The Annual John Jay Lecture

The Annual John Jay Lecture is Co-sponsored by Pace University School of Law, the Jay Heritage Center and the NY City Bar Association. This year's honored guest speaker is noted scholar, Professor Paul Finkleman. The free 90 minute program will take place at the 1907 Van Norden Carriage House followed by a wine and cheese reception in the 1838 Jay Mansion.

Pre-registration is required for CLE credit Contact Linda Maccarrone at Pace Center for Continuing Legal Education -- lmaccarrone@law.pace.edu or 914.422.4062

Paul Finkelman is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School. He received his BA from Syracuse University, his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and was a Fellow in Law and Humanities at Harvard Law School. He is an expert on slavery, freedom of expression, and constitutional law and history.  He is the author or editor of more than 25 books and 150 scholarly articles. His scholarship on religious liberty and on firearms regulation has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.  He was the chief expert witness in the successful challenge to the Alabama Ten Commandments monument and in the law suit over the ownership of Barry Bonds 73rd home run ball.

The Annual John Jay Lecture honors the legacy of our country's first Chief Justice. John Jay (1745-1829), statesman and diplomat, was the first Chief Justice of the United States. Principal negotiator for the Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the War of Independence and establishing the United States, John Jay was also negotiator of the 1794 Jay Treaty that enabled the young nation to survive. A graduate of King's College, now Columbia University, John Jay was a delegate from New York to the First and Second Continental Congresses, and became President of the Congress in 1778. He not only helped to ratify the Declaration of Independence, but also provided the guiding hand that drafted the Constitution for New York State. As Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1784-89, Jay negotiated treaties of commerce with Morocco and Prussia and joined James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in the writing of the Federalist Papers. In his extraordinary career of public service, Jay served in every branch of government and held more high offices than any other Founding Father.

John Jay grew up in Rye, New York, and was buried there upon his death in 1829. That farm, which stretches from the Boston Post Road to the waters of the Long Island Sound, is now the home of the Jay Heritage Center, a non-profit corporation chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. The Center owns the Greek Revival house built at the site of Jay's childhood home by his son, Peter Augustus Jay, in 1838. It also owns a later Carriage House on the property built in Classical Revival style to complement the Jay mansion. The surrounding lands are New York State and Westchester County parkland, and the one-time farm is the center piece of the Boston Post Road Historic District, a National Historic Landmark. The Jay Heritage Center is restoring the Jay family home as an educational center for public use with programs and performances in American history,architecture and environmental stewardship.