In recent years, the Section has focused its Annual Meeting programs on topics such as, "How Can Legal Scholarship Be More Policy Relevant?" (2013) and "Legal Scholarship Beyond the Law Review: Books, Briefs, Letters, and Other Avenues of Influence" (emphasis added) (2014), both of which seem to presume that legal scholarship should aim to be policy relevant/exercise influence.
At the 2015 meeting, we will examine this presumption and use it as a tool for examining a wider set of issues regarding the role morality of legal scholars. The panel will address questions such as:
(1) Should legal scholars aim to influence law, policy, and/or legal practice through their legal scholarship?
(2) If law professors do seek to influence law, policy and/or legal practice, should they do so qua legal scholars – or should the role of the legal scholar be sharply distinct from the role of the legal/policy/practice advocate?
(3) In seeking to influence law, policy and/or legal practice through non-scholarly activities, does the legal scholar face any special constraints in virtue of the fact that he/she is a legal scholar?
Business meeting at program conclusion.