Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.

Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder

Claire Finkelstein

Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, the University of Pennsylvania

Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and the Founder and Faculty Director of Penn’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL). Her current research addresses national security law and policy, democratic governance, presidential authority, the law of armed conflict, and professional ethics for lawyers. Finkelstein is a co-editor of The Oxford Series in Ethics, National Security, and the Rule of Law, and an editor of six of its volumes. She has published widely in national security and democratic governance, and most recently was involved in the representation of 155 members of Congress in an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court involving the Illinois National Guard.

Finkelstein is also a sought-after national security consultant, briefing individuals, Pentagon officials, U.S. Senate staff, and JAG Corps members on issues relating to national security law and practice. She is also regularly consulted on matters of personal and professional ethics. She is a frequent radio, podcast, broadcast, and print commentator and has published op-eds in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, the Guardian and other outlets. Her other scholarly work has focused on criminal law theory, moral and political philosophy, jurisprudence, and philosophical rational choice theory.