Amna Akbar | Law and Social Movements: The Turn to Law Reform and Policy Platforms in Today's Left
February 20, 2020 - From the Green New Deal to the Vision for Black Lives, today's left social movements are turning to law reform as a way to reimagine our relationships to each other, the state, and the commons. Professor Amna Akbar, Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, discusses the possibilities and limits of these law reform campaigns to transform our thinking about law, law reform, and the work ahead to build a more just society. The program is moderated by Jayne Huckerby, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC). Sponsored by the IHRC 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, Duke Law Womxn of Color Collective, Human Rights Law Society, and International Law Society.

Sarah L. Quinn | American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation
February 18, 2020 - Sarah Quinn, author of the new book: "American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation." Dr. Quinn discusses how since the Westward expansion, the U.S. government has used financial markets to manage America's complex social divides, and politicians and officials across the political spectrum have turned to land sales, home ownership, and credit to provide economic opportunity without the appearance of market intervention or direct wealth redistribution. Sarah L. Quinn is associate professor of sociology at the University of Washington. Sponsored by the Global Financial Markets Center

Cosette Creamer & Beth Simmons | The Proof is in the Process
February 13, 2020 - Cosette Creamer and Beth Simmons speak about their article "The Proof is in the Process: Self-Reporting under International Human Rights Treaties," which is published in the January 2020 issue of the American Journal of International Law. Sponsored by the American Journal of International Law. Related article: Cosette D. Creamer & Beth A Simmons, The Proof is in the Process: Self Reporting Under International Human Rights Treaties, 114 American Journal of International Law, 1-50 (2020)
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2019.70

Brandon Winford | John Hervey Wheeler, Black Banking, & the Economic Struggle for Civil Rights
February 10, 2020 - Brandon Winford discusses his new book, John Hervey Wheeler, Black Banking, and the Economic Struggle for Civil Rights. Wheeler was one of the civil rights movement's most influential leaders. In articulating a bold vision of regional prosperity grounded in full citizenship and economic power for African Americans, this banker, lawyer, and visionary played a leading role in the fight for racial and economic equality throughout North Carolina. Wheeler began his career as a teller at Mechanics and Farmers Bank and rose to become bank president. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Wheeler to the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, a position in which he championed equal rights for African Americans. Dr. Winford is assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee. He's a historian of the 19th and 20th century U.S. and African American history Sponsored by the Global Financial Markets Center.

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.

Katharina Pistor | The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality
January 27, 2020 - Katharina Pistor discusses her new book, The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality. The book is a major intervention about the nature of modern capitalism. Pistor argues for the central role of the law in shaping the distribution of wealth and makes a compelling case that it is law that creates capital itself. Katharina Pistor is the Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law at Columbia Law School and director of the Law School's Center on Global Legal Transformation. Her work spans comparative law and corporate governance, law and finance, and law and development. She is the co-recipient of the Max Planck Research Award (2012) and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science. Sponsored by the Global Financial Markets Center.

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.