The New Police Science: Police Powers in Comparative Perspective (June 12-13, 2004) (co-hosted with the Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy)

"The New Police Science: Police Powers in Comparative Perspective" brought together an interdisciplinary international group of scholars to explore various aspects of the police power as a modern technology of governance. The police power--understood as the power to maintain "peace, order, and good government"--pervades all aspects and levels of modern government. It is so essential to the very idea of government that it (1) underlies such diverse technologies of government as liquor licensing and the criminal law, (2) is claimed by city governments as well as county, state, and national governments, and (3) appears, in various forms--and under various names--in the practices and theories of governance of various modern legal systems, including not only the United States and Canada, but the United Kingdom and continental Europe (the home of the original "police science") as well. Despite its widely acknowledged persistence as a phenomenon, the police power today has all but disappeared as a subject. The study of some of its components instead has been dispersed among a wide range of disciplines, including social and political theory, legal theory and history, criminology, and feminist studies. "The New Police Science: Police Powers in Comparative Perspective" aimed to reclaim the police power as an important subject for scholarly inquiry.

Participants included:
 

• Mitchell Dean, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University
• Markus Dubber, Law School, SUNY Buffalo
• Lindsay Farmer, School of Law, University of Glasgow
• Alan Hunt, Department of Law & Department of Sociology/Anthropology, University of Carleton
• Ron Levi, Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto
• Mark Neocleous, School of International Studies, Brunel University
• Christopher Tomlins, American Bar Foundation, Chicago
• Mariana Valverde, Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto

White Collar Criminal Law in Comparative Perspective: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (April 3-4, 2004)

On April 3-4, 2004, criminal law scholars from the United States and Germany gathered at the Buffalo Criminal Law Center for a workshop to explore issues in white collar criminal law following the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. As always, the conference proceedings will be published in a special symposium issue of the Buffalo Criminal Law Review. [Access the conference website here.]

Participants included:
 

• Kathleen Brickey, Washington University
• Pamela Bucy, University of Alabama
• Stuart Green, Louisiana State University
• Roland Hefendehl, University of Dresden
• Peter Henning, Wayne State University
• Geraldine Szott Moohr, University of Houston
• Cornelius Nestler, University of Cologne
• Bernd Schünemann, University of Munich

Model Penal Code: Sentencing (April 25-27, 2003)

This conference was the second one in a row dedicated to the Model Penal Code.  The 2003 symposium took a close look at the American Law Institute's new criminal law reform project, Model Penal Code: Sentencing. The conference papers appear in the 2003 symposium issue of the Buffalo Criminal Law Review.

Participants included:
 

• Sarah Armstrong, University of Edinburgh
• Anthony Doob & Cheryl Webster, University of Toronto
• Wayne Logan, William Mitchell College of Law
• Cornelius Nestler, University of Cologne
• Kevin Reitz, University of Colorado
• Paul Robinson, University of Pennsylvania
• Edward Rubin, University of Pennsylvania
• Bernd Schünemann, University of Munich
• Jonathan Simon, University of Miami
• James Whitman, Yale University

The Model Penal Code Revisited (Oct. 29-31, 1999)

Seizing the opportunity presented by the recent “tentative determination” of the American Law Institute’s Program Committee to revisit the Model Code, the conference had two interrelated objectives: to provide a forum for the principled reappraisal of the Model Code, and, thereby, to lay the foundation for its fundamental revision in the years to come.

The immediate objective of the conference was not to redraft the Model Penal Code; it sought to initiate and shape the long-term collaborative effort, within and outside the American Law Institute, that will be required to make the Code relevant again for criminal law reform at the state and federal levels.  Although specific reform proposals, including drafts, were explored, emphasis therefore was placed on the consideration of broader questions.  Conference papers have been published in the 2000 symposium issue of the Buffalo Criminal Law Review.

Participants from the United States, Canada, and Germany included:
 

• Guyora Binder, State University of New York at Buffalo
• Christine Boyle, University of British Columbia
• Anthony Dillof, Washington & Lee University
• Stuart Green, Louisiana State University
• Roland Hefendehl, Humboldt-Universität Berlin
• Erik Luna, University of Chicago
• Cornelius Nestler, Universität zu Köln
• Paul Robinson, Northwestern University
• Richard Singer, Rutgers University
• Donald Stuart, Queen's University
• Robert Weisberg, Stanford University
• Leonardo Zaibert, Grand Valley State University

Victims and the Criminal Law (Sept. 12-13, 1998)

The Buffalo Criminal Law Center's 1998 conference explored the victim's role in American and German criminal law. This binational conference was supported by a generous grant from the German-American Academic Council (co-investigator: Prof. Dr. Bernd Schünemann, Munich). For on-line access to materials related to the conference, including the project description and a German-American bibliography on victims and the criminal law, click here.
Conference papers appeared in the 1999 symposium issue of the Buffalo Criminal Law Review.  They are also available on-line here.
Participants included:
 
• Richard Adelstein, Wesleyan University
• Peter-Alexis Albrecht, Universität Frankfurt
• Wilfried Bottke, Universität Augsburg
• Jennifer Gerarda Brown, Quinnipiac College
• Russell Christopher, Columbia University
• Anne Coughlin, University of Virginia
• George Fletcher, Columbia University
• Detlev Frehsee, Universität Bielefeld
• Tatjana Hörnle, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Michael Moore, University of Pennsylvania
• Cornelius Prittwitz, Universität Rostock
• Dieter Rössner, Universität Marburg
• Bernd Schünemann, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Toward a New Federal Criminal Code (Nov. 8, 1997)

The Buffalo Criminal Law Center's current legislative project focuses on the long overdue reform of federal criminal law. Unlike most state legislatures, including that of New York, the United States Congress failed to reform the federal criminal code after the publication of the Model Penal Code in 1962. A federal commission on criminal law reform produced several volumes of working papers and a Proposed Federal Criminal Code based on the Model Penal Code. In 1978, the draft code passed the Senate with an overwhelming majority. Nonetheless, Congressional interest in code reform waned until the reform effort was abandoned in the early 1980s. Instead of undertaking a wholesale reconsideration of federal criminal law, the Congress turned its attention to a reform of federal sentencing law which culminated in the establishment of the United States Sentencing Commission in 1984.

A series of conferences on the reform of federal criminal law now is timely not only because the outdated federal criminal code lives on in its famously incoherent, incongruous, and inconsistent bulk, but also because the United States Sentencing Commission is currently reconsidering its mission.  Click here for materials related to this conference series, including a comprehensive bibliography of primary and secondary materials on federal criminal code reform.

On November 8, 1997, the Buffalo Criminal Law Center hosted "Toward a New Federal Criminal Code," a conference dedicated to laying the foundation for a reform of the federal criminal code. Papers presented at the conference appeared in the summer 1998 issue of the Buffalo Criminal Law Review.  For on-line access to articles, click here.  Conference participants included:

• Kathleen F. Brickey, Washington University School of Law
• George P. Fletcher, Columbia University School of Law
• Ronald L. Gainer, Former Director, Penal Law Reform Project, U.S. Dep't of Justice
• Cynthia Lee, University of San Diego School of Law
• Gerard E. Lynch, Columbia University School of Law
• Paul H. Robinson, Northwestern University School of Law
• Jeffrey A. Standen, Willamette University School of Law
• Sarah N. Welling, University of Kentucky School of Law

Rethinking Federal Criminal Law (Nov. 23, 1996)

On November 23, 1996, the Buffalo Criminal Law Center hosted its first conference on federal criminal law reform, "Rethinking Federal Criminal Law." Conference participants included leading criminal law experts from the U.S. and Europe. Conference proceedings will be published in a symposium issue of the Buffalo Criminal Law Review, the journal of the Buffalo Criminal Law Center.

 Panel topics included "Federal Criminal Law and Sentencing Today," "Federal Criminal Justice Policy and Politics," "Women, Minorities, and Federal Criminal Law," "Comparative Perspectives on Federal Criminal Law," and "Reforming Federal Criminal Law and Sentencing." The conference proceedings were published in the summer 1997 issue of the Buffalo Criminal Law Review. The participants were:
 

• Sara Sun Beale, Duke University School of Law
• Anne M. Coughlin, University of Virginia School of Law
• Robert H. Joost, Former Co-Reporter, Massachusetts Criminal Law Revision Commission
• Dan M. Kahan, University of Chicago Law School
• Nancy E. Marion, Department of Political Science, University of Akron
• Tracey L. Meares, University of Chicago Law School
• Paul H. Robinson, Northwestern University School of Law
• Bernd Schünemann, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich

The New York Death Penalty in Context (Mar. 2, 1996)

The Buffalo Criminal Law Center also addresses issues of state criminal justice policy. On March 2, 1996, a conference on the reintroduction of capital punishment in New York State was held at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. The speakers included experts on the legislation and imposition of capital punishment:

• Susan Bandes, De Paul University College of Law
• Kevin Dillon, District Attorney for Erie County, New York
• Eric Freedman, Hofstra University School of Law
• Stephen Garvey, Cornell Law School
• Samuel Gross, University of Michigan Law School
• George Kannar, State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law
• George Kendall, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc.
• James Liebman, Columbia University School of Law
• Daniel Polsby, Northwestern University School of Law
• Robert Weisberg, Stanford Law School
• Larry Yackle, Boston University School of Law
• Franklin Zimring, University of California at Berkeley School of Law

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