Event Profile

2012 Annual Meeting

Date(s):
January 4 — 8, 2012
Venue:
Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
2660 Woodley Rd. NW
Washington, DC 20008 
Website:
http://www.aals.org/am2012
Fee(s):
This event has a fee
Description:

2012 AALS Annual Meeting Theme:
Academic Freedom and Academic Duty

The theme for the 2012 Annual Meeting centers around academic freedom and academic duty – including threats to tenure and to academic freedom, and the concomitant academic duty obligations that arise out of our status as tenured professors. There have been many serious threats to academic freedom arising from the environment and the polity: a law faculty member arrested in Rwanda for his pro bono representation of an opposition candidate in an election matter there; a law faculty-journal editor sued for criminal libel in France for publishing a book review; law school clinics reviled for their work as well as threatened legislatively and in the courts in Maryland, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, and in several other states; a law scholar sued for her research on family law, whose university chose not to indemnify her; a law review that pulled a piece from publication, following threats from the company criticized in the article; and other law faculty and non-law faculty punished for their views.

The zone of protected professorial speech is shrinking. In the 2006 Garcetti v. Ceballos case, the Supreme Court ruled that when public employees speak “pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline,” regardless of whether or not the speech involves a “matter of public concern.” Almost immediately, this limited decision was used by lower courts to allow public colleges to sanction faculty who would not have been punished for their views before Garcetti. Legal scholars and the academy have begun to recognize that this case will likely negatively impact college governance policies and practices.

The academy must identify and contend with these external threats as they arise both in legal education and in other fields of study. These programs will draw additional attention to international threats to law professors and academics around the world, as exemplified by the admirable work conducted by Scholars at Risk, who try and rescue these imperiled colleagues to safer situations. Attention must be paid to these examples, which are too common and which diminish us all, even when seemingly-remote threats arise; the bell tolls on behalf of us all. In addition, sessions will spell out the correlative obligations to undertake service and draw attention to the features inherent in academic duty.

There are many other threats as well, such as law school accreditors considering de-coupling their tenure requirements from their insistence upon academic freedom, and no longer requiring a system of tenure or security of position. It is difficult to square these developments with the increased attention we at AALS have paid to our core values. Arguments for tenure include that the promise of continual employment gives

  • Individual Registration
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  • 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm AALS Exhibit Hall Open House - "The Meeting Place"
    Type: Exhibit Events

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm AALS Office and Information Center
    Type: Resume

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm AALS Registration
    Type: AALS Registration

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm American University Washington College of Law Reception for all Meeting Registrants
    Type: Member School Events

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 7:00 am - 7:00 pm AALS Office and Information Center
    Type: Resume

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 7:00 am - 7:00 pm AALS Registration
    Type: AALS Registration

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 7:30 am - 8:30 am Twelve Step Meeting
    Type: AALS Programs

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 7:45 am - 5:00 pm Joint Field Trip of Sections on Environmental Law and Natural Resources Law-Waitlist
    Type: Section Field Trips

    Biodiversity, Urban Parks and Academics in Government - Field Trip to the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History

  • 8:00 am - 1:00 pm Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities Service Project - D.C. Central Kitchen
    Type: Section Programs

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 8:00 am - 5:00 pm AALS Exhibit Hall Open House - "The Meeting Place"
    Type: Exhibit Events

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 8:45 am - 5:00 pm AALS Workshop on the Future of the Legal Profession and Legal Education: Changes in Law Practice: Implications for Legal Education
    Type: Day-long Workshops

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 8:45 am - 5:00 pm Socio-Economics
    Type: Section Programs

    The Socio-Economics in the Academy and the Economy: Changing the Economic Debate

  • 9:00 am - 10:30 am Employment Discrimination
    Type: Section Programs

    Solidarity: The New Antidiscrimination Law?

  • 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Crosscutting Program - The Law and Science of Trustworthy Elections: Facing the Challenges of Internet Voting and Other E-Voting Technologies
    Type: AALS Crosscutting Programs

    The Law and Science of Trustworthy Elections: Facing the Challenges of Internet Voting and Other E-Voting Technologies

  • 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Jewish Law
    Type: Section Programs

    Jewish Law at Harvard: Rediscovering Nathan Isaacs

  • 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Torts and Compensation Systems
    Type: Section Programs

    Twenty-First Century Tort Theories: A New Audit of Civil Recourse Theory

  • 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Women in Legal Education
    Type: Section Programs

    Speed Mentoring and New Voices in Gender

  • 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Poverty Law Service Project - Martha's Table
    Type: Section Programs

    Short description is not available at this time.

  • 9:00 am - 4:30 pm Student Services
    Type: Section Programs

    The Duty to Develop Our Students: Enrollment to Endowment

  • 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Disability Law
    Type: Section Programs

    Disaster, Disability and Law

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Ernest Kofi Abotsi
Organization: African Centre for Development Law and Policy
Session: Africa

Robert M. Ackerman
Organization: Wayne State University Law School

Jane H. Aiken
Organization: Georgetown University Law Center

Padideh Ala'i
Organization: American University, Washington College of Law


Richard Albert
Organization: Boston College Law School

Richard Albert
Organization: Boston College Law School

Raquel E. Aldana
Organization: University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law

Ronald J. Allen
Organization: Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

Ronald J. Allen
Organization: Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Session: Evidence

Diane Marie Amann
Organization: University of California, Davis, School of Law
Session: Africa

Kimberly Ambrose
Organization: University of Washington School of Law

Jeff Amestoy
Organization: Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership


Michelle J. Anderson
Organization: City University of New York School of Law

Penelope Andrews
Organization: City University of New York School of Law

Claudia Angelos
Organization: New York University School of Law

Caitlyn Antrim
Organization: Rule of Law Committee for the Oceans


Amy G. Applegate
Organization: Indiana University Maurer School of Law