Defining the Discipline

A rich program of symposia, forums, conferences and seminars on emerging and topical issues are sponsored by our Centers of Excellence, our law journals, and our fellowship programs.

Learn More about our Upcoming Academic Programs.

This conference will look at the CFPB in its first year and evaluate what it has accomplished so far, and future initiatives it may undertake. It will bring together CFPB officials, practitioners, and academics who are uniquely qualified to examine these issues. The participants will also discuss how best to protect consumer borrowers from lender overreaching in a manner that is sensitive to the functioning of credit markets and the banking system.

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This inaugural symposium, to be held by the Trade Secrets Institute, will focus on emerging issues in trade secrets law and the tension between the rights of information owners and the public. The first panel will address data mining, at issue in the recent Sorrell v. IMS Health decision. The second panel will discuss the public health implications of trade secret protection. A welcome and introductory remarks will be given by the New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

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Below are some of the programs that were recently held on campus:

This symposium took a comparative look at the different strategies that have been used to deal with systemic risk, both domestically and abroad. The Resolution Authority was considered in light of alternative domestic regimes, such as state insurance resolution, SIPC and the PBGC. The symposium also considered the approaches followed in Germany, the UK, the EU generally, and Canada. Finally, the symposium considered the sales of Chrysler and GM in bankruptcy.

Throughout, the symposium the complex interaction between market discipline and the role of governments in maintaining financial market stability was discussed. Dodd-Frank is neither the starting point nor the end point of the theoretical and policy discussions, and this program informed both.

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At an interdisciplinary symposium held on March 18, entitled “Adolescents in Society: Their Evolving Legal Status,” panelists addressed the many complex issues that lie ahead for lawyers, educators, and others working with adolescents in the field.

Over 150 practitioners and scholars participated in the full-day symposium, co-sponsored by Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Health Science and Public Policy and the Journal of Law and Policy and organized by Professors Cynthia Godsoe and Karen Porter, the Executive Director of the Center.

At the heart of the discussions was the transformation of the rights and protections accorded adolescents over the past decade, whether through court decisions, legislation, or social change.

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David G. Trager Public Policy Symposium: Sharing the Blame: the Law and Morality of Punishing Collective Entities
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition and the Journal of Law and Policy

Does it make sense to impose blame on a group as a group, as opposed to its individual members? Even if blame is appropriate, how do we decide the proper form and amount of punishment? How do we even conceive of a group as having its own independent existence or identity? The answers to these questions have significant implications for the scope and enforcement of criminal law. The symposium sought to derive broad general insights from various academic disciplines and considered the practical legal applications of those findings. It also addressed the psychological processes that lead people to treat groups as having independent existence, and the moral and philosophical consequences of doing so.

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Theory-Practice Seminar: eHealth? New Challenges for Information Privacy and Security
Sponsored by the Center for Health, Science and Public Policy

The economic stimulus package signed by President Obama on February 17, 2009 included a $19 billion investment in health information technology. What changes will this unprecedented investment bring to the health care landscape? What rules should apply? What should be done to ensure compliance with and appropriate enforcement of privacy protections? These questions and many others were addressed by a panel of leading experts to discuss the issues as the nation prepares for a major transformation of American health care.

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Symposium: Getting it Right: Government's Role in Housing and Economic Development
Co-sponsored by the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship and the Journal of Law and Policy

Historically, all levels of government have taken an active role in housing and economic development. As the federal government undergoes a change in administrations during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, this conference took a fresh look at two of the key roles that government plays in this area.

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Symposium: Is Morality Universal and Should the Law Care?
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition

New discoveries about the way our minds works lead to important and controversial questions that concern the law: Do we have a universal set of moral principles? Is there a universal set of justifications and excuses for otherwise bad conduct? Do we have a strong impulse toward retribution and if so, should the law reinforce or temper that impulse? Participants in this symposium included experts in law, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, history, and psychiatry.

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Symposium: The Products Liability Restatement: Was it a Success?
Co-sponsored by the Brooklyn Law Review; Gair, Gair, Conason, Steigman & Mackauf; Herzfeld & Rubin, and Shook, Hardy & Bacon

When the American Law Institute decided to launch a new Restatement of Torts in 1992, it started with product liability. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of The Restatement (Third) of Torts: Product Liability, a distinguished group of academics and practitioners gathered for a two-day symposium to share their reflections and papers on topics relating to product liability over the past decade.

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Symposium: Bankruptcy Claims Trading and Securities Regulation
Co-sponsored by the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law and the Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law.

A panel of experts in securities regulation and bankruptcy gathered to explore whether the current regulatory scheme governing claims trading in bankruptcy is adequate to the task.

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