The University of Texas School of Law will host a symposium entitled “Countermajoritarianism and the Courts” on March 30–31, 2012. The symposium will be the first systematic reexamination in years of the extent to which the United States Supreme Court can meaningfully be described as a “countermajoritarian institution” in American political life.
“Alexander Bickel introduced the notion some fifty years ago, and in recent years it has been subjected to significant criticism by a number of political scientists,” said Professor Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair at the Law School. “However, NYU law professor Richard Pildes suggested in an influential essay last year in The Supreme Court Review that the concept has continued vitality and was subjected to premature burial. A number of distinguished law professors and political scientists, all of them specialists on various aspects of the Court, will examine the current state of the art with regard to the question presented.”
The symposium begins March 30, 2012, at 8:30 a.m. in Townes Hall Room 3.142, ending at 5:30 p.m. On March 31, 2012, the symposium will reconvene at 8:30 a.m. in the Sheffield Room, ending at 12:30 p.m. A complete schedule, list of participants, and papers are available at the symposium website.