The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog

Audio/Video: Epstein on Supreme Neglect

On March 6, Richard Epstein discussed his new book, Supreme Neglect: How to Revive Constitutional Protection for Private Property during an event at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Cato has posted audio and video of his remarks on their website. Their description of the event is below.

Returning to the subject that first made him famous over two decades ago, Richard Epstein, the author of Takings, has a new book on property rights. In it, he takes readers from the strongly protective property rights advocated by the Constitution's Framers to the weak property rights supported by progressive and liberal politicians in the 20th century. Using both political theory and economic analysis, Epstein offers a compelling interpretation of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause to draw the connections between property rights, individual liberty, and social progress. And he looks also at the renewed appreciation of property rights that has arisen in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's infamous Kelo v. New London decision.

Update: You can also hear Prof. Epstein discussing Supreme Neglect on "The Insider Podcast," which "explores the mental health field  from the view point of both consumers and practitioners."

Audio/Video: Lee Fennell, "Slices and Lumps"

On February 19, Professor of Law Lee Fennell presented the 2008 Coase Lecture on Law and Economics. Problems involving the aggregation and division of entitlements, she noted, are ubiquitous in law and in everyday life. Fragments held by multiple parties—such as parcels of land, effort, or segments of a bridge—often must be assembled together to be worth much. Conversely, a presently unified entitlement may be more valuable if it can be split into separate pieces held by different parties. The lecture examined these "lumping" and "slicing" problems (which turn out to be two sides of the same coin), showed how they turn up in both interpersonal and intrapersonal contexts, and offered some tools for addressing them.

Video of the lecture is embedded below, or you may download the .mov file. Just want to listen? Then download the .mp3 file here.

UPDATE: Prof. Fennell's paper based on this talk is now available from SSRN.

Announcing the New Student Events Podcast

In recent months, here at the Law School we've seen an increasing number of student organizations start recording their events for online distribution. Faced with an embarassment of riches, we've decided to launch a new podcast dedicated just to student org-sponsored events, which we're calling "Open Minds" (if you've seen the fences around the fountain construction lately, you'll catch the reference). And don't worry -- student events featuring Law School faculty will be added to both podcasts feeds, so you won't miss any of that Chicago audio goodness.

You can subscribe to Open Minds via iTunes or using the podcatcher of your choice.

Podcast: Richard Posner and David Lat on "Judges as Public Figures"

Last week, the University of Chicago's chapter of the Federalist Society hosted a panel discussion on "Judges as Public Figures" with Judge Richard Posner and David Lat, author of two popular legal blogs, "Above the Law" and "Underneath Their Robes." David Lat's relationship with Judge Posner began when he was the anonymous author of "Underneath Their Robes," a blog supposedly written by a young and prestige-obsessed female lawyer. Judge Posner was the first to unmask "Article Three Groupie" (the anonymous author's pseudonym) as being male. The discussion was moderated by Professor Lior Strahilevitz, and a recording is available here.

Epstein on Two Recent SCOTUS Decisions

Yesterday, at the request of the Federalist Society, Richard Epstein recorded a brief overview of his thoughts on two recent Supreme Court decisions, Riegel v. Medtronic and  Rowe v.New Hampshire. The recording is available here.
 

On the Air: Clinical Professors Stone and Futterman Give Radio Interviews

Clinical Professors of Law Craig Futterman and Randolph Stone were recently featured on Chicago radio stations discussing some of the issues that drive their clinical programs.

Stone (right), who directs the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic's Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project, appeared on WBEZ's 848 program last week to discuss a report by the Illinois Coalition for the Fair Sentencing of Children that argues against sentences of life without parole for juvenile offenders. You can listen to Prof. Stone and the rest of the program on WBEZ's website.

Futterman (left), leads the Mandel Clinic's Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project. He appeared in a report from WGN's "Higher Standards" series, discussing the investigation of abuses by Chicago police officers and the city's recent ordinance that moves the Office of Professional Standards out from under the control of the Police Department itself. You can listen to the report or read a transcript on the WGN Radio website.

Video + Podcast: Robert Goodin presents "An Epistemic Case for Legal Moralism"

On January 16, Robert E. Goodin, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and of Social & Political Theory in the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University, presented the 2007-2008 John Dewey Lecture on Jurisprudence. Entitled "An Epistemic Case for Legal Moralism," the talk was introduced by Cass Sunstein and addressed the following issues:

Ignorance of the law is no excuse, or so we are told. But why on earth not? The statute books run to hundreds of volumes. How can an ordinary citizen know what all is in them? The best way might be for law (at least in its wide-scope duty-conferring aspects) to track broad moral principles that ordinary citizens can know and apply for themselves. In contrast to more high-minded and deeply principled arguments, this epistemic argument for legal moralism is purely pragmatic – but importantly so. For law to do what law is supposed to do, which is to be action-guiding, people need to be able to intuit without detailed investigation what the law is for most common and most important cases of their conduct, and to intuit when their intuitions are likely to be unreliable and hence that they need to investigate further what the law actually is.

If you couldn't make it to the lecture (or would like to relive the experience), we've embedded a video below. If you'd like to download a Quicktime version of the video, you may do so here; or if you would just like the audio, it is available here.

Anup Malani Podcast: "Understanding Corporate Philanthropy"

Last week, Anup Malani gave a Chicago's Best Ideas talk entitled "Understanding Corporate Philanthropy." Since we're feeling philanthropical ourselves, we're making a recording of the talk available here.

Here is the blurb for the talk:

Much of current scholarship views corporate philanthropy managerial waste or profiteering. In this talk, Professor Malani argues that both views are correct, and incomplete. Corporate philanthropy is the corporation’s entry into the market for private financing of public goods, also called the production of “warm glow.” This market was previously dominated by non-profit charities and the government. The feature that distinguishes corporate production of warm glow from other goods is that the corporation’s shareholders and workers are also its consumers. (Would you rather own or work for Google or Altria?) The key choices for the consumers of warm glow are whether to purchase from corporations or their competitors, and whether to do this via ownership, employment or product purchase. The talk will discuss the competitive advantage of corporations over charities and the government, and the importance of tax law in determining how consumers purchase warm glow from corporations.

Video: Cass Sunstein on the 2nd Amendment

Back in November, we posted a podcast of the Cass Sunstein CBI, "The Second Amendment: The Constitution's Most Mysterious Right." In our continuing effort to add more video to the blog, please find below a recording of the the talk (you can also download a Quicktime version here).

Video: Mark Heyrman on Involuntary Commitment to Mental Hospitals

Back in November, we brought you a podcast of Clinical Professor of Law Mark Heyrman giving a Chicago's Best Ideas talk entitled "Why the Legal Standard for Involuntary Commitment to Mental Hospitals Doesn't Matter (Much)." Today, we present the video of that talk. This is the first round of what we hope will be a significant increase in our use of video on this blog.

Prefer to watch the video offline, or want to download it so you can watch it on an iPod or other portable media player? A Quicktime movie file is available here.