Saturday, February 6, 2010

Originalism at San Diego

Ongoing today, far from snowbound Washington, D.C., is an Originalism Works-in-Progress Conference, held at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace (right) of the University of San Diego. The line-up for the conference, organized by USD Law's Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism, is:

Jack Balkin (Yale University), "Why Original Meaning?"
Commentator: Thomas Merrill (Columbia University and Yale University)
Moderator: Yale Kamisar (University of San Diego)

Randy Barnett (Georgetown University), "Whence Comes Section One? The Abolitionist Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment"
Commentator: Michael Kent Curtis (Wake Forest University)
Moderator: Miranda McGowan (University of San Diego)

Garrett Epps (University of Baltimore), "The Citizenship Clause: A Legislative History"
Commentator: Michael Ramsey (University of San Diego)
Moderator: Steve Smith (University of San Diego)

Jim Fleming (Boston University), "Are We All Originalists Now? I Hope Not!"
Commentator: Keith Whittington (Princeton University)
Moderator: Michael Rappaport (University of San Diego)

Kurt Lash (Loyola Law School and University of Illinois), "The Origins of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, Part I: 'Privileges and Immunities' as an Antebellum Term of Art"
Commentator: John Harrison (University of Virginia)
Moderator: Donald Dripps (University of San Diego)

Thomas H. Lee (Fordham University), "Originalism and the Foreign Affairs Constitution"
Commentator: Jack Rakove (Stanford University)
Moderator: Maimon Schwarzschild (University of San Diego)

Lawrence B. Solum (University of Illinois), "The Interpretation – Construction Distinction"
Commentator: Larry Alexander (University of San Diego)
Moderator: Laurence Claus (University of San Diego)

The Center's mission statement is as follows:
Originalism is the view that the Constitution has a fixed and knowable meaning established at the time of its enactment. The Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism at the University of San Diego School of Law has as its mission the study of all aspects of originalism. In particular, the Center studies arguments for and against the originalist theory of interpretation, the variety of specific originalist interpretive methods, and the original meaning of particular constitutional provisions.
Hat tip: Legal Theory Blog
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