminal law, and geopolitics.
The seminar was attended by Assoc. Prof. Dr Habil. Anna Dobaczewska from the Department of Commercial Law and Environmental Protection, Assoc. Prof. Dr Habil. Tomasz Widłak from the Department of Theory and Philosophy of State and Law, Assoc. Prof. Dr Habil. Maciej Wojciechowski from the same Department, Dr Olga Śniadach from Department of European Union Law and Legal Comparatistics, and Vice-Dean Assoc. Prof. Dr Habil. Marcin M. Wiszowaty.
An important part of the discussion was devoted to the prospects for continuing and further developing cooperation with Professor Anand and with Syracuse University College of Law. Following the seminar, Professor Anand met with the Dean of the Faculty, Assoc. Prof. Dr Habil. Wojciech Zalewski. Their conversation focused, among other matters, on selected aspects of criminal law.
Professor Anand’s visit was both a symbolic and substantive conclusion to another stage of the Faculty’s vibrant cooperation with the American academic community. We extend our sincere thanks to Professor Anand and to Dr Justyna Kulikowska-Kulesza for an inspiring meeting, their openness to dialogue, and their readiness to continue academic cooperation.
