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CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR TO LECTURE
ON LIFE AND CAREER OF WILLIAM PATERSON DURING PROGRAM AT WILLIAM PATERSON
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ON DECEMBER 6
Richard
Bernstein, a noted constitutional scholar, will discuss the life and
career of New Jersey patriot William Paterson, who played a key role
in framing the United States Constitution, during a lecture at William
Paterson University in Wayne on Friday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m in
the Cheng Library Auditorium on campus. Admission is free. The program
is sponsored by the Friends of the David and Lorraine Cheng Library;
a reception will follow the lecture.
The lecture, titled "William Paterson, 1745-1806: Lawyer, Jurist,
Statesman," will focus on Paterson’s numerous accomplishments
as one of New Jersey’s most important citizens during the early
years of the new Republic. A strong advocate for the rights of New
Jersey and other small states after the American Revolution, Paterson
offered what became known as the New Jersey Plan during the 1787 Constitutional
Convention. His plan, which proposed that all states have equal representation
in a new unicameral national legislature, countered the efforts of
large-state delegates to forge a legislature with representation based
on population
Paterson, who served as New Jersey’s first U.S. senator and
its second governor, was later appointed as associate justice of the
U.S Supreme Court. Among the cases he decided were several which laid
important foundations for the doctrine of judicial review.
Bernstein has written, edited, and co-edited 15 books on American
constitutional and legal history, specializing chiefly in the era
of the American Revolution and the early American republic. His books
include the Pultizer Prize-nominated works Are We to Be a Nation?
The Making of the Constitution and Amending America: If We Love the
Constitution So Much, Why Do We Keep Trying to Change It?, as well
as Roots of the Republic: American Founding Documents Interpreted
and Thomas Jefferson and Bolling v. Bolling: Law and the Legal Profession
in Pre-Revolutionary America. A book review editor of H-LAW, Bernstein
is an adjunct professor of law at New York Law School. He is a graduate
of Amherst College and Harvard Law School and is completing a Ph.D.
at New York University in American constitutional and legal history.
His current projects include a biography of Thomas Jefferson and a
study of the First Congress (1789-1791) as an experiment in government.
For additional information, call the David and Lorraine Cheng Library
at William Paterson University at 973-720-2113.
# # #
- 11/22/02
For Further Information, contact:
- Mary
Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966
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