CPILJ Symposium 2024: Evidence Through a Critical Lens

The Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal’s symposium on January 26, 2024, explored how the law of evidence intersects with systems of inequality based on gender, racial, and other marginalized group-based status. It included sessions aimed at problem-solving, both through reform efforts and transformation in pedagogy. The discussion highlighted the possibilities and solutions brought by a critical approach to law, using evidence law as the focus of study. A live recording of the Excited Utterance podcast hosted by Professor Ed Cheng, Hess Chair in Law at Vanderbilt Law School, followed lunch. He was joined by Professor Erin Collins, Professor of Law at Richmond Law School. Watch the videos here.

Panel 1: Theoretical Frameworks
This panel discussed the power of evidence rules and how they may reinforce existing knowledge hierarchies or alternatively serve to expand existing perspectives.
Moderator: Professor Kiel Brennan-Marquez
Panelists: Professor Erin Collins, Professor Bennett Capers, Professor Julia Simon-Kerr, & Professor Jocelyn Simonson

Panel 2: Reform Efforts and Implementation
This panel will identify different areas where reform is being attempted or has been accomplished.
Moderator: Professor Julia Simon-Kerr
Panelists: Asees Bhasin, Professor Andrea Dennis, Professor Anna Roberts, Professor Jasmine Gonzales Rose, & Professor Maneka Sinha

Panel 3: Critical Approaches to Pedagogy and Practice
This panel will focus on ways to teach and practice evidence from a critical perspective.
Moderator: Taylorann Vibert
Panelists: Professor Lauryn Gouldin, Professor Jasmine Harris, Professor Montre Carodine, Professor Nina Chernoff, & Professor Christine Goodman

Excited Utterance Live Recording
Excited Utterance is a podcast focusing on scholarship on evidence law and proof, consisting of interviews of various evidence scholars on their recent or forthcoming scholarship. Professor Ed Cheng, the host of Excited Utterance and Hess Chair in Law at Vanderbilt Law School will be joined by Professor Erin Collins, Professor of Law at Richmond Law School.