Transatlantic Justice: Slavery in the Judicial Imagination

This lecture contrasts the attitudes towards the humanity of enslaved peoples taken by Chief Justice Taney in the case of Dredd Scott ( the notorious case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that African Americans are not citizens of the United States and therefore have no rights under the US constitution), and Lord Mansfield in Somersett's case (ruling that slavery could not exist in England and therefore an enslaved man who had been brought to England must be recognised as free).

The speaker: Judge Joseph Anthony Greenaway Jr. is a US federal circuit judge who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was nominated by President Barack Obama and took up his seat in February 2010, filling the vacancy created by Justice Samuel Alito's elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court. President Obama subsequently identified Judge Greenaway as a possible candidate for the Supreme Court.

He was born in London to parents of West Indian origin and emigrated with them to the United States at the age of two. His father is a carpenter and his mother is a nurse. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and a JD from Harvard, obtained a position as law clerk for Judge Vincent Lyons Broderick of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and embarked upon a professional career which saw him move from private practice to the US Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey. He later became the chief of narcotics for the District of New Jersey. His judicial career began in 1985 when he was nominated by President Clinton to serve on the US District Court for the District of New Jersey.

In addition to his judicial duties, Judge Greenaway has extensive connections with the academy. He has held adjunct positions at Rutgers School of Law, New Jersey, Cardozo School of Law, New York, and Columbia School of Law, New York. He currently teaches a seminar at Harvard Law School, Cambridge Massachusetts. He is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades both within the United States and abroad.  In 2019, the Birmingham City University (UK), Centre for American Legal Studies, in conjunction with the Birmingham (UK) Law Society, instituted the Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. Lecture Series on Law and Justice, and he delivered the inaugural lecture.