UB Baldy Center to Present Workshop on Police Power

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A workshop that will bring together an interdisciplinary group of international scholars to explore various aspects of the police power as a modern technology of governance will be presented June 12-13 by the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo Law School.

The workshop, "The New Police Science: Police Powers in Comparative Perspective," will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 12 and 9 a.m. to noon on June 13 in 545 O'Brian Hall on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. It is being organized by Markus Dubber, professor of law at UB and director of the Buffalo Criminal Law Center, and Mariana Valverde of the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto.

The police power -- the power to maintain "peace, order and good government" -- pervades all aspects and levels of modern government, conference organizers say. It is so essential to the very idea of government that it underlies such diverse technologies of government as liquor licensing and the criminal law, and is claimed by city governments, as well as county, state and national governments. Moreover, it appears in various forms -- and under various names -- in the practices and theories of governance of various modern legal systems, organizers add.

Despite its widely acknowledged persistence as a phenomenon, the police power today has all but disappeared as a subject, organizers note, adding that the goal of the workshop is to reclaim the police power as an important subject for scholarly inquiry.

For further information or to register for the workshop, contact Joseph Schneider, assistant director of the Buffalo Criminal Law Center, at jes2@buffalo.edu or 645-3407. Although there is no fee to attend the workshop, advance registration is required. Registration includes a copy of the workshop papers and other materials, and all breaks and lunch on June 12.