A Time For Every Purpose Harvard University Press Sep 2002 isbn: 067400910X $27.95 buy

Friday Forum: Todd D. Rakoff, September 27

Friday, 3pm
in the store
1256 Massachusetts Ave
free and open to public

Who organizes our time? Who decides when we must be at work and at school, when we set back our clocks, and when retail stores will close? Todd Rakoff traces the law's effect on our use of time and discovers that the structure of our time is gradually changing. As Rakoff demonstrates, the law's influence is subtle, and so ubiquitous that we barely notice it. But its structure establishes the terms by which society allocates its efforts, coordinates its many players, establishes the rhythms of life, and indeed gives meaning to the time in which we live. Compulsory education law, overtime law, daylight-saving law, and Blue Laws are among the many rules government uses to shape our use of time. More and more, however, society, and especially the workplace, has come to see time simply as a quantity whose value must be maximized. As lawmakers struggle to deal with accelerating market demands, the average citizen's ability to organize his or her time to accommodate all of life's activities is diminishing. Meanwhile, it is increasingly hard to differentiate weekdays from weekends, and ordinary days from holidays. The law of time, Rakoff argues, may need refashioning to meet modern circumstances, but we continue to need a stable legal structure of time if we are to attain the ancient goal of a balanced life: "A Time for Every Purpose."

Author Biography

Todd Rakoff is Byrne Professor of Administrative Law at Harvard Law School. Professor Rakoff graduated from Harvard College in 1967, Oxford University (where he was a Marshall Scholar) in 1969, and Harvard Law School in 1975. In addition to teaching at Harvard Law, he has been a high school teacher and a tutor in Harvard's Social Studies Department. He has also practiced law in Boston, at the firm of Foley, Hoag and Eliot.

Professor Rakoff has written many articles on topics in contract law and administrative law, and is the co-author of the leading law school casebook on administrative law. Most of his scholarly work exhibits an effort to connect the doctrines of the law with broader themes of institutional structure or social context. A Time for Every Purpose grows from this dual interest in law and social theory, but represents the first time he has written for a broader audience.

In addition to teaching and writing, Professor Rakoff is also Dean of the J.D. Program at Harvard Law School.