We are pleased to announce the 2024 Columbia Science & Technology Law Review Symposium, “Judging Science.” This year’s symposium will explore how the judiciary currently assesses and incorporates scientific and expert testimony in the US legal system, and our panel of leading legal scholars will discuss potential improvements to make scientific evidence more reliable and understandable in court proceedings.
The event will be co-sponsored by Columbia’s Science, Technology & Intellectual Property Law (STIPL) Program.  

The Symposium will be held at Columbia Law School on Friday, November 8, from 10 AM - 5 PM. Please register here.

Featured Authors

Prof. Edith Beerdsen, Temple University Beasley School of Law

Prof. Edward Cheng, Vanderbilt Law School

Prof. Shari Diamond, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Prof. David Faigman, UC Law San Francisco

Prof. Maura Grossman, University of Waterloo, Osgoode Hall Law School

Hon. Paul W. Grimm (ret.), Duke University School of Law

Prof. Valerie Hans, Cornell Law School

Prof. Richard Lempert, University of Michigan Law School

 

Featured Commentators

Prof. James Macleod, Columbia Law School

Provost David Madigan, Northeastern University

Hon. Jed S. Rakoff, Columbia Law School

Prof. Daniel Richman, Columbia Law School

Prof. Avani Mehta Sood, New York University School of Law

Prof. Rebecca Wexler, UC Berkeley School of Law

 

This symposium is free to all attendees. Registration is required. 

 

Symposium Schedule 

10:00 - 10:30:  Registration

10:30 - 10:40: Opening Remarks

10:40 – 11:25: Expert Histories

• Author: Edward K. Cheng, Hess Chair in Law, Vanderbilt Law School
• Commentator: James Macleod, Visiting Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

11:25-11:40:  Morning Break

11:40-12:25:  The Replication Crisis

• Author: Edith Beerdsen, Associate Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law
  
• Commentator: The Honorable Jed S. Rakoff, Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Adjunct Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

12:25 - 1:30:  Lunch 

1:30-2:15:  Juries Judging Science

• Author: Valarie Hans, Charles F. Rechlin Professor of Law, Cornell Law School

• Commentator: Avani Mehta Sood, Professor of Law, New York University Law

2:15-3:00: Judicial Approaches to Acknowledged and Unacknowledged AI Generated Evidence

• Authors: Maura Grossman, Research Professor at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, and Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, with Hon. Judge Grimm (ret.), Director of the Bolch Judicial Institute and the David F. Levi Professor of the Practice of Law at Duke Law School
  
• Commentator: Daniel Richman, Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

3:00-3:20:  Afternoon Break

3:20-4:05:  Judicial Innumeracy

• Author: David Faigman, Chancellor & Dean, William B. Lockhart Professor of Law and John F. Digardi Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Law San Francisco
  
• Commentator: Rebecca Wexler, Hoessel-Armstrong Professor of Law, Faculty Co-Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology

4:05 - 4:50: How Experts View the Legal System’s Use of Scientific Evidence

• Authors: Shari Diamond, Howard J. Trienens Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, with Richard Lempert, Eric Stein Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Law and Sociology, Michigan Law
• Commentator: David Madigan, Provost & Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Northeastern University

4:50 - 5:00:  Closing Remarks

5:00 - 6:00: Refreshments

Please reach out to Executive Symposium Editor, Orna Madigan, at orm2108@columbia.edu with any questions.