Legal Aspects of Political Theory to be Subject of Conference Sponsored by UB's Baldy Center

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Contemporary democratic theory will be the subject of a workshop to be sponsored by the University at Buffalo's Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy and the UB Law School.

Titled "Building Politics: Law, Institutions and Democratic Theory," the conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Nov. 8 in O'Brian Hall on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The conference will examine the structure of politics and the groundwork that is needed for political change, according to James A. Gardner, UB professor of law and organizer of the conference.

"Law and political theory have had an uneasy relationship in the past half century," Gardner said. "Yet constitutional adjudication and analysis is inevitably informed by background understandings of politics, making political theory an important area for legal inquiry.

"At the same time, political theorists often deal in lofty abstractions, whose relevance for law and legal institutions is not always clear," he added. "Even those democratic theorists who deal with concrete institutional prescriptions often lack the knowledge and expertise to work through the difficult problems of institutionalization that form the bread and butter of the lawyer's work."

Conference participants will discuss those practices that are necessary to political legitimacy, including how to regulate and use law to give incentives that will result in a political structure that is more effective and satisfying than it is now.

The conference also will look at representation, especially issues that affect racial minorities, women, political minorities, ideological minorities, and native and indigenous peoples.

"Many theorists argue that the fundamental flaw with politics is people don't talk enough, and they don't talk in the right way," Gardner said.

Participants will include John A. Ferejohn, visiting professor of law at New York University and Carolyn S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Heather K. Gerken, assistant professor of law, Harvard University; Samuel Issacharoff, Harold R. Medina Professor in Procedural Jurisprudence, Columbia University; James Johnson, associate professor of political science, University of Rochester; Richard S. Katz, professor of political science, The Johns Hopkins University; Nancy L. Rosenblum, professor of government, Harvard University; Edward L. Rubin, professor of law, University of Pennsylvania, and Melissa Saunders, professor of law, University of North Carolina.

For more information on the conference, contact Gardner at 645-3607 or jgard@buffalo.edu, or call the Baldy Center at 645-2102. Conference information also is available at http://www.law.buffalo.edu/baldycenter/building02.html. Advance registration is required.