The University of Alabama School of Law

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October 17th, 2008	April 3, 2009
Sovereignty, Emergency, and Legality	Speech and Silence in American Law

Sovereignty, Emergency, and Legality

The purpose of this symposium is to chart the complex interplay of sovereignty, emergency, and legality and to ask what can learn about each by examining their juxtaposition. For some scholars, sovereignty is only truly knowable in times of emergency, moments when the law is suspended, put on hold. Others believe that sovereign power is more malleable, less absolute, adaptable to constitutional democracy. For these scholars, sovereign power can and does operate in and through law and law, in turn, can be used to domesticate and direct that power.

Organized by Professor Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst and Justice Hugo L. Black Visiting Senior Faculty Scholar for the 2007-2008 academic year at the University of Alabama School of Law.

Participants include:
Sumi Cho, Depaul Law School
Michel Rosenfeld, Cardozo Law School
Leonard Feldman, University of Oregon

While in the United States today many have turned their attention to sovereignty, emergency, and legality, we want to use this symposium not just to take up today's pressing issues, but also to revisit moments in our past--e.g.... the internment of Japanese- Americans and the Supreme Court's Korematsu decision, the civil rights movement and the decisions in Cooper v. Aaron and Walker v. Birmingham--and to use these moments to frame the history of the present. We also want to turn our attention to the experience of other nations--e.g.... the British in Northern Ireland, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, etc.

Drawing together historical and comparative work with the rigorous examination of sovereignty, emergency, and legality in the early 21st century United States will, we believe, provide a distinctive way of framing an ongoing and important set of theoretical and practical problems.

Conference Schedule
October 17th, 2008

8:30-9:00 Welcome
9:00 – 10:15 First Session
10:15 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – 12:00 Second Session
12:00 – 1:30 Lunch and Keynote
1:30 – 1:45 Break
1:45 – 3:00 Fourth Session
3:00 – 3:30 Break
3:30 – 4:45 Fifth Session
4:45 – 5:45 Reception