Members of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and St. John’s College communities congregated on the college’s historic Annapolis campus for a lecture delivered by Maryland Carey Law Professor Maxwell Stearns on Sept. 18.
Stearns spoke in St. John’s’ Great Hall on his recent book Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy.
The event was the third lecture in what has become an annual tradition through which a Maryland Carey Law faculty member offers a talk at St. John’s College. The program’s namesake is the late law professor Alan Hornstein, who encouraged collaboration between the law school where he taught and the college where he earned a Master of Arts in Liberal Arts (MALA).
Brendan Boyle, assistant dean for graduate programs at the college, offered remarks preceding the lecture, which paid tribute to Hornstein.
“We gather here this evening to listen, learn, and perhaps most importantly talk with one another,” said Boyle. "And we do so inspired by the spirit that presides over the happy relationship these two institutions...have with one another.”
Tyler Mazur ’25, a 2020 graduate of St. John’s College, who is in his final year at Maryland Carey Law, personifies that “happy relationship” and its deeper goal of connecting law and liberal arts learning.
“As a student at both St. John's College, where I questioned the nature of law, and Maryland Carey Law, where I am learning to apply the law, the partnership represents a notion that is to me as personal as it is universal: that the full depth of one’s education and one’s professional practice can continuously fulfill each other,” said Mazur. “Professor Stearns's lecture at my alma mater symbolized the need to not only engage each other through academic ideas, but the need to engage each other through the question of how to apply these ideas within our community.”
Mazur’s words could have been spoken by Hornstein himself.
An expert in contracts, evidence, and jurisprudence, Hornstein was on the Maryland Carey Law faculty from 1972 to 2004 and taught 18 different courses. He served as associate dean from 1987 to 1991, acting dean in 1991-1992, and associate dean again in 2001-2002.
As well as his passion for legal education, Hornstein had a pervading interest in literature, which he commonly used to teach law. In 1986, he earned a MALA degree at the St. John’s College Graduate Institute. The distinctive program is designed around reading and discussing “great books.”
That same year, Hornstein collaborated with then-Graduate Institute director Geoffrey Comber (deceased 2019) to formalize a transfer-credit policy wherein students could earn a joint JD-MA from Maryland Carey Law and St. John’s College. Hornstein nurtured the relationship between the two institutions, serving for several years as a visiting tutor at St. John’s.
Hornstein retired from teaching in 2004 but remained highly active as professor emeritus and a member of the Maryland Carey Law Board of Visitors from 2007 to 2018.
Always with an eye to continuing the partnership, Hornstein and his wife Brenda established an endowment at Maryland Carey Law in 2009 to promote the understanding of the relationship between law and liberal education, and support collaboration between St. John's College and Maryland Carey Law.
Upon Hornstein’s death in 2020, Gabriela Quercia Kahrl ’08 and the Hon. Albert J. Matricciani, Jr. ’73 were inspired to take up Hornstein’s mantle. Kahrl, former co-director of the Maryland Carey Law Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice earned her BA in philosophy from St. John’s, and Judge Matricciani is a graduate of the same St. John’s master’s program as Hornstein. Together, Kahrl and Judge Matricciani established a law school seminar taught in a St. John’s-style “great books” course in which students hone their critical thinking, listening, and oratory skills as they engage one another in conversation over seminal texts in philosophy, theology, and literature.
With support from the Alan D. and Brenda Hornstein Endowment, Kahrl also collaborated with St. John’s to begin the lecture series at the college, presenting the first talk titled, “It’s Just Talking: Legal Advocacy and the Vital Role of Listening” in 2022. Drawing on texts/authors, including Simone Weill, the Bible, and Plato, Kahrl discussed liberal education and the role of listening in legal advocacy.
Professor Peter Danchin followed with the 2023 lecture, which he titled, "Who is the 'Human' in Human Rights?" In the context of international human rights law, the talk explored the conflict between the claims of cultures and religions.
To add momentum to the partnership, this year’s lecture featured an Annapolis-area Maryland Carey Law alumni reception before Stearns’s talk. Alumni enjoyed an opportunity to reconnect at the Hodson Boathouse overlooking College Creek on the St. John’s College Campus before proceeding to the Great Hall for the lecture.
“It was wonderful to have so many alumni, students, and faculty come out to enjoy an evening of community and thought-provoking conversation,” said Maryland Carey Law Associate Dean for External Relations Shara Boonshaft. "We look forward to honoring Professor Hornstein through continued collaboration with St. John’s College, an institution he cherished.”
A photo album and video from the 2024 lecture and alumni reception are now available.