“Law in the Age of Media Logic,” June 27-28, Oñati, Spain

Working with law and communications scholars from Bar Ilan University and the College of Management School of Law, IJPM has organized a workshop (“Law in the Age of Media Logic”) to be held on June 27-28, 2013 at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati, Spain.  The workshop will feature scholars from across Europe and North America, as well as from Israel.   Participants in the workshop will examine the depictions of legal cases, actors, and courts in the media, and will explore the prominence and implications of media logic in the conduct of legal affairs.  The workshop papers will ultimately be published as an edited volume.

IJPM Director Co-Organizes New Lecture Series on Civil Liberties

The Peter and Sharon Murphy Kissel Fund for the Study of Civil Liberties has been established at the Maxwell School to advance the “public understanding of civil rights and liberties through academic study and knowledge, student learning, and public discourse.”  Working with Political Science Professor Tom Keck, IJPM Director Keith Bybee will organize events in the Kissel Fund’s areas of interest.  The first such event will be a lecture by Gene Koo, Executive Director of iCivics, an organization founded by retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to promote broader knowledge of the U.S. constitutional system. Koo’s lecture is entitled “Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Public Knowledge” and will be held on April 17, 2013, 2:00pm-3:00pm in 100 Eggers Hall.

Sixth Annual Law Politics and the Media Lecture Series

January 23, 2013 – April 17, 2013

COLLEGE OF LAW, ROOM 204

The American judicial system today operates in a complex environment of legal principle, political pressure, and media coverage.  The separate elements of this complex environment are typically studied by different groups of individuals working from different perspectives.   Law faculty tend to focus on legal principle; political scientists examine the influence of politics; and scholars of public communication assess the media.

The goal of this lecture series is to engage in a dialogue about the court system and its environment as a single, integrated subject of study.  The lectures complement the Law, Politics, and the Media course and involve sitting judges, practicing lawyers, and working journalists.

All lectures are held on Wednesdays, from 4-5:15pm in Room 204 at the College of Law.

January 23
“Criminal Justice Journalism and the Politics of Fear: Finding the Balance Between Education and Entertainment in True-Crime Narratives”

Mark Obbie, Author and Journalist, former Executive Editor of The American Lawyer, and former Magazine Journalism faculty member at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications

January 30
“Public Health: Improving Health Through Politics, Policy, and People”

Dr. Cynthia Morrow, Commissioner of Health for Onondaga County in Syracuse, NY

February 6
“The Extinction of the American Moderate”

Michael Arcuri, former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York’s 24th District, Of Counsel, Hancock Estabrook LLP

February 27
“Lawyers, Judges, Ethics Rules and the Limits on Speech”

Thomas Spahn, Partner, McGuire Woods

March 27
“Media and the Judicial Confirmation Process”

Peter CanellosBoston Globe, Editorial Page Editor

April 3
 “Media Coverage and the Politics of Judicial Selection: A Conversation with Judge James E. Graves, Jr.”

Judge James E. Graves, Jr., United States Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit and Keith J. Bybee, Paul E. and the Hon. Joanne F. Alper ’72 Judiciary Studies Professor, Syracuse University College of Law

April 10
“The Terror Courts”

Jess BravinWall Street Journal, Supreme Court Reporter

April 17
“Civics, the Internet, and the Art of Self-Government”

Gene Koo, iCivics Executive Director

IJPM Announces Constitution Day Lecture and 1L Convocation Speaker

Constitution Day will be observed on September 13 this year and to mark the occasion, IJPM is bringing Victoria Saker Woeste to the Syracuse University campus to present on her new book, “Henry Ford’s War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech.” A short abstract of her book follows below.

This presentation will also serve as a one of the scheduled 1L Convocation speeches. As such the entire 1L class will be in attendance at the lecture. The lecture will be held at Hendricks Chapel at the center of Syracuse University. This event is open to the public and we encourage you to attend.

Book Abstract:

Henry Ford’s War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech
Stanford University Press (2012)
Victoria Saker Woeste

This book provides a startling new interpretation of a scandalous episode in the life of Henry Ford: his side career as a publisher of antisemitic literature and propaganda. Using never-before discovered evidence from the Ford archives as well as private collections from lawyers and civil rights leaders involved in trying to stop Ford’s libelous newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, this book shows how deeply involved Ford was in the operation of his newspaper, how he invited the libel lawsuit that was filed against him in 1925, and how he maneuvered to end the litigation out of court. These newly discovered sources also reveal deep divisions among Jewish civil rights lawyers and religious leaders over how to handle the Ford matter and why they disagreed on the usefulness of resorting to law to answer hateful publications. Throughout the twentieth century, American courts have generally declined to recognize the category of hate speech as an exception to free speech rights under the First Amendment. Yet in order to end the embarrassing litigation, Henry Ford apologized to American Jews for the one thing he would never have lost on in court: the offense of hate speech against all Jews as a group. The case and its ambiguous resolution reveal the tensions in law and culture between individual freedoms and the status of those seeking equality on the basis of group identity.