Spring 2010 Symposium - A Response to Barry Friedman's The Will of the People

April 8-9, 2010

Glen Staszewski, Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law, sets the stage for the Spring 2010 Symposium to begin.

The Michigan State Law Review Presents a symposium in reaction to Barry Friedman's book on how public opinion has influenced the Supreme Court and shaped the meaning of the Constitution.

In The Will of the People, Barry Friedman challenges the countermajoritarian difficulty by showing that the Supreme Court has always been subject to a higher power: the American public.  He claims that for at least the past 60 years, the justices have made sure that their decisions do not stray too far from public opinion.  His path-breaking account of the relationship between popular opinion and the Supreme Court—from the Declaration of Independence to the end of the Rehnquist court in 2005 — details how the American people came to accept their most controversial institution and, in doing so, helped shape the meaning of the Constitution.

This symposium will respond to Barry Friedman's The Will of the People from a range of disciplinary perspectives.  The Michigan State Law Review is bringing together a distinguished group of scholars of American constitutional history, law and politics, constitutional theory, and comparative constitutionalism to participate in the event and contribute Essays based on their reaction to Professor Friedman's book.

Distinguished Participants:

Clifford J. Carrubba, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emory University

Barry Friedman, Vice Dean, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law, New York University School of Law

Amanda Frost, Associate Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law

Corrina Barrett Lain, Professor of Law, University of Richmond Law School

Stephanie A Lundquist, The Thomas W. Gregory Professorship in Law, The University of Texas Law School

Kevin T. McGuire, Professor of Political Science, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

William Novak, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Edward A. Purcell, Jr., Joseph Solomon Distinguished Professor of Law, New York Law School

Lori A. Ringhand, Associate Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law

Neil S. Siegel, Professor of Law and Political Science, Duke University School of Law

Lawrence B. Solum, John E. Cribbet Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Illinois College of Law

Glen Staszewski, Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law

Georg Vanberg, Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and Co-Director of the Undergraduate Honors Program, Department of Political Science, The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

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2009 Business Law and Narrative Symposium

Narratives are stories.

Narratives both reflect and influence society, from the broadest popular cultural viewpoints down to the private communications between individuals. This dynamic process begins with the narrator, whose technique and viewpoint influence how the story is told. A successful narrative influences the viewpoint of the audience, modifying public perceptions of the subject. These changing public perceptions in turn influence the viewpoint of future narrators. Through this dynamic narrative process, public viewpoints evolve, leading to changes in the cultural, political, and legal landscape.

Business narratives include the stories told within the legal profession, as well as thsoe communicated to the general public through a vast array of media, including news, books, movies, and the Internet.  Recent business narratives include the Bernard Madoff scam, the auto industry woes, bank bailouts, and the subprime mortgage crisis.  From Enron and Martha Stewart to the current crises, new villains emerge, forever changing public perceptions of business and the corporate world.

Recent events bring to the fore a call on narrative as a means of interpreting what has happened, with possibilities for simple explanations that attempt a narrative form.  Distinguished corporate law experts and scholars in history, literature, and narrative will present their papers and discuss the challenges narrators face in creating an acessible, widely shared account of business culture, corporate law, or financial events, given the complexity of business and the abstract nature of the corporation.  Do such business narratives supply a widely shared consensus comparable to large narrative understandings of other social enterprises?  Do cases or scholarship deploy narrative materials? If so, how might they be evaluated as narrative?  Does literature constitute a source of insight that informs the social understanding of business realities and personalities? How does gender influence narrative?

MSU Law Professor Mae Kuykendall organized the symposium to further explore the intersection of business law and narrative, as discussed in her 2007 article, "No Imagination: The Marginal Role of Narrative in Corporate Law." Distinguished corporate law experts and scholars in history, literature, and narrative will gather to address these questions on September 11, 2009, at the Michigan State University College of Law. The "Michigan State Law Review will publish the papers presented in what promises to be a trenchant discussion of an important topic. We invite you to join us for our discussion of business law and narrative.

Law Symposium Videos

Business Narrative Symposium Videos

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