Past Symposia
Fall 2024: Economies of Extraction
The University of Richmond Law Review’s fall symposium, “Economies of Extraction: Labor, Care, and the Carceral State,” will use a law-and-political-economy framework to discuss the persistent inequalities that define contemporary politics. The program will consist of several presentations, including an overview of current trends in worker surveillance, home-based care work, and improving conditions for people who are incarcerated. The symposium will also encourage the direct advocacy efforts that are possible to create a better future.
Spring 2024: Vestiges of the Confederacy: Reckoning with the Legacy of the South
The University of Richmond Law Review’s 2024 Symposium, “Vestiges of the Confederacy: Reckoning with the Legacy of the South,” will name the persistent ramifications of the confederacy, race-based chattel slavery, and Jim Crow. The keynote speaker, Justin Hansford, a Howard Law professor, a member of the National African American Reparations Commission, and the United States member to the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, will describe his work imagining a better future.
Winter 2023: Overlooked America: Addressing Legal Issues Facing Rural United States
The University of Richmond Law Review held an in-person symposium entitled “Overlooked America: Addressing Legal Issues Facing Rural United States.” Presentations focused on specific legal issues facing rural communities as well as the urban-rural divide. Topics included access to justice in rural America, water resources in indigenous communities, the coal industry’s degradation of Appalachian communities, electoral system reform to enhance rural representation, Virginia-specific policy recommendations, and a panel of esteemed authors and litigators discussing pharmaceutical companies’ roles in perpetuating the opioid epidemic in the region.
Spring 2022: Forming a More Perfect Union with Public Health Law
On Friday, March 25, 2022, the University of Richmond Law Review hosted a virtual symposium entitled “Forming a More Perfect Union with Public Health Law.” Presentations reflected on the adaptations occurring in public health law during and after the pandemic. Topics of discussion included social determinants of health, public trust in health administration, wastewater surveillance, administrative responses to drug-resistant tuberculosis, diverse and transdisciplinary overhauls of health administration, and Medicare and Medicaid reform.
2021: Corporate and Securities Law in the Time of the Coronavirus
Fall 2019: The 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots
On Friday, October 11, 2019 University of Richmond Law Review hosted a symposium reflecting on the social and legal precursors to the Stonewall Riots, examining the rise of LGBTQ rights in the United States, and anticipating the growth and impact of LGBTQ rights in various fields of law in the future. The symposium featured Keynote Speaker, Bradley Sears, the David Sanders Distinguished Scholar of Law and Policy at the Williams Institute and the Associate Dean of Public Interest Law at the UCLA School of Law, along with other diverse and talented scholars, LGBTQ activists, and leaders from across the country.
Fall 2018: The 50th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act
The University of Richmond Law Review on Friday, October 5, 2018 hosted a symposium addressing housing issues such as gentrification and its implications for racial and economic integration; the contemporary face of housing discrimination; discrimination in housing and neighborhood education; and models for anti-discrimination and affordability. The symposium featured keynote speaker the Hon. L. Douglas Wilder in addition to other diverse and talented scholars, housing activists, and leaders from across the country.
Fall 2017: Defining the Constitution’s President Through Legal & Political Conflict
The University of Richmond Law Review presents a symposium on Defining the Constitution’s President Through Legal and Political Conflict, which will explore how the American presidency has been shaped by the Obama and Trump administrations through clashes with other branches of the federal government, as well as state attorneys general.
Fall 2016: National Security in the Information Age: Are We Heading Toward Big Brother?
This symposium will discuss the recent developments in surveillance, classified information, and data security and focus on its implications abroad, at home, and in the courtroom. The event will also feature keynote speaker Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Fall 2015: School Inequality: Challenges and Solutions
The Symposium brought together the nation’s leading education policy scholars to identify the critical inequality issues affecting public schools, and offer ways to address them.
Fall 2014: Lethal Injection, Politics, and the Future of the Death Penalty
America’s death penalty is in a tailspin. That much is clear from headlines about botched executions and untested lethal injection protocols. In this symposium, we bring together a diverse group of individuals—all experts with a unique viewpoint on the death penalty—to share their expertise and spark a thoughtful, engaging conversation with each other and our audience.