A nationwide group of distinguished legal scholars will meet at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ School of Law on Friday, Nov. 6, to discuss the legal and political crisis growing out of the Kenneth Starr investigation.
"Starr Chamber: The Clinton Scandal and the Constitution" will be held in the Lindsley Memorial Courtroom of the Fleming Law Building from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Participants will discuss the historical, political and legal meaning of the Starr investigation and will address the historical precedents for impeaching high public officials. They also will examine whether the Office of Independent Counsel should be eliminated or restructured, what the scandal tells us about the state of legal ethics in America today and what the broader social significance of the case might be for the political and legal systems of the United States.
Paul Campos, CU professor of law and author of "Jurismania: The Madness of American Law," published this year by Oxford University Press, organized the conference. He wanted to bring together a broad array of legal scholars who would have interesting things to say about the Clinton scandal but who would not be inclined to engage in the aggressive advocacy that has been a staple of most legal commentary on the matter.
"I think a lot of people sense that many aspects of this affair are symptoms of deep problems in our legal and political institutions that go well beyond the characters of the particular actors whom it involves," said Campos, director of the Byron R. White Center for American Constitutional Study. "This is about much more than an out-of-control president or an out-of-control prosecutor: at bottom, the Clinton scandal may be more about an out-of-control legal system than anything else."
Speakers will include:
o William Miller, law professor, University of Michigan. Miller's recent work has focused on the sociology and anthropology of human emotions, especially as they relate to issues of social ordering and dispute processing.
o Jeffrey Rosen, law professor, George Washington University. Rosen is the legal affairs editor of the New Republic and has written for publications including the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine and Atlantic Monthly.
o Robert Nagel, law professor, CU-Boulder. Nagal is one of the nation's best known critics of the culture of judicial review and judicial activism and is the recent author of "Judicial Power and American Character: Censoring Ourselves in an Anxious Age."
Cost for the conference, including lunch, is $55. To register call 303-492-8049.
The conference is sponsored by the Byron R. White Center for American Constitutional Study.