September 15, 2011 — University of Virginia law professor Frederick Schauer has received the Roger and Madeleine Traynor Faculty Achievement Award, School of Law Dean Paul G. Mahoney announced Sept. 12.

Schauer, David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law, joined the Law School in 2008 from Harvard University. A leading expert on the First Amendment, constitutional law and legal philosophy, he is the author of the recent books, "Can Bad Science Be Good Evidence?" and "In Defense of Rule-Based Evidence Law – and Epistemology Too."

Schauer seeks to explore the similarities and differences between epistemology (finding eternal truths or knowledge) in law and other disciplines and "use the resulting insights to guide doctrine or policy," Mahoney said.

"Fred's work – deeply informed by legal and non-legal theory but firmly anchored to the problems law must solve – exemplifies the scholarly values of this institution," he said.

The Traynor Award was established at the Law School in 1994 with a gift from Madeleine Traynor in honor of her husband, a former chief justice of the California Supreme Court and a visiting professor at the Law School during the late 1960s.

Schauer said he was honored to earn the award, which provides $5,000 to the recipient and is given approximately every other year to a senior faculty member.