Research Conferences

The Faculty Research Conference Series was inaugurated in October 1998 with the symposium "Free Speech and Economic Power," organized and chaired by Professor Martin Reddish. Faculty research conferences are supported by the Gordon Symposia Fund, established in 1996 by the Gordon family, Northwestern alumni, and friends to honor the memory of Irving Gordon, a graduate class of 1947 and a beloved member of the Law School faculty from 1966 until his death in 1994. All research conferences are free and open to the public.

March 3, 2006
Gautreaux at 40: Race, Class, Housing Mobility, and Neighborhood Revitalization

Leading experts from academia, the private sector, and government will gather at Northwestern Law to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the filing of the Gautreaux case. The public housing desegregation litigation was filed in Chicago in 1966 and resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1976. The conference is organized by Professor Len Rubinowitz and the Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy. Papers from this conference will be published in a special NJLSP symposium issue in spring 2006. Co-sponsored and additionally funded by the Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

April 29 - 30, 2005
Law and Positive Political Theory: Legal Doctrine and Political Control

Legal scholars and positive theorists visited Northwestern Law to participate in a conference organized by Professor Emerson Tiller to think about and generate articles on topics related to how courts have highlighted the importance of legal doctrine and have sought to shape it, whether for political control or normative values. This conference is supported by the Professor Irving Gordon Symposium Fund. View conference papers.

April 23 - 24, 2004
The Rehnquist Court

The Rehnquist Court marks its 16th anniversary this year. During the course of its tenure, the court has staked out new ground in areas including federalism, free speech and the religion clauses, the Fourteenth Amendment, and substantive due process. Legal scholars and practitioners from law schools across the country gathered at this conference, organized by Professor John McGinnis, to examine these and other developments in the court's legal doctrines. View full schedule in pdf.

April 12, 2002
Human Rights and the Law of War: New Roles for the World Court?

Since the early 1990s the International Court of Justice or World Court has presided over several suits in which nations are accused of launching illegal wars, fomenting genocide, and sponsoring war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition, it has twice ordered the United States not to execute foreign nationals on death row until the Court could rule on alleged violations of their rights to consular notification. Professor Douglass Cassel, director of the Center for International Human Rights, has brought together a group of leading scholars and practitioners, experienced on both sides of many of the important human rights and armed conflict cases before the Court, in the hope of stimulating reflection, dialogue and improved understanding of the place of the World Court in the international system.

April 21, 2001
The Evolution of Property Rights

More than 30 experts in law and economics and property rights discussed Harold Demsetz's influential article "Toward a Theory of Property Rights" at this conference chaired by Thomas W. Merrill, John Paul Stevens Professor of Law; David D. Haddock, professor of law; and Henry E. Smith, associate professor of law. In addition to the organizers, leading commentators from U.S. law schools and universities across the country presented papers and commented on rival hypotheses that explain changes in property rights over time. Demsetz presented and discussed his paper, which sets forth a simple economic framework for understanding the evolution of property rights.

November 17, 2000
Learning from the Past, Living in the Present: Patterns in Chicago Homicides, 1870 to 1930

Entries from a little-known and recently resurrected data set were the centerpiece of the conference, chaired by Leigh Bienen, senior lecturer. Historians, ethnologist, criminologist, law professors, and sociologist gathered to analyze the murders and manslaughters committed during an extraordinary period of development in the United States. From 1870 - 1930 the Chicago Police department kept a handwritten, chronological record of homicides in their district. Entries included the name, gender, and age of the victim, circumstances of the killing and weapon used, the relationship between the victim and defendant, and the employment and social status of the victim and defendant. These details reflect the economic, social, cultural, and demographic changes taking place in Chicago during an era that included a major financial collapse, World War I, the rise of politically active unions, suffrage for women, and Prohibition.

March 18, 2000
Rethinking the Masters of Comparative Law

Building upon the current renaissance of comparative law as a tool for understanding the globalization of legal institutions, the Second Annual Northwestern Law Faculty Conference will take a fresh and sophisticated look at nine legendary masters of the discipline- as people from different cultural and legal traditions engaged with one another in particular academic and institutional projects, as proponents of theories and ideas, and as intellectual legacies later interpreted and adopted by succeeding generations toward their own ends. Chaired by Annelise Riles, assistant professor of law, the aim of the conference is to propose new answers to questions such as what is comparative law, what are its roots, its relationship to other disciplines such as history, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy, and how has it contributed at different times and in different parts of the world to projects of legal reform.

October 9, 1998
Free Speech and Economic Power

Chaired by the distinguished scholar Martin H. Redish, the Louis
and Harriet Ancel Professor of Law and Public Policy, the symposium addressed the modern intersection between free expression and economic power. Among the issues addressed were First Amendment protection for tobacco advertising, the constitutionality of campaign reform and the power of government to open powerful private centers of communication to the expression of those not normally heard.

Other Faculty Conferences

September 20 - 23, 2005
Faculty Exchange Conference: Northwestern University School of Law and the Tel Aviv Faculty of Law

Seven papers will be presented on various topics, ranging from copyrights in the Arab world to liberal justifications for a Jewish state, to racial profiling, and to euthanasia in 19th century America. Northwestern Law professors Stephen Presser, Andrew Koppelman, Ronen Avraham, Matthew Sag, David Dana, Max Schanzenbach, and Janice Nadler will also be participating as commentators. Yoram Margalioth, a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University, is also a visiting professor at the Law School this year. He will be presenting a paper titled "On Terror, Drugs, and Racial Profiling." The conference was supported by the Melvin and Joyce Stillman Fund. Nina G. Stillman (JD '73) established the fund in 1997 in honor of her parents. The fund annually helps support international programs at the Law School, specifically those benefiting faculty exchange relationships with Israel.
(View conference brochure in pdf form)

January 24 - 25, 2005
Reforming the United Nations: The use of force to safeguard international security and human rights

In 2003 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan convened a High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, composed of 26 "eminent persons," in response to UN debates over military interventions in Rwanda and Iraq. The panel's December 2004 report, "A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility," makes scores of recommendations to reform the UN. Sir David Hannay, a member of the High Level Panel and former permanent UN representative of the United Kingdom, shared his perspective on the panel's recommendations at this fourth annual Transatlantic Dialogue, organized by Northwestern Law Professor Douglass Cassel and co-sponsored by the Bluhm Legal Clinic's Center on International Human Rights with the Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. Conference participants also discussed how the United States' decision to act without Security Council authorization in the war with Iraq has impacted the future role of the UN, and what role the UN should play in protecting human rights.
(View conference brochure in pdf form)

January 11, 2001
The Role of the Courts; The Role of the Media; The Roll of the Dice

The extraordinary 2000 presidential election poses urgent questions of the most fundamental sort for American democracy. Northwestern law professors Robert W. Bennett and James E. Speta worked with Ginny Carroll, associate professor at Medill School of Journalism, and Susan Herbst, professor and chair of the political science department at Northwestern University, to bring commentators from across the country to the law school to discuss some of the most pressing issues from election 2000. The conference covered four major topics of concern: the design and implementation of the balloting process, the continued viability of the electoral college, media coverage of election returns and disputes, and the legitimate role of the courts. The conference was hosted by Northwestern University's School of Law, Medill School of Journalism, Institute for Policy Research, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and the Joyce Foundation. Transcripts of the keynote address and all panel discussions are available.
(Download full report in pdf form)