April 2026
Event Details
DATE
Friday, April 17, 2026
TIME
9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Lunch will be provided.
LOCATION
Room W400
New York Law School
185 West Broadway,
New York, NY 10013
Considerable challenges to the rule of law and democracy have surfaced in recent decades. These challenges are local in nature, but also global in scope and globally interconnected. They include threats to electoral integrity, judicial independence, and impartiality. One of the most significant challenges facing the rule of law and democracy is the erosion of trust in institutions. Political polarization has exacerbated these challenges, as well as disinformation campaigns and the rise of authoritarian regimes. Democracies can be quashed by armed conflict or coups, but they can also be lost through a gradual erosion, a term which Jack Balkin describes as “constitutional rot.” Are we witnessing a crisis in the United States today? Constitutional rot? Join us for a daylong series of panels exploring these questions.
This event is co-sponsored by the Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law.
AGENDA:
8:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Welcome Remarks: Penelope Andrews, John Marshall Harlan II Professor and Director, Racial Justice Project, NYLS; William P. La Piana, Dean of Faculty and Rita and Joseph Solomon Professor of Wills, Trusts, and Estates, NYLS
9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Keynote Address: Mario Barnes, Chancellor’s Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine, and President, Law and Society Association
Chair: Kirk D. Burkhalter ’04, Dean for Evening Division Engagement and Professor of Law, NYLS
Responses: Richard Marsico, Professor of Law and Director, Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law, NYLS; Rachel Van Cleave, Visiting Professor of Law, Pacific University McGeorge School of Law
9:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. • Panel 1: Constitutional Crisis or Rot? Analyzing the Current Moment
Chair: Doni Gewirtzman, Professor of Law, NYLS
Panelists: Hank Chambers, Oliver Hill Faculty Research Scholar and Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law; F. Michael Higginbotham, Laurence M. Katz Professor of Law, University of Baltimore; Sandy Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law Professor, University of Texas School of Law; David Pozen, Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law, Columbia University School of Law
11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. • Morning Tea
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. • Panel 2: Threats to Institutions, Legal Culture, and Racial and Economic Justice
Chair: Laura Dooley, Professor of Law, Touro Law Jacob D. Fuchsberger Law Center
Panelists: Chinmayi Arun, Research Scholar in Law and Executive Director, Information Society Project, Yale University School of Law; Torey Dolan, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin School of Law; Suzette Malveaux, Roger D. Groot Professor of Law, Washington and Lee School of Law; Catherine Powell, Eunice Hunton Carter Distinguished Research Scholar, Professor of Law
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. • Lunch
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. • Panel 3: What in the Past Might be a Template for the Future? Mapping How We Got Here
Chair: David Simson, Associate Professor of Law, NYLS
Panelists: John Q. Barrett, Benjamin N. Cardozo Professor of Law, St. John’s University School of Law; Mark Graber, Regents Professor, University System of Maryland Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland Frances King Carey School of Law; Samuel Issacharoff, Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law, NYU School of Law; Rebecca Zietlow, Dean, Distinguished University Professor, and Charles W. Fornoff Professor of Law and Values, University of Toledo School of Law
3:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. • Afternoon Tea
3:45 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. • Panel 4: Comparative Perspectives
Chair: Frank Munger, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emeritus, NYLS
Panelists: Heinz Klug, John and Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin School of Law; Gaurav Mukherjee, Visiting Professor of Law, University of Connecticut; Miguel Schor, Class of 1977 Distinguished Scholar Professor of Law, Drake University; Jason Stanley, Bissell-Heyd-Associates Chair, American Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto
5:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. • In Conversation
Moderators: Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School;Kim Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University; Ruti G. Teitel, Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law, Co-Director of the Center for International Law, NYLS
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. • Reception