Professors James Whitman ’88 and John Witt ’99 Win Guggenheim Fellowships

Two Yale Law School faculty members have been awarded fellowships by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation: James Q. Whitman ’88, the Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law, and John Fabian Witt ’99, the Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law.

The grants provide support to exceptional mid-career scholars, scientists, and artists, giving them the opportunity to work on projects with complete creative freedom anywhere in the world. This year, the Foundation selected 180 fellows from a group of approximately 3,000 applicants from across North America.

Professor Whitman, a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, is an expert on comparative law, contracts, criminal law and European legal history. He has written extensively on the origins of reasonable doubt and the widening divide between American and European criminal punishment. His Guggenheim project will explore the verdict of battle.

Professor Witt, who holds J.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale, is the author of widely acclaimed works in the history of American law and in torts, including Patriots and Cosmopolitans: Hidden Histories of American Law and the prize-winning The Accidental Republic: Crippled Workingmen, Destitute Widows, and the Remaking of American Law. His Guggenheim research will examine the laws of war in American history.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was established in 1925 by former U.S. Senator Simon Guggenheim and his wife in memory of their son. The foundation supports individuals in the fields of natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and creative arts.