Advocacy of Death Eligible Offenders
Stephanie Jirard

Penn State Law Review hosted a Scholarly Dialogue on January 30, 2012 featuring Professor Stephanie Jirard as she presented her work, “Advocacy of Death Eligible Offenders.” Professor Jirard is a former Navy Judge Advocate General, Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Civil Division, and an Assistant U.S. Attorney and an Assistant Federal Public Defender, both in the District of Massachusetts. Relying on her personal experiences as a public defender of death-penalty clients, Professor Jirard discussed the difficulties and importance of advocating for death eligible offenders. Alan C. Green, Executive Articles Editor of the Penn State Law Review, dialogued with Professor Jirard, followed by a public question and answer period. [watch video]

Penn State Law Review hosted a Scholarly Dialogue on April 12, 2010 featuring Kit Kinports, Polisher Family Distinguished Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law, as she presented her work, “Veteran Police Officers and Three-Dollar Steaks:  The Subjective/Objective Dimensions of Probable Cause and Reasonable Suspicion.”  This Article addresses two issues surrounding probable cause and reasonable suspicion that test the line between subjective and objective standards in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence: the extent to which a particular police officer’s training and experience ought to be considered in measuring probable cause and reasonable suspicion, and the relevance of the officer’s subjective beliefs about the presence of a weapon in assessing the reasonable suspicion required to justify a frisk.  Richard J. Lupinsky, Jr., Senior Editor of the Penn State Law Review, dialogued with Professor Kinports concerning her article, followed by a public question and answer period. [watch video]

Penn State Law Review hosted a Scholarly Dialogue with Stephen F. Ross, Lewis H. Vovakis Distinguished Faculty Scholar, Professor of Law, and Director, Penn State Institute for Sports Law, Policy and Research, on April 7, 2010. [watch video]

Professor Ross presented his work, “Judicial Review of NCAA Decisions: Evaluation of the Restitution Rule and a Call for Arbitration.”  This article analyzes the oft-distinct strands  of private associational law and remedies to conclude that the Restitution Rule constitutes an improper waiver of recourse, but that the NCAA can achieve its legitimate aim of quick and definitive resolution of issues involving its internal decisions by mandating that member schools and student-athletes submit all disputes to binding arbitration before a neutral, expert arbitrator.  Hillary Hewit, incoming Comments Editor of the Penn State Law Review, dialogued with Professor Ross concerning his article, followed by a public question and answer period.

Penn State Law Review hosted the distinguished guest Donald C. Langevoort, Thomas Aquinas Reynolds Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, on Wednesday, March 24, 2010.  Professor Langevoort presented his working paper Reading Stoneridge Carefully:  A Duty-Based Approach to Reliance and Third Party Liability under Rule 10b-5. [watch video]

Following Professor Langevoort’s presentation, Dominic Rupprecht, Penn State Law Review Articles Editor, dialogued with Professor Langevoort concerning the substance of his article.  The event was then opened for a lively public question-and-answer period.

Professor Langevoort is a pre-eminent scholar in the field of Securities Law.  He is the author or co-author of dozens of scholarly articles and book chapters on the subject, and several books, including Securities Regulation: Cases and Materials, a leading textbook on the subject, which is currently in its sixth edition.

Professor Langevoort’s paper examines Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., a recent U.S. Supreme Court case in the field of Securities Law.  Professor Langevoort argues that, rather than an expression of the Court’s “reflexive antipathy toward private securities class actions, throwing whatever was at hand into the pot to suit the business-friendly result,” the opinion in Stoneridge represents a more measured approach.  Professor Langevoort argues that “in its emphasis on remoteness and attenuation applied solely in the context of private securities litigation, Stoneridge reinvigorates duty as a limitation on liability to open market investors in order to constrain the unique liability risk that defendants face.”

Published four times annually, Penn State Law Review is the flagship law review for the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University. Published since 1897, it promotes sound legal scholarship.

This event was supported by funds from the Speaker’s Trust Fund of the Student Bar Association.

Penn State Law Review hosted a Scholarly Dialogue with Professor of Law Nancy Welsh on Thursday, February 25, 2010.  Professor Welsh, of the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, presented her forthcoming article “What Is ‘(Im)Partial Enough’ in a World of Embedded Neutrals?”   Professor Welsh’s work discussed the role of “embedded neutrals” who may have an affiliation with only one of the parties in an alternative dispute resolution situation.   Jena Piazza, Associate Editor of the Penn State Law Review, dialogued with Professor Welsh, followed by a public question and answer period.  [watch video]

Penn State Law Review held a Scholarly Dialogue with Professor Kramer on Monday, February 8, 2010.

This Dialogue featured Zachary A. Kramer, Assistant Professor of Law, as he presented his work, “Heterosexuality and Military Service.”

Professor Kramer’s work makes two distinct contributions to the scholarly literature. First, it provides a new way of approaching the issue of gay military service. To date, the issue of gay service has been debated primarily in terms of whether the presence of openly gay service members would hinder military effectiveness. This paper breaks from this trend by steering the conversation away from sexual orientation—and, in particular, homosexuality—and refocusing it on sexual conduct. Secondly, it makes a stand-alone contribution to the growing field of what scholars are calling “critical heterosexual studies” (CHS). Stephanie K. Savino, of the Penn State Law Review, dialogued with Professor Kramer. [watch video]

Penn State Law Review held a Scholarly Dialogue on Thursday, January 28 with Victor C. Romero.

This Dialogue featured Victor C. Romero, Maureen B. Cavanaugh Distinguished Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law, as he presented his work, “Of Hope and Humility:  Christian Realism, Immigration Reform, and Executive Leadership.”   Drawing upon President Barack Obama’s admiration of Reinhold Niebuhr’s work, Romero’s work outlines a Protestant, Christian realist approach toward immigration policy, with specific focus on the role of the executive in providing providential leadership.  He discussed various aspects of such leadership, from negotiating the proper role of states and localities to the promotion of comprehensive immigration reform.  Alexis Snyder, Managing Editor of the Penn State Law Review, dialogued with Professor Romero about the substance of his article, followed by a public question and answer period.  [watch video]

The program featured a recent article titled “Way to Represent:  The Role of Black Lawyers in Contemporary American Democracy” by Carla Pratt, professor of law at Penn State University, the Dickinson School of Law.  Professor Pratt‘s article, which was published earlier this year in Fordham Law Review, argues that black lawyers perform a unique role in modeling race-conscious lawyering, thereby enhancing the participatory dimension of citizenship for black citizens. The article is available at 77 Fordham L.Rev. 1409.  [watch video]

Professor Backer presented the inaugural event in the Scholarly Dialogues Series.

The program featured a recent article by Professor Backer, Professor of Law at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law. The article is entitled “The Party as Polity, the Communist Party, and the Chinese Constitutional State: A Theory of State-Party Constitutionalism.” Professor Backer’s article, which was published in 2009 in the Journal of Chinese and Comparative Law, seeks to apply constitutional theory to the party-state model of governance, and articulates a way that state-party governance and the traditional western understanding of a constitutional guarantee of the rule of law can co-exist.  His article is available for download.  Professor Backer’s Dialogue is available here.