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 – 11:30: Expert Histories
- Author: Edward K. Cheng, Hess Chair in Law, Vanderbilt Law School
- Commentator: James Macleod, Visiting Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
11:30-11:40: Morning Break
11:40-12:30: Unsticking Litigation Science
- Author: Edith Beerdsen, Assistant 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
12:30 - 1:30: Lunch
1:30-2:20: 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
2:20-3:10: 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
3:10-3:20: Afternoon Break
3:20-4:10: 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
4:10 - 5:00: 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
5:00 - 5:15: Closing Remarks
5:15 - 6:00: Refreshments
Please reach out to Executive Symposium Editor, Orna Madigan, at orm2108@columbia.edu with any questions.