Amy Chua to Discuss “Empire and Tolerance” in Duff Inaugural Lecture April 9

Professor Amy Chua will deliver her inaugural lecture as John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law on Monday, April 9, at 4:30 p.m. in Room 127. Her lecture is titled “Empire and Tolerance: The Rise and Fall of World Dominant Powers.” It is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the Alumni Reading Room.

“My lecture will be about history’s hyperpowers—a surprisingly rare phenomenon—and a remarkable pattern I’ve found that connects each and every one of them,” said Chua. “To be a little cryptic about it, let me just say that the secret to global dominance is tolerance.  In my talk, I'll offer examples from the Achaemenid Persian Empire founded in 550 B.C. to the Great Mongol Empire of the 13th century to the British Empire in its Victorian heyday.  I'll conclude by discussing the implications of my thesis for the 21st century, specifically addressing the debate about the possibility—and the desirability—of an American Empire.”

Amy Chua joined the Yale Law School faculty in 2001, after teaching at Duke, Columbia, Stanford and New York University. Her expertise is in the areas of contracts, law and development, international business transactions, and law and globalization. She received Yale Law School’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003.

Prior to entering academics in 1994, she practiced with the Wall Street firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where she worked on international transactions throughout Asia, Europe, and Latin America, including the privatization of Teléfonos de México. 

She has addressed numerous government and policymaking institutions, including the World Bank, the Brookings Institution, the United Nations and the CIA. She has also lectured widely outside the United States—in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, China, Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey and South Africa.

Professor Chua is author of the 2002 New York Times bestseller, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability.  Her newest book, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—and Why They Fall, will be released in October 2007.

She holds B.A. and J.D. degrees from Harvard University. While at Harvard Law School, she served as executive editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating, she clerked for Chief Judge Patricia Wald of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The John M. Duff, Jr. Professorship was established in 2004 in recognition of gifts by John M. Duff, Jr. ’66, founder of the private equity firm Duff Ackerman & Goodrich.