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Criminal Law Roundtable provides a forum for examining provocative research
Release Date: Sep 22, 2009
Six provocative papers were presented at a roundtable sponsored by Vanderbilt Law School’s Criminal Justice Program at on September 11 and 12. Topics ranged from sentencing to hearsay evidence to perceptions of date rape. “We used a format that has proven particularly effective in eliciting good discussion of scholarly papers,” says Professor Christopher Slobogin, who directs Vanderbilt’s Criminal Justice Program. “The first person who spoke was not the author, but a colleague who offered a summary and critique of the paper. The author then responded to those comments and to questions from other roundtable participants.”
Papers presented included “Randomization and the Fourth Amendment,” by Tracey Meares of Yale Law School (whose co-author is Bernard Harcourt of Chicago), discussed by Slobogin; “Hearsay’s Last Hurrah,” by UC-Berkeley Law’s David Slansky, discussed by Columbia Law School’s Daniel Richmond; “Who Perceives What, and Why, in ‘Acquaintance Rape’ Cases? An Experimental Investigation of Culture, Cognition, and Consent,” by Daniel Kahan of Yale Law School, discussed by Robert Weisberg of Stanford Law; “Can Checks and Balances, Penumbras and Footnotes Improve Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence” by Douglas Berman, Ohio State Moritz College of Law, discussed by Vanderbilt Law’s Robert Mikos; “Alternatives to Imprisonment,” by Pennsylvania Law’s Stephanos Bibas, discussed by Kate Stith of Yale Law School; and “The Illusion of Proportionality: Desert and Repeat Offenders” by Kevin Reitz, discussed by Vanderbilt’s Nancy King. Other participants included Joan Petersilia, Stanford Law School; Edward Rubin, Nita Farahany and Terry Maroney of Vanderbilt’s criminal justice faculty; Susan Kay, who directs Vanderbilt’s Criminal Law Clinic; Alistair Newbern, director of Vanderbilt’s Appellate Clinic; and Yolanda Redero, who directs the Domestic Violence Clinic at Vanderbilt.
“We didn’t limit participants to any particular topic,” Slobogin noted, “but three of the papers addressed sentencing issues, a topic of particular interest to the criminal justice faculty here at Vanderbilt.”
Vanderbilt’s Criminal Justice Program will sponsor a roundtable for young faculty on January 29 and 30, 2010. In addition to Vanderbilt’s criminal justice faculty, participants will include Laura Appelman of Willamette University College of Law, Josh Bowers of the University of Virginia School of Law, Eve Brensike of Michigan Law School; Samuel Buell of Washington University Law School; Bennett Capers of Hofstra Law School, Roger Fairfax of George Washington University Law School, Barbara Fedders of the University of North Carolina School of Law, Lea Johnston of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Erin Murphy of the University of California-Berkeley School of Law, James J. Prescott of Michigan Law School, and Alice Ristroph of Seton Hall University School of Law.
According to Slobogin, the Criminal Justice Program intends to sponsor at least one conference each year. “We may alternate between senior and junior faculty or mix the two groups,” he says. “We received very positive feedback on our format, and our young faculty acquitted themselves very well.”
