August 27, 2010
James Gordley
, W.R. Irby Professor of Law, has been elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, the United Kingdom’s national body for the humanities and social sciences. Relatively few U.S. law professors have received the distinction, which is reserved for scholars not teaching in the U.K.
“This exceptional honor places Jim in an extraordinarily small group of distinguished American scholars and recognizes his preeminence in the international legal academy,” stated Tulane Law School Dean David Meyer.
Gordley, a leading scholar of comparative law and legal history, came to Tulane law in 2007 from Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley, where he served on the faculty beginning in 1978. He was a fellow at the Institute of Comparative Law at the University of Florence, an associate with the Boston firm of Foley Hoag & Eliot, and an Ezra Ripley Thayer Fellow at Harvard before beginning his teaching career.
The Fellowship of the British Academy
Each year, the British Academy elects to its Fellowship up to 38 outstanding U.K.-based scholars who have achieved distinction in any branch of the humanities and social sciences. Others based overseas also can be elected as Corresponding Fellows, and, in addition, the Academy can elect Honorary Fellows.
Corresponding Fellows
Corresponding Fellows are scholars outside the U.K. who have 'attained high international standing in any of the branches of study which it is the object of the Academy to promote'. Some familiarity with research in the U.K. is valuable, in order to facilitate a contribution to the work of the Academy, e.g. through assessments of candidates for election.
Each year, up to fifteen elections are made to the Corresponding Fellowship, comprised of approximately 300 select scholars.