Herlinde Pauer-Studer
Herlinde Pauer-Studer is professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna and a 2015-2016 Distinguished Visiting Austrian Chair Professor at Stanford. Her research interests are in ethics, political philosophy, and legal philosophy. She has been a Fellow at the J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University (1997/98) and a Fulbright Scholar at NYU (Fall 2006). From 2010 to 2015 she held an ERC Advanced Research Grant on the topic of “Distortions of Normativity”.
At Stanford she will teach a course on the connections between legal philosophy and philosophy of action. During her time at Stanford University she will also work on a book about the normative distortions in the National Socialist legal system, focusing on the period 1933-1939.
Recent publications on this topic are a co-edited collection of original texts by National Socialist legal theorists that appeared 2014 under the title “Rechtfertigungen des Unrechts. Das Rechtsdenken im Nationalsozialismus” with Suhrkamp and a co-authored book with J. David Velleman, The Conscience of a Nazi Judge. The Case of SS-Judge Konrad Morgen (Palgrave Macmillan 2015).
Jason is a political economist who is interested in political risk, the politics of public finance, and economic history. His dissertation examines how newly-independent states finance themselves, focusing on former British colonies. Analysis of the London Stock Exchange in the quarter century following World War II reveals a surprising trend: colonial debt bond prices remained remarkably stable throughout decolonization. In his research at the British National Archives in London, funded in part by The Europe Center, Jason found that price stability was an insufficient indicator of investor confidence. Far from reflecting investors unperturbed by the uncertainty of decolonization, Jason's research uncovers evidence that investors were indeed concerned about the effects of independence on their investment. In fact, investor concerns manifested in higher interest rates, fewer colonial debt bond issues, and lower subscription rates relative to earlier periods. His archival research further uncovers factors that explain why colonial debt bond prices fail to reflect investor sentiment. Chief among these was the British government's intervention in the market. Its strategic purchase and holding of colonial debt bonds ensured price stability despite investor concerns.
In his recent visit to Stanford University, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen painted a bleak picture of global politics. The hope of the Arab Spring has been replaced by new authoritarian regimes, civil war, and ISIS. Russia is becoming more internally authoritarian and externally aggressive. According to one measure, global levels of freedom have been in decline for the past nine consecutive years. "It looks", he said, "as if a Pandora's box of religious, ethnic, and political strife has been opened, and many nations have plunged into chaos and extremism." According to Rasmussen, successfully navigating these global challenges requires a concerted effort among liberal democratic states, spearheaded by American leadership. In order to create a strong global community of liberal democracies, he advocated strengthening the Transatlantic alliance. In addition to the existing military alliance forged through NATO, he proposed the creation of a Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) and a Transatlantic peoples program, which would foster educational, scientific, and cultural exchanges among the partner states. More than 150 people attended the talk, which was held on September 25. To watch Rasmussen's talk in full, please visit our 
