The Faculty Lounge

Call For Papers: Conference On Social Justice Feminism

The University of Cincinnati College of Law’s Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice seeks submissions for its upcoming 2012 conference “Social Justice Feminism.”   Deadline is April 1, 2012.  The announcement is after the jump.

Law and Custom Today and Tomorrow

I've blogged a couple of times about the year-long Law & Custom Program going on at Duke Law School this year.  We kicked off the program with a series of summer reading group sessions, and followed that up with a (still ongoing) workshop series in which scholars from around the country will present work relating to law and custom.  You can find a full list of readings and resources, speakers, and faculty scholarship on the topic here.  

This afternoon, we begin our symposium on Law & Custom which has a great line up of internal speakers and commenters.  The papers so far look interesting and cut across a wide range of subject matters, so I'm looking forward to the event.  I'm impressed with how many of our colleagues have joined in this dialogue (if you recall from my first post on this topic, the goal was to build a continuing academic dialogue at the law school that was broad enough to include large segments of the faculty and, eventually, other folks on campus as well).

The symposium flyer is below.  If you happen to be in the neighborhood, drop on by, especially for the particularly interesting Kieran Healy-Kim Krawiec-Arti Rai presentation on organ donation and NEAD chains this afternoon.  

Calling All Contracts Profs!

The 7th Annual International Conference on Contracts will be hosted by the Thomas Jefferson School of Law (San Diego) in early March.  Click here for details.

How Many Times Do You Want to Hear Erwin Chemerinsky Talk?

If you're like me, you want to hear Erwin Chemerinsky talk at any conference he is attending.  Since I first heard him speak at an AALS "Workshop for New Law School Teachers" in 2003, I've been a Chemerinsky fan.  The man speaks with no notes, in full paragraphs, and never says the word "um."  It's quite remarkable.  Someone, please give Erwin Chemerinsky an award for Excellent Conference Presentation Style.

But not everyone likes hearing the same speaker more than once.  Here are a few observations about the Annual Meeting Program:

• There are 790 different  ”speakers” listed (this list includes folks who are “moderating,” too).
• 65 of those speakers (roughly 8.2% of the total pool) are making more than one conference appearance.  Of the 65 making multiple appearances, 39 are men and 26 are women.
• Of the same 65 making multiple appearances, 19 people appear on the program three or more times. 

Should the AALS limit appearances at the Annual Meeting to just one per person per year?

This is a question that I've asked (here) before, and it's not one pointed at Dean Chemerinsky.  True, he was a speaker on two different "Hot Topics" panels.  But I myself chalked up two conference appearances, as moderator of one session and speaker in a second.  So Erwin Chemerinsky and I are included in that figure of 65 (admittedly, this likely will be the only occasion that I'll ever be able to put myself in the same group -- of any kind -- as Dean Chemerinsky).  Fine company (for me, at least), but might the conference be improved if the AALS limited appearances to one per person?  That would mean 65 more voices added to the mix.  My own sense is that the result would be a change for the better.  

If limiting appearances is not desirable or feasible, should the AALS curtail appearances at successive Annual Meetings?

If the Program Committee made "new voices" a priority, it would seem logical to adopt either a per se rule against frequent program appearances, or a one giving scheduling preference to programs comprised solely of attendees who haven't spoken at any of a certain number of preceding AALS Annual Meetings.   To know what impact such a rule or preference might have, it would be interesting to determine how many of 790 "speakers" listed in this year's program have spoken at another AALS Annual Meeting in the preceding, say, 3 years.  Just eyeballing the program, I would predict the number to be fairly high.  

ALEA Call For Papers Deadline Closing In Soon

The American Law and Economics Association annual meeting on May 18-19, 2012 will be held at Stanford.  The deadline for paper submissions is January 17, 2012.  Complete details for the Call for Papers are after the jump.

Tweeting #AALS12

Twitter users attending the AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. are using "#AALS12" (without the quotes) to post observations, comments, etc.  

The hashtag "AALS" picks up lots of non-law prawfish tweets, so #AALS12 it is.

Does the Economics of Law Practice Matter to Law Schools?

I return to the mysteries of law-firm economics after a hiatus to attend to three speaking engagements and complete the academic term (in other words, as an excuse to interrupt grading my Contracts exams).  A belated shout-out to my colleagues Anne Klinefelter and Andrew Chin, and to the editorial board and staff of the North Carolina Law Review, for an exceptionally well conceived and executed Symposium on Social Media (which was one of those speaking engagements)--watch for the Symposium issue of the NC L. Rev. coming this spring for some refreshingly novel and interesting takes on what is elsewhere becoming an overworked topic.  (You won't see a paper from me in that issue.  My topic at the conference, legal ethics in the social media environment, has already been admirably well explored in print and online by others.)

I want to stress how much these issues of practice economics actually matter to legal educators.  Virtually all of our students attend law school with the general aim of practicing law.  A great many end up in private law firms, large or small, or (usually a bit later in their careers) in corporate law departments.  The demand for lawyers in such positions (that is, for individual and corporate legal services) fundamentally affects our students' prospects for gainful employment. 

A bit more specifically, the overall demand for such services affects the overall availability of legal employment, and the distribution of that demand across different categories of work affects the availability of different kinds of legal jobs.  Thus when, as now, there is a significant contraction in at least one portion of the private sector--and here I'm referring to the large number of BigLaw layoffs in 2009 and 2010, and the contemporaneous and continuing substantial reduction in the rates of new hiring at larger firms--recent graduates with strong conventional qualifications who previously filled those BigLaw positions are now competing, and vigorously, for positions in smaller firms and government for which there was previously less such competition.

Put somewhat differently, there are fewer law jobs for recent graduates, and appreciably fewer such jobs at the higher end of the pay scale.  It's hardly rocket science to suggest that this affects the economic value of a law degree:  From behind the proverbial veil of ignorance, a student's chances of securing a job that supports the cost of three years' tuition, living expenses and forgone income and work experience are substantially less today than they were five years ago. 

This is by no means the whole story, of course.  Some prospective law students have far brighter economic prospects ex ante than others.  And economics is certainly not the only reason why people consider law school (though we have empirical data confirming the common-sense apprehension that a substantial number do weigh it as a substantial factor in their decision). 

But if the economic value of a law degree is falling overall (and I suggest to you that it is irresponsible to imagine otherwise), in a rational market you can expect fewer people to pay the rising cost to obtain it.  It is far too early to say "I told you so," but there have been double-digit decreases in law-school applications across the board this year over last (though we must bear in mind that last year saw record increases in law-school applications and LSAT administrations as college seniors confronted a horrific job market with an effort to settle into a three-year holding pattern). 

This is having some obvious effects on the legal academy.  The ability of law schools to continue to charge high tuitions--and continue to pay their faculties salaries far higher than those typical in the arts and sciences--depends on making the end product (the law degree) worth it.  Since many universities share in their law schools' economic surpluses, the universities care too.  Legal employers have been complaining  about the utility of the education with which their entry-level employees arrive for well over a generation, but for the first time in memory it would be fair to say that many law schools are listening, and questioning their mission.

One thing I am NOT suggesting is that legal employers know exactly what they need, and how we could be supplying it.  I'll try to explore in future posts why things are nowhere near this simple.  But that leaves everything up for grabs:  What questions should we be asking, and how should we be seeking the answers?  This is an obviously difficult inquiry, and I will try to suggest in future posts that it's even harder than it seems.  But make no mistake:  we are near the front end of a period that I believe will prove to be the most fraught with rapid change that the American legal profession has ever seen.

What a great time to be a part of things!

--Bernie

Roundtable on Teaching American Legal History Podcast

This past weekend the American Society for Legal History held its annual meeting.  (The program is here.)  This year the meeting was in lovely Atlanta.  The papers were really terrific and going in all sorts of directions -- from old standbys like the Taney Court to very new areas (for legal historians anyway) like black power and sex equality.  I was really pleased with how much new work there is in the field -- and it was refreshing to spend a few days listening to serious scholarship.  It would be melodramatic to say that I felt like Rip Van Winkle arriving "home" in a very changed world, but the field of legal history  incorporates a lot of subjects that were unanticipated even eighteen years ago when I was new to it.

John Wertheimer of Davidson College put together a roundtable on teaching American legal history for Thursday afternoon.  The roundtable had four distinguished teachers:

Barry Cushman of the University of Virginia Law School (whose work includes Rethinking the New Deal Court: The Structure of a Constitutional Revolution (Oxford University Press, 1998));

Elizabeth Dale of the University of Florida history department (whose work includes Criminal Justice in the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2011));

Sally Hadden of Western Michigan University's history department (whose work includes Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas (Harvard University Press, 2001)); and

Peter Karsten of the University of Pittsburgh's history department (whose work includes Between Law and Custom: "High" and "Low" Legal Cultures in the Lands of the British Diaspora, 1600–1900 (Cambridge University Press, 2003)).  

It was a really distinguished line-up of teachers and scholars.  Each person spoke about for around ten minutes or so and then there was extensive discussion with the audience.   John Wertheimer spoke some towards the end of the roundtable about his seminar in legal history, which each year writes an article together.  I had the chance to talk with his students a couple weeks back about their current project -- this is a really exciting model for how to run a class.  Each person proposes a case to study; they make the case for their case and then the class votes for the case they're going to study.  Then they frame the case in the secondary literature and start digging in the archives, and all around the case -- looking, for instance, at the case in the stream of appellate decisions both before and after it and also at the social and economic context.  John published an article, "The Collaborative Research Seminar," on this in the Journal of American History.  And a few years ago John published a number of those chapters together in Law and Society in the South.

Here is a podcast of the roundtable.  The initial speeches come through much better than the audience questions.  If you teach legal history I think you'll find this a really entertaining and educational podcast.

Society of Socio-Economists Annual Meeting

Call For Papers: Junior Faculty Forum

Back in the old days, like last year,  there used to be something called the Stanford/Yale Faculty Forum.  The organizers selected a dozen or so junior scholars to present their work and get great feedback.  Natually, these scholars got a gold plated cv entry as well. 

Now, Stanford and Yale have invited Harvard into the club and deleted all the brand names from the title.  It is now called the Junior Faculty Forum.   Harvard will be hosting this June and the deadline for submission is February 15, 2012.  Full details are here.

For Love Or Money Is Here!

The conference volume For Love Or Money: Defining Relationships in Law and Life has finally been published, yeah!  The introduction is here.  My three posts, done just before and after the conference and discussing the event are here, here, and here.  The table of contents is below.

Masculinities and Law Conference

Professor Nancy Dowd at the University of Florida is one of the most important scholars doing work in the field that has come to be called law and masculinities.   

I am very pleased to announce that other scholars who work in law and masculinities have convened a workshop at the University of Florida in honor of Nancy’s recently published book, The Man Question.

Professor Martha Fineman at Emory will provide that keynote address and confirmed speakers include Professors Frank Rudy Cooper, John Kang, Ann McGinley, and Valorie Vojdik.    

The event is free and all are invited.  Those interested may email me at johnmkang@gmail or Professor Rachel Rebouché.  The formal announcement follows.      

 Asking “The Man Question:” A Workshop on Contemporary Masculinities

 University of Florida Levin College of Law

Third Floor, Holland Hall, Room 345

Friday, November 18, 2011, 10:00 a.m.

This workshop brings together leading gender and masculinities scholars to discuss the issues raised by Professor Nancy Dowd in The Man Question.  Speakers will explore questions of masculinity across diverse areas of employment discrimination, criminal law, international law, and constitutional law.  In addition, participants will grapple with theoretical questions of history, identity, vulnerability, and the limitations of equality rights.

 

C. Edwin Baker Lecture, West Virginia University

On October 10 (tomorrow) at noon Vincent Blasi of Columbia Law School will speak on "The Versatility and Integrity of Ed Baker" at West Virginia University's law school.  Anne Marie Lofaso of WVU will also speak on "Ed Baker's Autonomy Theory of Free Speech: His Final Thoughts on Freedom of Expression."  James Weinstein of Arizona State University will present a response to Ed Baker's autonomy theory.

The program, which is the inaugural Baker Lecture for Liberty, Equality, and Democracy, will be webcast live.  The lecture series is named for renowkned constitutional scholar C. Edwin Baker, a long-time professor at the University of Pennsylvania.  Cribbing now from WVU's website announcing the lecture: 

C. Edwin Baker (May 28, 1947 – December 8, 2009), the Nicholas F. Gallicchio Professor of Law and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, was a leading scholar of constitutional law, communications law, and free speech. Baker was considered one of the country’s foremost authorities on the First Amendment and on mass media policy. His most recent scholarship focused on the economics of the news business, political philosophy, and jurisprudential questions concerning the egalitarian and libertarian bases of constitutional theory. Baker was a native of Madisonville, Kentucky. He received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and his law degree from Yale University. He was a law and humanities fellow at Harvard University in 1974, a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Barone Center in 1992, and a Radcliffe fellow there in 2006.

WVU also houses Baker's personal papers and much of his library.  

I only had the pleasure of meeting Ed Baker once -- back in the summer of 2008 at the SEALS conference.  My memory of him is as a wonderfully thoughtful and supremely unassuming and kind man.  I'm very sorry that I did not have more of a chance to learn from him in person.

The image at the top right is of Professor Baker. 

Aloha! Law And Society Issues A Call For Papers

Lots of people have been waiting for this moment.  Today, the Law and Society Association issued a call for participation for its 2012 summer meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.   Proposals are due December 6.  Here are the details:

THEME: Sociolegal Conversations across a Sea of Islands

Building on a phrase coined by noted Polynesian scholar Epeli Hau‘ofa, our conference theme alludes both to the location of our meeting in Hawai‘i with its complex cultural and legal terrain and contemporary struggles over sovereignty and indigenous rights; and to the uniqueness of this opportunity for scholars from the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, North America, and other world regions to engage in conversation. So we seek papers, panels, and roundtables aimed at stimulating conversations that will build bridges across the seas of law and society and at the same time redirect their currents; about issues and ideas that are at once locally grounded and globally relevant; that seek to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar; that cross national, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries. Our theme is broad, encompassing socio-legal concerns both familiar (such as courts and litigation, legal education, health, legal pluralism) and novel (such as indigenous peoples, finance and economy, war and human security, immigration, counter-terrorism, transnational regulation, globalization, and recolonization). Please see below for a non-exhaustive list of possible topics. They are examples only. Other law and society topics are welcome.

 

Wisconsin Symposium on In-House Counsel

 

The University of Wisconsin Law School and the Wisconsin Business Law Initiative
 announce the 2011 Wisconsin Law Review Symposium
open to attorneys, faculty, students, and academic staff:

Who’s in the House?  
The Changing Role and Nature of In-House and General Counsel

Wisconsin Law Review Symposium
November 18-19, 2011
Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery

Program Chair:  Jonathan C. Lipson, Foley & Lardner Professor of Law

This symposium will bring together leading scholars and attorneys to discuss the under-explored, but growing, role of in-house and corporate general counsel in the rapidly changing market for legal services. Keynote Speakers include Cynthia M. Fornelli (Center for Audit Quality Control), Gail A. Lione (Retired Executive VP & GC of Harley-Davidson, Inc.) and David Wilkins (Harvard Law School). Distinguished panelists and commenters include Daniel C. K. Chow (Ohio State University Moritz College of Law), Kathleen Cully (New York), Deborah A. DeMott (Duke University Law School), Michael Falk (Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation), Lawrence A. Hamermesh (Widener University School of Law), Christoph Henkel (Mississippi College School of Law), R. Thomas Howell, Jr. (American Bar Association), Mike Koehler (Butler University), John J. Huber (FTI Consulting), Donald C. Langevoort (Georgetown University Law Center), Stephanie A. Lyons (Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.), Matthew Neco (Docstoc, Inc.), Thomas P. Newman (AIG, Inc.), Jerome D. Okarma (Johnson Controls), Larry E. Ribstein (University of Illinois College of Law), William H. Simon (Columbia Law School), Steven L. Schwarcz (Duke University Law School), Andrew Brady Spalding (Chicago-Kent College of Law), Bill Stone (Outside GC), Eli Wald (University of Denver Sturm College of Law), Jolene Yee (E. and J. Gallo Winery), Joseph Yockey (University of Iowa College of Law), and others to be named. David S. Ruder (Northwestern University Law School) will participate as a Distinguished Symposium Fellow. This event has multiple cosponsors–please see the symposium website for registration &  program information.

Wisconsin CLE Credit Approved: 12 Credits (including 5 EPR) – Illinois MCLE approval pending. 
Certificates will be provided for attorneys seeking CLE approval in other jurisdictions.
Register online by 11/1/11:
 http://www.law.wisc.edu/ils/2011wlr/homepage.html 

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

Live Blogging "Critical Perspectives on Tax Policy" Conference at Emory Law - Part 3

The second and final day of the "Critical Perspectives on Tax Policy" Conference at Emory is under way.  

This morning, Tony Infanti (Pitt) presented "A Critical Perspective on International Equity." In that paper, he argues that tax issues are embedded in larger foreign policy and development issues.

Sarah Webber (Business, Dayton) presented "Earned Income Tax Alternatives: A Comparative Look at Other Developed Nations' Response to Working Poor Assistance."  She examines the tax benefits provided by G8 countries, as well as Norway, Australia and New Zealand, for families and low-income workers.  Professor Webber looks at the extent to which other countries have adopted aspects of the U.S. EITC program, and considers alternatives to a U.S. model.

Devin Fergus (History, Hunter College) spoke on "Reagan's Tax Eaters: College Students and the Origins of Today's Student Debt Crisis."  He is at work on a book and a documentary film on the subject.  I was captivated by Professor Fergus's explanation of how federal law, rates of inflation, the rise of conservatism in America - among other factors - have contributed to a true economic crisis in the financing of higher education.

The current project of Palma J. Strand (Creighton) is "Give the Kids a Break: Using Tax Policy to Support Care for Children."  She investigates poverty and economic inequality experienced by women and children.  Professor Strand argues for tax benefits for care-providers.

Camille Walsh (Interdisciplinary Studies, U. of Washington Bothell) spoke on "Racial Consciousness and 'Taxpayer Citizenship' in 20th Century School Funding Debates."  This is the topic of her book manuscript, Racial Taxation: School Finance and "Taxpayer Citizenship," 1869-1973, in which she argues that the historic disaggregation of racial and class identities in education-related litigation arose, in part, out of an interconnected set of ideas about property tax, citizenship, and a right to education. 

After lunch, Nancy Knauer (Temple) will offer reflections on and lead a discussion about "Critical Tax Theory: Earning a Place at the Table."

The conference is a great size -- 19 participants -- which has allowed for ample discussion.  The schedule also has included several unhurried breaks and meals, which has encouraged informal interaction.  Sometimes conferences can be too big or too programmed, but conference organizer Dorothy Brown (Emory) struck the right balance (and knows how to pick a great restaurant!).  

Live Blogging "Critical Perspectives on Tax Policy" Conference at Emory Law - Part 2

The first afternoon session of the "Critical Perspectives on Tax Policy" featured these presentations:

• Karie Davis-Nozemack (Business, Georgia Tech), "Collision Course: EITC and the Rise of IRS Correspondence Examinations"
• Lisa Philipps (Osgoode Hall), "Canada Revenue as Social Service Agency? Equality Issues in the Administration of Tax-Delivered Benefits"
• Ajay Mehrotra, "The Old Fiscal Order: Trouble with Tariffs and the Faltering Property Tax."

The second afternoon session (currently underway) has three speakers:

• Samuel Brunson (Loyola-Chicago), "Polygamy and Tax: Married Filing Jointly (and Severally?)"
• David Herzig (Valparaiso), "A Call for Action: DOMA and the Internal Revenue Service"
• Marjorie Kornhauser (Arizona State), "Taxing Bachelors."

So far, we've had lots of good discussions about procedural due process in the federal income tax context and what it means to say that the tax law is "political."  We'll have some off-the-grid conversations into the evening.  

Live Blogging "Critical Perspectives on Tax Policy" Conference at Emory Law - Part 1

At Emory University School of Law, the first day of the "Critical Perspectives on Tax Policy" conference is well under way.  They program began with a welcome from Dean Robert Schapiro and an introduction by Professor Dorothy Brown.  Professor Brown explained the origins of the conference in conversations with national tax colleagues about a desire to "put the 'critical' back in critical tax theory."  

Here's how Tony Infanti (Pitt) and I described the field in Critical Tax Theory: An Introduction.

Tax law is political. That is a fundamental assumption of critical tax theory....[A]ll critical tax scholarship shares one or more of the following goals: (1) to uncover bias in the tax laws; (2) to explore and expose how the tax laws both reflect and construct social meaning; and (3) to educate non-tax scholars and lawyers about the interconnectedness of taxation, social justice, and progressive political movements. Critical tax scholars employ a variety of methods to achieve these goals. Among other methods, the contributions to this book demonstrate how critical tax scholars bring “outsider” perspectives to the study of tax law; use historical material, contemporary case studies, and personal or fictional narratives to illustrate the practical impact of the tax laws on individuals and groups; interpret social science and economic data to show how the tax laws impact groups differently; and explore the interconnectedness of tax laws with economic forces such as the labor market (especially as it impacts women) and international financial and political development.

During the first panel this morning, John C. Scott (Public Policy, UNC) presented his work on "The Problem of Private Pensions: Risk, Institutions, and Politics in the Hidden Welfare State."  Reginald Mombrum (NCCU) spoke on "Shifting the Paradigm by Bringing Tax Arbitrage to the Lower Income Separated Family: Why Should the Middle to Upper Class Family Have All the Fun?"  I shared a few thoughts on "Wealth, Inequality and Democracy."

In the morning's second panel. Lynn Lu (NYU) workshopped her paper, "Beyond Watchdogs, Whistleblowers, and Scapegoats: Pushing the Limits of Social Justice Reform through Tax Exemption for Public Charities."  Carolyn Jones (Iowa) just began her talk by saying, "This is a low-tech presentation on sin."  The formal title of her presentation is "Taxation as a Means of Reaching the Kingdom of God."  Up next will be Andre Smith (Widener) talking about "Taxes and the Demise of White Supremacy in the United States." 

Lots more to follow!

Southeastern Law Scholars Conference

I am delighted to be involved again organizing the Southeastern Law Scholars Conference. We had a great experience hosting this conference last year, and hope to build it into an annual event. Details are below:

The Charleston School of Law is pleased to host the second Southeastern Law Scholars Conference on October 28-29, 2011. This regional conference brings together junior law school faculty to present published papers or works-in-progress across all disciplines within the law. The conference is open to alll junior law faculty (one to seven years teaching experience) at law schools in the southeastern United States. To ensure an atmosphere conducive to feedback, space is limited to twenty participants.

The conference will begin with dinner for all participants on Friday, October 28, 2011. On Saturday, October 29, 2011, conference participants will present either a completed paper or work-in-progress,  and comment on the papers and ideas presented by others. As the host school, the Charleston School of Law will provide dinner on Friday, October 28, as well as breakfast and lunch on Saturday, October 29. There is no registration fee. Participants, however, are responsible for their own travel expenses.

To participate in the conference, please email me at sscheuerman@charlestonlaw.edu by Friday, September 29, 2011. Please note whether you will be attending dinner on Friday, October 28, in your email. In addition, please include the title of your presentation topic. A short abstract would also be helpful.

Call For Papers: Columbia Journal Of Race And Law

The Columbia Journal of Race and Law has announced a symposium and call for papers entitled:  Show Me the Money: Race, the Debt Crisis, and the Growing Wealth Gap.   Here are the details - and the deadline (for an abstract, at least, is soon.)

     The Columbia Journal of Race and Law (CJRL) will host its annual symposium, entitled “Show Me the Money: Race, the Debt Crisis, and the Growing Wealth Gap,” tentatively planned for November 4, 2011.  Last year, eleven student groups cosponsored our symposium on Arizona's immigration law S.B. 1070, providing the basis for substantial scholarship in our inaugural issue.  This year, we plan to repeat that success.  Our upcoming issue and symposium aim to showcase scholarly works that explore a broad array of relevant issues, including the trajectory of modern politics, the shrinking middle class, and the recession as it relates to race.  We invite the submission of abstracts or statements of interest by September 3, 2011.

     It is no secret that we live in perilous and unpredictable times.  Buried beneath the headlines, however, are devastating racial setbacks that have ensued from our recent economic turmoil.  In particular, the Great Recession has now doubled the wealth gap.  According to a Pew analysis of the 2010 Census data, the median white household has a whopping 20 times the wealth of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households.  To make matters worse, America’s shifting political landscape threatens to magnify the turmoil.  Sweeping entitlement cuts appear inevitable.  A dismantling of the social safety net is no longer inconceivable.  The overarching question is inescapable: how can we best advance racial justice in an environment increasingly unreceptive to the work and role of government?

     Of particular interest to CJRL are papers that address the racial setbacks of today and how to rebound from them.  Analysis of the recent census data is also encouraged.  Papers may address any critical aspect of race and the law, however.   We ask that proposals include a 300-word abstract or one-page statement of interest and a short C.V., and be submitted by September 3 to the Journal at cjrl@law.columbia.edu.  Those selected to present will be notified in early September; and final papers of at least 6,500 words will be due by October 18, 2011.  All papers will be distributed to symposium participants prior to the event.  For participants that do not reside in New York City, support for travel and lodging will be available upon request.