<img width="185" height="245" alt="HAlbertYoung185px" src="/site/files/oldnewsfiles/HAlbertYoung185px.jpg" class="FloatRight">Widener Law’s prestigious biennial H. Albert Young Distinguished Lecture in Constitutional Law for 2013 will focus on dignity rights, with regard to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions involving the legal rights of same-sex couples.<br><br>Vice Dean and Professor <a href="/Academics/Faculty/ProfilesDe/DalyErin.aspx">Erin Daly</a> of the school’s Delaware campus will deliver the lecture “Constitutional Comparisons: Emerging Dignity Rights at Home and Abroad,” on <span style="font-weight: bold;">Thursday, Sept. 19</span>. A reception will begin at <span style="font-weight: bold;">4:30 p.m</span>. and the hour-long lecture will <span style="font-weight: bold;">start at 5 p.m</span>. The program will be held in the <span style="font-weight: bold;">du Barry Room</span> of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Hotel duPont</span> at <span style="font-weight: bold;">Eleventh and Market Streets</span>, Wilmington. <br><br>Vice Dean Daly served as Widener Law’s H. Albert Young Fellow in Constitutional Law from 2011 through this summer. The fellowship concludes with the distinguished lecture. Widener Distinguished Professor <a href="/Academics/Faculty/ProfilesDe/HodasDavidR.aspx">David R. Hodas</a> succeeds her as the fellow. His term began July 1.<br><br>Delaware and Pennsylvania attorneys who attend the lecture will be eligible for one continuing legal education credit. There is no registration fee. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP to Carol Perrupato at <a href="mailto:caperrupato@widener.edu">caperrupato@widener.edu</a> or <span style="font-weight: bold;">302.477.2178</span>.<br><br>Members of the law school community who would like to attend may take advantage of a shuttle bus that will run between the Delaware campus and the Hotel duPont the afternoon of the lecture. It will leave from the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Concord Lot</span> at <span style="font-weight: bold;">4:15 p.m</span>.<br><br>Vice Dean Daly has written extensively on comparative constitutional law and transitional justice issues throughout the world. She wrote <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dignity-Rights-Constitutions-Citizenship-Constitutionalism/dp/0812244400/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1350877256&amp;sr=8-4&amp;keywords=erin+daly" title="Amazon">Dignity Rights: Courts, Constitutions, and the Worth of the Human Person</a> (U. Penn 2012), with a foreword by former president of the Israeli Supreme Court Aharon Barak. It is the first book to explore the constitutional law of dignity around the world. In it, Vice Dean Daly shows how dignity has come not only to define specific interests like the right to humane treatment or to earn a living wage, but also to protect the basic rights of people to control their own lives and live in society. She argues that, through the right to dignity, courts are redefining what it means to be human in the modern world. As a result, these cases force a reexamination of the relationship between individuals and the state and, in turn, contribute to a new and richer understanding of the role of the citizen in modern democracies.<br><br>The H. Albert Young Fellowship in Constitutional Law was endowed in 1998 by the Young Foundation of Wilmington, to honor the memory of the late H. Albert Young, a highly respected lawyer and former Delaware attorney general known for his unwavering dedication to upholding justice even in unpopular cases. His most famous role came in the aftermath of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Brown v. Board of Education</span> decision when, in the face of tremendous opposition, he insisted the ruling be immediately enforced in Delaware.<br><br><a href="/About/standarddisclaimer.aspx">Standard Disclaimer for External Links</a><br>