Tom Tyler to Give Macklin Fleming Inaugural Lecture on Legitimacy in Everyday Law

WATCH THE VIDEO OF PROFESSOR TYLER'S LECTURE

Tom R. Tyler will present his inaugural lecture as the Macklin Fleming Professor of Law on Monday, Dec. 10, 2012, at 4:30 p.m. in Room 127. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception in the Alumni Reading Room. Professor Tyler’s lecture is titled “Legitimacy in Everyday Law.”

“Studies of public legitimacy suggest that while legality plays a role in shaping public legitimacy, other factors are more important, in particular, whether people believe legal authorities use fair procedures when they create and implement laws,” said Professor Tyler. “This talk makes the case for the value of increasing our focus on public legitimacy and outlines how heightening attention to this issue would change legal scholarship.”

Tom Tyler joined the Yale Law faculty in January 2012 as a professor of law and psychology and was named the inaugural Macklin Fleming Professor of Law in April 2012. He is also a professor (by courtesy) at the Yale School of Management. He was previously a University Professor at New York University, where he taught in both the psychology department and the law school. Prior to joining NYU in 1997, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Northwestern University.

Professor Tyler’s research explores the role of justice in shaping people’s relationships with groups, organizations, communities, and societies. In particular, he examines the role of judgments about the justice or injustice of group procedures in shaping legitimacy, compliance, and cooperation.

He is the author of several books, including Why People Cooperate (2011); Legitimacy and Criminal Justice (2007); Why People Obey the Law (2006); Trust in the Law (2002); and Cooperation in Groups (2000). He was awarded the Harry Kalven prize for “paradigm shifting scholarship in the study of law and society” by the Law and Society Association in 2000, and in 2012, was honored by the International Society for Justice Research with its Lifetime Achievement Award for innovative research on social justice.

He holds a B.A. in psychology from Columbia and an M.A. and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles.

The Macklin Fleming Professorship in Law was established by a bequest from Macklin Fleming ’37, former Justice of the California Courts of Appeal.