“Rediscovering Shelley v. Kraemer:
Housing and Civil Rights Legal Activism Before Brown“
Jeffrey Gonda
IJPM Faculty Fellow
Assistant Professor History, Maxwell School

Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Date: Monday, February 24, 2014
Location: Heritage Alumni Lounge, College of Law

Lunch will be served.
Please RSVP to Chris Ramsdell at ceramsde@law.syr.edu or 443-9542.

American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting
Friday, January 3, 2014, 1:30p.m-3:15 p.m.
Hilton New York Midtown

Fifty years ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided the landmark case of New York Times v. Sullivan, it signaled what many now see as a high-water mark in the protection of and appreciation for the role of a free press in our democracy.   In the subsequent five decades, both the press and the Supreme Court have experienced significant change, and each has faced criticism for its treatment of the other.

This panel will investigate the complex dynamic between the U.S. Supreme Court and the media that reports on its work, considering trends in the Court’s depictions of the media and trends in the media’s depiction of the Court.

Media scholars and members of the U.S. Supreme Court press corps will discuss the Supreme Court’s apparently declining perceptions of the press in its opinions and will compare and contrast the individual Justices’ views on the media.  They will question the strengths and limitations of the Court’s current policies regarding the press; consider the as-yet rejected proposals to introduce cameras or social media in the courtroom; and investigate ways that the media could improve its coverage of the Court and enhance public knowledge of the institution and its work.

Moderator:
RonNell Andersen Jones, Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School

Speakers:
Keith J. Bybee, Syracuse University College of Law
Leslie Kendrick, University of Virginia School of Law
Mr. Adam Liptak, New York Times
Ms. Dahlia Lithwick, Slate Magazine
Mr. Anthony E. Mauro, National Law Journal

“Massive Online Leaks: Prosecuting and Defending Traffickers of
National Security Secrets”

Rod Smolla

Date: Nov. 21, 2013
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm
Place: Syracuse University College of Law, Room 104.

Rod Smolla is a visiting professor at Duke Law, former President of Furman University in Greenville, SC, and former Dean and Roy L. Steinheimer Professor of Law at Washington and Lee School of Law.  He is the author of The Constitution Goes to College (2011).

This lecture is presented by the Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media; the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism; and the Peter and Sharon Murphy Kissel Fund for the Study of Civil Liberties.

IJPM Director Keith Bybee will speak to College of Law Alumni at a Law Dialog Luncheon in Washington, D.C on Friday, November 8, 2013.  His talk is entitled, “The Rule of Law is Dead!  Long Live the Rule of Law!  Conflicting Public Perceptions of the Courts.”

“New York’s Constitution:  Sometimes It’s Just a Suggestion”

Susan Arbetter

State Capitol Correspondent and News & Public Affairs Director, WCNY

Date:  Tuesday, September, 17

Time:  4:00pm

Place:  Alumni Heritage Lounge, College of Law

A reception will follow the lecture at 5:00pm.

Susan Arbetter is an award-winning broadcast journalist.  She was creator and host of the radio program Roundtable Show and of the television program New York Now.  Currently, Arbetter hosts and produces The Capitol Pressroom, a daily WNCY radio show broadcast from the State Capitol in Albany. The Capitol Pressroom features interviews with newsmakers as well as reports by journalists from The New York Times, Newsday, The Albany Times Union, Gannett News Service, and the Associated Press.  Arbetter also hosts The Capitol Report, a television news show covering the New York State legislature and statewide government.  The Capitol Pressroom and The Capitol Report are carried by stations throughout New York.

 2013 Constitution Day Poster

How are legal issues and the courts depicted in the media?  How has the advent of new media altered legal coverage?  And what impact does the structure and content of legal reporting have on public perceptions and the conduct of legal affairs?  These questions were addressed over the course of two days at “Law in the Age of Media Logic,” a workshop co-organized by IJPM, held at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISJ) in Oñati, Spain, and attended by 24 scholars from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Israel, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 

The international group of scholars in attendance represented a number of academic fields, including communications, the legal academy, political science, and sociology.  This great diversity of workshop participants produced a wide-ranging assessment of the media and its effects.  Participants analyzed judiciaries at all levels (from trial courts to supreme courts), and considered a variety of court-related actions from judicial nominations and high-profile judicial decisions to the increasing judicial efforts to manage public relations.  Participants also discussed criminal and civil litigation as well as the broad differences between common law and civil law systems.   Traditional newspaper and television reporting received substantial attention, as did web-based news coverage and social media.  Workshop participants also repeatedly engaged the issue of public trust, debating the alternate ways in which the media have sustained and eroded public faith in legal authority.  The workshop revealed that there is much to be gained from interdisciplinary analysis of law and media.  We plan to bring our discussion to a broader audience by publishing workshop papers in the IISJ’s peer-reviewed journal.  We also hope to continue the fruitful lines of inquiry advanced in the workshop by organizing a collaborative research network on law and the media.

The workshop program can be found here.

Workshop Participants at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati, Spain.

The preliminary program for the invitation-only workshop “Law in the Age of Media Logic” is now available (see below).  The workshop is co-organized by IJPM and will be held on June 27-28, 2013 at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati, Spain.

Preliminary Program

The Second Circuit Judicial Council Committee on
History, Commemorative Events and Civic Education
announces the Hands Lecture:

“The Rule of Law is Dead! Long Live the Rule of Law!
Conflicting Public Perceptions of the Courts”

Keith J. Bybee
College of Law and Maxwell School of Syracuse University
Paul E. and Hon. Joanne F. Alper ’72 Judiciary Studies Professor
Professor of Law; Professor of Political Science
Director, Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media (IJPM); Senior Research Associate, Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 4:00 p.m.
Drumlins
800 Nottingham Road
Syracuse, NY 13244

More information on the event, including the background of the Hands Lecture, can be found here.

From l to r: Judge Richard Wesley, Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, Judge Rosemary Pooler, Dean Hannah Arterian, and Professor Keith Bybee