Scholarly Events

The Perry A. Zirkel Law and Education Conference

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Religion, Parents, and Public Education at the Crossroads

The role of religion in U.S. public education has long sparked debate, from school prayer to curriculum content. This conference examined a pivotal new development: the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which affirms parents’ right to opt their children out of instruction that conflicts with their religious beliefs. Bringing together scholars, policymakers, and educators, the event explored how this ruling reshapes legal standards, parental rights, and school governance. Panelists discussed the practical and constitutional challenges ahead, focusing on how schools can navigate opt-out policies while maintaining cohesive curricula in an evolving educational landscape.

Miguel Cardona, Former U.S. Secretary of Education, delivered the keynote address.

Connecticut Journal of International Law Roundtable Talk

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Cyber Chaos

On March 24, UConn Law hosted “Cyber Chaos at the Border: Navigating Competing and Conflicting International Cybercrime Laws,” a two-hour roundtable examining the legal and geopolitical stakes at the intersection of cybercrime and international law.

The program opened with a keynote lecture by Matthew Lowe, Visiting Professor from Practice and an expert in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. An IAPP Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP), Lowe brought a multidisciplinary perspective shaped by his work as in-house counsel at Kyndryl and his prior role as Privacy & AI Counsel at IBM. He also draws on his experience teaching Data Privacy, Cybersecurity Law, and AI Ethics at Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as well as his extensive scholarship on U.S. and international approaches to AI regulation.

Lowe also moderated a fireside discussion featuring Wayne Unger, Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University School of Law and author of Data Privacy and Security Law; William Roberts, Partner and Co-Chair of the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice at Day Pitney LLP and Adjunct Professor at UConn Law; and Vanessa Roberts Avery, former United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut and current Partner at McCarter & English.

Together, the speakers examined how competing global regulatory frameworks—including those in the United States, the European Union, and Eastern jurisdictions—approach cross-border cyber operations. The conversation also explored evolving doctrines of sovereignty and use of force in cyberspace, along with emerging enforcement mechanisms involving both states and private actors. Attendees left with a stronger understanding of attribution challenges, questions of state responsibility, and potential pathways toward multilateral governance in an increasingly interconnected digital landscape.

Earth Day Conference

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The Path Forward: Regional Strategies for Climate Resilience

From rising seas to stronger storms, from grid reliability to frequent flooding, municipalities and states face common climate challenges that are daunting individually but can be addressed cooperatively by leveraging collective effort. Regional resilience can be a path forward.

UConn Law’s Center for Energy & Environmental Law hosted a solutions-based conference on April 17 that explored priorities and pathways toward regional resilience. The discussion ranged from law and policy to science and engineering, with panels featuring historians, climate scientists, municipal planners, and law professors.

The conference concluded with a collaborative workshop in which participants helped shape a report to the National Science Foundation outlining key priorities for regional resilience in the Northeast.

Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal Symposium

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Equity at Work: Addressing Worker Rights and Diversity in the Workplace
This symposium explored how rapidly shifting legal and policy landscapes have reshaped issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), free expression, and state employment law in today’s workplace. It brought together leading academics, practitioners, and policymakers to examine how employers and employees navigate these evolving challenges.
The program featured three panels addressing the history and legality of DEI initiatives in the workplace, labor organizing, and the ability of state actors, practitioners, and worker advocates to sustain and advance workplace equity amid shifting federal policies. Panelists considered how current legal frameworks support or hinder efforts to define and achieve equity at work. Each session concluded with an audience Q&A.
Panel One: An Overview of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives in the Workplace
Moderator: Professor Sachin Pandya
Panel Two: Labor Organizing in the Workplace
Panel Three: The Trajectory of State Law in the Workplace: Employment Practitioners, Government Leaders, and Worker Advocates in Action
Moderator: Professor Jon Bauer
Professor Michael Wishnie
Attorney Natalie Braswell
Attorney Claire Howard
Ms. Nelli Jara

Mercy, Justice and Artificial Intelligence

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Artificial intelligence is increasingly entering the legal system, raising questions about what makes human judgment unique.

Many fear that automation could erode the “human essence” of legal decision‑making. But what exactly is that essence, and is it worth preserving given our own tendencies toward bias and error? Drawing on longstanding theological and philosophical debates about mercy and justice, this talk considered how humans and machines should share responsibility in law.

Justice concerns what people deserve, while mercy is by definition undeserved and cannot be fully explained by legal rules. Because of this, even if machines can help produce more consistent or just outcomes, the merciful dimension of judgment will be far harder to automate.

This lecture on February 11 commemorated the investiture of Kiel Brennan-Marquez as the Wallace Stevens Professor of Law.

2025 CLR Annual Symposium: The Fourth Estate in a Time of Crisis

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The Fourth Estate in a Time of Crisis

Keynote Speaker: David Folkenflik, NPR News, Media Correspondent

This symposium explored the developments that threaten the news media’s ability to function in its historic role as the “Fourth Estate” and will asked whether the law can be used to address these challenges. For example, do current laws (e.g., defamation, broadcast) adequately protect the news media and First Amendment rights? Can social media be regulated or managed in ways that might help increase public confidence in the news media? How can journalists be better protected from threats to their newsgathering and publication efforts? Can or should there be limits on the ability of wealthy private actors to mute or silence media outlets? What can the news media do, if anything, to restore public confidence?

Panel 1: Challenges from Courts and to the Rule of Law
Panelists:
Professor Sonja West
Professor RonNell Anderson Jones
Professor Amy Kristin Sanders
Professor Erin Carroll

Moderator: Professor Leslie Levin

Panel 2: Other Government Challenges
Panelists:
Professor Blake Reid
Professor Mary Rose Papandrea
Hearst CT Managing Editor John Ferraro
Professor David Schulz

Moderator: Professor David Schulz

Panel 3: Corporate Challenges
Panelists:
Professor Jane Bambauer
Professor Lili Levi
Professor Marie Shanahan

Moderator: Professor Marie Shanahan

Bureaucracy and Democracy

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Investiture of Anya Bernstein as Jesse Root Professor of Law

Bureaucracy gets a bad rap. Illegitimate, unaccountable, grudging, mean—bureaucracy seems to need some extra justification to make it palatable to a democratic society. At the same time, democracy depends on bureaucracy: the decisions elected representatives make have few effects without someone to implement them. And because a steady pace of elections changes the makeup of political coalitions, the democratic decisions of the past need custodians to keep them efficacious and current over time, through change. Drawing on empirical research, this talk clears a place for bureaucracy at the heart of the democratic project. It argues that bureaucracy is the condition of possibility for democratic legitimacy in a modern mass democracy like the United States. It highlights key characteristics and functions that we should preserve, strengthen, and reform. And it explains why an attack on the administrative state is actually an attack on representative democracy itself.

In Conversation: Executive Power and the Rule of Law

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This Roundtable will bring together two leading Constitutional Law scholars for a lively discussion of recent court cases challenging the exercise of executive authority. Speakers will debate issues relating to the scope of executive power, the separation of powers, and the judiciary’s role in upholding the rule of law in a democracy.

Roundtable Speakers:
Steven Calabresi, Clayton J. and Henry R. Barber Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Cristina Rodriguez, Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law, Yale Law School

Moderator:
Minor Myers, Professor of Law, UConn School of Law

Misuse of Insurance by Totalitarian Systems

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Misuse of Insurance by Totalitarian Systems: A Cautionary Tale from Nazi Germany

Insurance is generally seen as a benefit to society as it allows people to safeguard against the financial consequences of all sorts of unfortunate events. But what happens if the state begins using the tools of insurance law to systematically deprive groups of citizens of any kind of financial security?

Special lecture given by Dr. Oliver Brand, Martin Flynn Global Law Faculty. He is the Chair of Private Law, Insurance Law, Business Law & Comparative Law at the University of Mannheim, Germany.

Roundtable on Executive Action Targeting Lawyers and Law Firms

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In recent weeks, the Executive has directly threatened, attacked and penalized lawyers and law firms. The Administration has fired Department of Justice prosecutors who previously investigated the President or will not act in accordance with the Executive’s goals. The Administration has stripped some law firms of their security clearances, banned them from federal buildings, and threatened lawyers who litigate against the government. This Roundtable discussed these current developments, the implications of the Administration’s actions for the legal profession, and the legal profession’s responses to these actions.

This was a two-part event with two sets of speakers.

4/8 speakers included:
David Atkins, Visiting lecturer, Yale Law School
Professor Emeritus Paul Chill, UConn School of Law
Professor Leslie Levin, UConn School of Law
Thomas J. Murphy, Cowdery, Murphy & Healy
Professor Richard Wilson, UConn School of Law

4/14 speakers included:
Professor Emeritus Paul Chill, UConn School of Law
Dean Emeritus Timothy Fisher, UConn School of Law
Professor Leslie Levin, UConn School of Law
Professor Lisa Perkins, UConn School of Law