Amy Chua presents theory that exporting free markets and democracy breeds ethnic hatred and global instability for Law School and the Assembly Series

Amy L. Chua, professor of law at Yale University and member of the American Society of International Law’s executive council, will discuss her new book which posits that the West’s exportation of free markets and democratic philosophies to developing countries does more harm than good.

Her talk, “How Exporting Free Markets and Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability” will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, February 4 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom, Anheuser-Busch Hall. A panel discussion featuring Chua and Washington University faculty members immediately follows the lecture.

The program is free, open to the public and sponsored by the University’s Assembly Series, Student Union, Asian American Law Student Association, the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies and the School of Law, the Institute for Global Legal Studies, and the department of political science in Arts & Sciences.

Chua is a past consultant for the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law and Practice and Central and East European Law Initiative. She is also the author of World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Instability.

She earned both her bachelor’s and juris doctorate at Harvard University where she served as the executive editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, Chua clerked for the Honorable Patricia M. Wald of the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. She was an associate in private practice until 1994 when she became a professor at Duke University, School of Law. In 2001, Chua joined the faculty at Yale University law school, where she teaches contracts, international business transactions, law and development, ethnic conflict, and globalization and the law.

Chua’s talk is part of the School of Law’s sixth annual Public Interest Law Speaker Series. The series is designed to highlight the excellence of the law school’s Clinical Education Program; expose students to public interest advocates and practitioners; illuminate the pro bono and public interest responsibility of law students and lawyers; and engage the wider University community in an interdisciplinary discussion about social justice.

For more information, call (314) 935-4620 or visit the Assembly Series web page (http://wupa.wustl.edu/assembly).