The 2013 winter issue of Law & Social Inquiry features a symposium on Keith Bybee’s latest book, All Judges Are Political–Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies and the Rule of Law (Stanford University Press). The symposium includes three critical essays by scholars and a response by Bybee.
Category Archives: News
Launch of Journal of Law and Courts
The new peer-reviewed Journal of Law and Courts (JLC) has published its first issue. JLC aims to be the premier journal for members of the law and courts intellectual community in terms of the quality and scope of articles, and in terms of the size and diversity of audience. Sponsored by the American Political Science Association but published for all scholars interested in legal institutions, actors, processes, and policy, JLC is interdisciplinary and wide-ranging in substance. IJPM Director Keith Bybee serves as part of the JLC editorial team.
“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 Canellos, Boston 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 Bravin, Wall Street Journal, Supreme Court Reporter
April 17
“Civics, the Internet, and the Art of Self-Government”
Gene Koo, iCivics Executive Director
1L Convocation Series
Working with College of Law Dean Hannah Arterian, IJPM Director Keith Bybee organizes the 1L Convocation Lecture Series. Five lectures are held each year and the entire 1L class attends each one. The final two lectures of the 2012-13 year are: “Law, Lawyering and Citizenship: Developing Excellent Lawyers and Even Better Citizens” by Pauline Schneider of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP (to be held on Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at 12:00 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel) and “The Work of the Judiciary: Perspectives on Being a State and Federal Judge” by Judge James E. Graves, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (to be held on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel).
Tanner Lectures on Ethics, Citizenship and Public Responsiblity
IJPM Director Keith Bybee is part of the three-person faculty team that organizes the Tanner Lectures. Run through the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and endowed by Dr. W. Lynn Tanner, the lectures seek to expand horizons and spark new conversations about the problems and opportunities we collectively face as citizens of nations and of the world. The lectures are delivered annually and the most recent lecture was given in October 2012 by Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University.
Ian Gallacher Presents, “Magic Language: The Testimonial Oath in the Twenty-First Century”
As part of IJPM’s Faculty Fellow Lecture Series, Ian Gallacher will present, “Magic Language: The Testimonial Oath in the Twenty-First Century.” Professor Gallacher is the director of Legal Communication and Research a the College of Law.
Date: October 25, 2012
Time: 11:45 – 1:00
Location: Heritage Lounge, College of Law
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.
IJPM Faculty Fellow to present, “Supreme Court Justices’ Leadership Styles”
As part of IJPM’s Faculty Fellows Colloquia, Professor Jeremy Blumenthal will present “Supreme Court Justices’ Leadership Styles” on February 9, 2012 at the College of Law Heritage Lounge. Professor Blumenthal received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard and his Juris Doctorate from University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated cum laude. He is widely published on the topics of law and psychology and this is sure to be an engaging event.