LUNCHEON LECTURE with JUDGE DOUGLAS GINSBURG

THE WORLDWIDE INFLUENCE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE features Senior Circuit Judge DOUGLAS GINSBURG. Judge Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1986; he served as Chief Judge from 2001 to 2008.

Though most Americans do not know this, our Declaration of Independence (1776) has been invoked in the founding documents of at least 120 countries.  Of course, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) may come to mind, but Ho Chi Min’s declaration of independence from France?  Or, the “Prague Declaration” of what became Czechoslovakia?  There have been four great historical waves of independence movements since the early 19th century, and our Declaration played a role in all of them, albeit different roles over time. 

Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg was a professor at the Harvard Law School when he took a leave to work in the U.S. Department of Justice and three years later was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. While on the court he has taught at Harvard, Columbia, NYU, the University of Chicago, and University College London.  In 2022 he received “The Freedom of the City of London” for his work promoting the rule of law.  He is now a Senior Judge, carrying a reduced caseload, and a full professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University.