Please Join Us for the 2015 ABA CJS Work-in-Progress Roundtables

Once again, the ABA Criminal Justice Section Academics Committee will host work-in-progress roundtables at the annual Criminal Justice Section Fall Institute in Washington, DC.  The roundtables will be held on Thursday, October 22, 2015 from 12:30-3:00pm at the Loews Madison Hotel, and the ABA will provide sandwiches and drinks for lunch.  The rest of the CJS Fall Institute programs will take place later in the day on Thursday, October 22 and on Friday, October 23 at the same hotel.  The entire ABA CJS Fall Institute Program is available here.

We hope you will consider workshopping your criminal justice works-in-progress at these roundtables.  Participants will present their work in a roundtable format, and abstracts or drafts will be shared among presenters and discussants in advance of the workshop. If you’re interested in participating, please email an abstract of your paper of no more than 500 words to Lucian Dervan at ldervan@law.siu.edu by Sept. 15, 2015.  Space is limited, and presenters will be chosen by members of the organizing committee.

This is an excellent opportunity for academics at any stage of their careers, and for those who would like to transition to academia, to workshop pieces at an early stage of development or obtain feedback on more developed pieces. Workshop presenters will be responsible for their own travel and hotel costs, but there is no registration fee for participating in the roundtables.  If you decide to participate in the remainder of the ABA CJS Fall Institute, you will need to register for that event separately – see here for registration information.

We are also excited to note that this year’s workshop will begin with a brief opening address by Professor Stephen A. Saltzburg of the George Washington University Law School.  Professor Saltzburg will discuss how to create and execute a productive and impactful research agenda.  Professor Saltzburg is one of the nation’s leading scholars and has authored over twenty books and over 100 articles.  Professor Saltzburg’s talk is not to be missed.

The Criminal Justice Section has secured a special room rate of $269 single/double per night at the Lowes Madison Hotel.  This rate can be reserved by calling 855-255-6397 and referring to the “ABA Criminal Justice Section Fall Institute.”  You can also book using this code online at https://www.loewshotels.com/madison/CJS-Fall-Institute-Meeting-2015?corpcode=CJSO21.  Reservations must be made by Thursday, October 1, 2015 at 5:00pm EST to secure this rate.

Please spread the word to those who might be interested, including those not yet in academia.  We have included below some information regarding last year’s workshop.  We hope to see everyone in D.C. at the end of October.

All the best,

Lucian E. Dervan (SIU Law) and Meghan J. Ryan (SMU Law)

Co-Chairs, ABA CJS Academics Committee

Information Regarding Last Year’s Roundtable

On October 23, 2014, the ABA Criminal Justice Section Academics Committee hosted academic roundtables at the ABA Criminal Justice Section Seventh Annual Fall Institute. At these roundtables, scholars from across the country discussed papers on topics ranging from big data’s effect on jury selection to whether second-look sentencing is consistent with the asserted purposes of the Model Penal Code. Participants in the academic roundtables included Joanmarie Davoli (Florida Coastal, now Fed. Soc.), Cara Drinan (Catholic), Andrew Ferguson (Univ. of D.C.), Lea Johnston (Florida), Kevin Lapp (Loyola LA), Ion Meyn (Wisconsin), Steve Morrison (North Dakota), Anthony O’Rourke (Buffalo), and Meghan Ryan (SMU).

Here is a sampling of the great work they presented:

The Miller Revolution, by Cara Drinan (forthcoming in the Iowa L. Rev.)

In a series of cases culminating in Miller v. Alabama, the United States Supreme Court has limited the extent to which juveniles may be exposed to the harshest criminal sentences.  In this Article, I argue that the Miller trilogy has revolutionized juvenile justice.  While we have begun to see only the most inchoate signs of this revolution in practice, this Article endeavors to describe what this revolution may look like both in the immediate term and in years to come. Part I demonstrates how the United States went from being the leader in progressive juvenile justice to being an international outlier in the severity of its juvenile sentencing. Part II examines the Miller decision, as well as its immediate predecessor cases, and explains why Miller demands a capacious reading. Part III explores the post-Miller revolution in juvenile justice that is afoot. Specifically, Part III makes the case for two immediate corollaries that flow from Miller, each of which is groundbreaking in its own right: 1) the creation of procedural safeguards for juveniles facing life without parole (“LWOP”) comparable to those recommended for adults facing the death penalty; and 2) the elimination of mandatory minimums for juveniles altogether. Finally, Part III identifies ways in which juvenile justice advocates can leverage the moral leadership of the Miller Court to seek future reform in three key areas: juvenile transfer laws; presumptive sentencing guidelines as they apply to children; and juvenile conditions of confinement.

Strictissimi Juris, by Steve Morrison (67 Ala. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2015), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2535115)

Guilt by association is universally rejected, but its criticisms are always based on the substantive due process right to individual, not imputed, liability.  The rule of strictissimi juris promises to be the procedural counterpart to the substantive right.  Its promise, however, has gone unfulfilled because it is little understood or developed. This article provides a descriptive, prescriptive, and contextual dissertation on strictissimi juris.  Descriptively, it provides the jurisprudential foundation and definition of strictissimi juris.  Prescriptively, it sets forth the purposes for which lawyers and courts have invoked strictissimi juris, thus providing a guide for how future lawyers might invoke strictissimi juris, and courts apply it.  Contextually, it analogizes strictissimi juris to substantive canons that play important roles in the separation of powers.