October 15, 2010
Americans are divided in their beliefs about whether our courts operate on unbiased legal principle or political interest. Many wonder whether judicial appeals to law are anything more than a fig leaf deployed to obscure partisan purposes.
Comparing law to the practice of common courtesy, Professor Bybee’s new book argues that our courts not only survive under such suspicions of hypocrisy, but actually depend on these conditions.
September 13, 2010
SCOTUS blogger and Supreme Court litigator, Amy Howe, will be at the College of Law to discuss her insight and perspectives about the current Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Roberts. This event is free and open to the public.
February 15, 2010 – April 26, 2010
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 communications assess the media.The goal of this lecture series was to serve as an introduction to the court system and its environment as a single, integrated subject of study. The lecture series featured sitting judges, practicing lawyers, and working journalists. Each of the lectures was held in Room 204 at the Syracuse University College of Law from 3:50 p.m. to 5:10 p.m.
February 15, 2010
A conversation with the Honorable Sidney H. Stein, United States District Court Judge, Southern District of New York, about the changing degree of discretion given to federal trial judges in sentencing criminal defendants and the accompanying institutional tensions between the three branches of government.
October 5, 2009 – October 7, 2009
Retired Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth V. McGregor will be visiting Syracuse University College of Law from October 5th to October 7th, 2009. While at the College of Law, Chief Justice McGregor will be participating in select classes and will be giving the convocation lecture for the incoming Class of 2012 on October 6th. This event is co-sponsored by IJPM and Syracuse University College of Law.
September 24, 2009 – September 25, 2009
IJPM, together with the Federal Judicial Center and Syracuse University College of Law, co-sponsored a two day Law and Media Seminar for over 40 federal judges from across the country.
April 27, 2009
Michael Dorf, Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell, gave a lunchtime talk: “The Aspirational Constitution.”
Professor Dorf is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. After law school, Professor Dorf served as a law clerk for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States.
April 07, 2009
The story of Roy A. Brown’s conviction for a murder he didn’t commit was retold in the documentary film “Blanchard Road: A Murder in the Finger Lakes” After the film, a discussion took place with Brown and Alex Dunbar, one of the independent filmmakers.
Brown is a former Cayuga County resident freed in 2007 after serving 14 years in state prison. Brown was convicted of the 1991 killing of Cayuga County social worker Sabina Kulakowski. Her body was found outside her home on Blanchard Road in Aurelius, N.Y. She had been beaten and stabbed. Bite marks were found on her body. Her house had been set on fire.
March 20, 2009
John Brigham
Professor of Political Science
UMass Amherst
Professor Brigham examined the federal courthouse building-boom of the late 20th and early 21st century in the United States as an extension of national authority. He focused on a particular jurisdiction, the First Circuit, and two new designer courts, the Moakley Courthouse in Boston designed by Henry Cobb and the Springfield District Court designed by Moshe Safti. Construction of these buildings has implications for the four New England States in the Circuit and Puerto Rico, injecting an increased federal presence that suggests different political orientations in these specific places. These courthouses are also particular cases of a larger phenomenon in which billions of dollars have been spent on federal courts with little public discussion.
February 6, 2009
Gregg Gordon
President and CEO
Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
A lunchtime presentation by the President and CEO of Social Science Research Network (SSRN), Gregg Gordon.
Gordon discussed how SSRN sees academic authority changing through interdisciplinary study and expanding outlets for scholarship.