1/6/97
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
Thomas C. Heller of Stanford Law School has been named to an endowed professorship at Stanford. His appointment as Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies became effective Dec. 9.
"Tom Heller is a true cosmopolitan and a leader in Stanford Law School's efforts to prepare graduates for a world where economies and environmental problems know no borders," said Paul Brest, dean of Stanford Law School, in announcing the Shelton appointment.
Heller, an expert in international law and economics, developed and codirects the postgraduate Stanford Program in International Legal Studies. In addition, he teaches courses on comparative law and economies; market approaches to national and international environmental protection; and racial and national identity.
Heller has been a tenured professor since joining the faculty in 1979 and is also currently a senior fellow with the interdisciplinary Stanford Institute for International Studies.
He spent his 1992-93 sabbatical year abroad in Santiago, Chile, as a visiting researcher at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Florence, Italy, as the Jean Monnet Visiting Professor at the European University Institute, where he continues to work on issues of regional integration.
Heller served for seven years (1985-92) as director of Stanford's Overseas Studies Program. For two of these years (1989-92) he was also deputy director of the university's Institute for International Studies.
Educated at Princeton (A.B., 1965) and Yale (LL.B., 1968), Heller spent the two years following law school as a fellow at the International Legal Center in Bogota, Colombia. He returned to Yale for the 1970-71 school year as a fellow in law and modernization, and then joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin.
Heller was invited to join the Stanford faculty after a year (1978-79) as a visiting professor.
Heller's interests include international agreements on environmental protection, the development of the rule of law in Latin America and Asia, and the role of capitalism in the modernization of emerging nations.
He has worked for the past four years on climate change issues as a consultant with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Geneva, Switzerland, and now finds himself involved with the building of clean power plants in China as demonstration projects for sustainable development.
Heller is the author of one book and numerous journal articles. These include "Structuralism and Critique" (Stanford Law Review, January 1984), an influential article exploring the implications of contemporary linguistic and cognitive theory for understanding the law.
The Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professorship in Inter ational Legal Studies
The Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professorship in International Legal Studies was established in 1972 with gifts from Talbot Shelton and funds from the Ford Foundation to support international studies. The chair is named in honor of Shelton's late parents.
Shelton received his bachelor's degree from Stanford in 1937, earned a law degree from Harvard, and ultimately became first vice president of corporate finance and a director of Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., New York investment bankers.
Talbot Shelton has served Stanford Law School and Stanford University in various capacities. He received a Stanford Associate Award in 1981 for his considerable fund-raising efforts. And he has been an adviser to deans during two terms on the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors.
Now retired, Shelton and his wife, Frances, are residents of New York City. Earlier this year, the couple created the Talbot and Frances Shelton Endowed Financial Aid Fund at Stanford to aid needy law students.
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-Constance Hellyer-