The Supreme Court's Gun Docket
February 04, 2020 - In December 2019, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a Second Amendment case for the first time in nearly a decade—New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York (NYSRPA). Along with that case, nearly a dozen cert petitions are pending before the Court that raise complicated Second Amendment questions, like those concerning bans on assault weapons or high-capacity magazines, laws requiring individuals to show good cause to obtain a license to carry in public, and other regulations on firearms. Professors April G. Dawson (NCCU School of Law), Greg Wallace (Campbell Law School), and Joseph Blocher (Duke Law School) on NYSRPA and the Supreme Court's gun docket. Sponsored by the Center for Firearms Law.

Surya Deva | The Right to Housing & Corporate Responsibility
January 27, 2020 - Join us for a discussion on human rights and business with Dr. Surya Deva, professor at City University of Hong Kong and a member, U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights. In this talk, Prof. Deva will discuss the duty of states as well as the responsibility of corporations in relation to the right to housing in the context of privatization and financialization of housing. He will draw on the relevant international human rights standards (both hard and soft norms) as well as communications on this issue sent by the United Nations Special Procedures to, among others, the Government of the United States of America and Blackstone Group in March 2019. This event is part of the Human Rights in Practice series, organized by Duke Law's International Human Rights Clinic and the Center for International and Comparative Law. Co-sponsored by Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Human Rights Law Society, and International Law Society

Lange Lecture 2020 | Mark A. Lemley, The Splinternet
January 22, 2020 - Mark A. Lemley, the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology, delivers the 2020 David L. Lange Lecture on Intellectual Property, "The Splinternet." Professor Lemley teaches intellectual property, patent law, trademark law, antitrust, the law of robotics and AI, video game law, and remedies. He is the author of eight books and 173 articles, including the two-volume treatise IP and Antitrust , and his works have been cited more than 270 times by courts, including 15 times by the United States Supreme Court, and more than 16,000 times in books and law review articles, making him the most-cited scholar in IP law and one of the five most cited legal scholars of all time. Professor Lemley is also a founding partner of Durie Tangri LLP and a founder of Lex Machina, Inc., a startup company that provides litigation data and analytics to law firms, companies, courts, and policymakers. Bag lunches will be provided on a first come first serve basis. Sponsored by the Office of the Dean.

Bolch Judicial Institute | Judgment Calls: Conversation with Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall
January 21, 2020 - David F. Levi, director of the Bolch Judicial Institute, joins former Massachusetts Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall for a discussion of Marshall's trailblazing life in the judiciary. Born and raised in South Africa, Chief Justice Marshall came to the U.S. for graduate school and was unable to return to South Africa because of her anti-apartheid advocacy. She took U.S. citizenship in 1978, attended Yale Law School, practiced law, and served as a vice president and general counsel at Harvard University before being appointed as an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1996. In 1999 she became the first woman to serve as Chief Justice of that court. Before her retirement in 2010, Marshall wrote hundreds of opinions, including the groundbreaking 2003 decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. This declared that the Massachusetts Constitution prohibits the state from denying same-sex couples access to civil marriage and made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage. Marshall's tenure as chief justice also was marked by her efforts to improve access to justice for all and to make the judiciary more transparent, efficient, and accountable. This event is part of Chief Justice Marshall's visit to Duke Law as the Spring 2020 Bolch Judicial Institute Distinguished Judge in Residence.

Punishment without Crime: A Book Panel Discussion with Alexandra Natapoff
January 13, 2020 - A panel discussion of Alexandra Natapoff's book, "Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal". The book describes the powerful influence that misdemeanors exert over the entire U.S. criminal system. It was selected by Publishers Weekly as a Best Book of 2018. Natapoff is a professor at UCI Law School and has previously served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Baltimore, Maryland. Panelists include Adam Gershowitz, Professor at William & Mary Law School, Eisha Jain, Visiting Professor at Duke Law, and Vikrant Reddy, Senior Research Fellow at the Charles Koch Institute. Professor Brandon Garrett (Duke Law) moderates. Sponsored by the Duke Center for Science and Justice and the Duke Criminal Law Society.