63rd Annual John R. Coen Lecture: America's First Peaceful (Just Barely!) Transfer of Power

The University of Colorado Law School's 63rd annual John R. Coen Lecture was presented by Akhil Amar, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School, who explored the history of the United States' presidential transfer of power.

Professor Amar featured excerpts from his new book, The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, and discuss how Thomas Jefferson came to succeed John Adams as president of the United States. The story is particularly apt for modern-day citizens of Colorado, a state that was once part of an unofficial territory named for Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's assumption of office is often described as the model of a peaceful transfer of power from one presidential party to another-indeed, the modern world's first exemplar of a peaceful transfer in a proper democracy. The events of 1798-1801 were far more fraught than is generally understood today and in myriad respects cast an eerie light on the not entirely peaceful transfer of presidential power following the 2020 election.

The John R. Coen Lecture Series was established in 1955 through the generosity of Adrian S. Coen in memory of her late husband, John Coen. John Coen was a distinguished member of the Colorado bar and an able public speaker. The purpose is to bring a prominent and distinguished lawyer, jurist, or scholar of law to deliver an annual lecture to Colorado Law's students and faculty on a legal subject of interest and benefit to the profession, preferably with some public or political aspect.

Event Details

Speakers	Akhil Amar, sterling professor of law at Yale Law School