The Law of the Commons

Organized by the Seattle Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

Friday, March 13, 2009
8:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Seattle University School of Law

Anticipated CLE credits: 8.75 General Credits

A dominant concept of British and American civil law is that everything is based on property rights, and it is the lawyer's job to protect and exalt those rights. This program will offer attorneys a different set of glasses through which to view the traditional property-based legal structure. Although legal concepts of "property," overlaid on fundamental concepts of "common law," have antecedents that long predate the U.S. Constitution, in the 21st Century, these "common law" antecedents, together with science and computer technology, have developed along a new legal trajectory that many attorneys and judges still do not have the experience or knowledge to appreciate.

This program looks at, identifies and scrutinizes popular impulses toward "common" stewardship of resources in contrast and reaction to political, economic and legal pressures to enclose, privatize or commercialize the commons. The program will give attorneys (and those who are not attorneys) a new perspective on the practice and ethics of law and a clearer apprehension of what the law could be. The program will offer profoundly different ways of thinking about personal and communal property, technology, science, culture, natural resources, civil rights and society. Distinguished speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds will help lawyers gain the insight necessary to communicate with and to develop business and representational contacts with vast, highly sophisticated and highly influential communities whose legal issues are the future of the law. A primary objective of the program is to help lawyers better perform their traditional roles as agents of change and justice.

Speakers

Beth Elpern Burrows The Edmonds Institute Edmonds, WA	Laura Nader Professor University of California Berkeley
Margaret Chon Donald and Lynda Horowitz Professor for the Pursuit of Justice Seattle University School of Law	Steven A. Reisler Steven A. Reisler PLLC
Cindy Cohn Legal Director Electronic Frontier Foundation San Francisco, CA	William Rodgers Stimson Bullitt Professor of Law University of Washington School of Law
Nives Dolšak Associate Professor University of Washington Bothell	Brian Rowe 3L Creative Commons Summer 2008 Intern Seattle University School of Law
Mark Leier Professor Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada	Robert Siegal Center for Social Justice Seattle, WA
Peter Linebaugh Professor University of Toledo Toledo, Ohio	Louis E. Wolcher Charles I. Stone Professor of Law University of Washington School of Law
Eben Moglen Professor of Law Founding Director, Software Freedom Law Center, Columbia School of Law	Mary W.S. Wong Professor of Law Franklin Pierce Law Center

Program Agenda

7:30 - 8:20 a.m.	Sign-in and Continental Breakfast
8:20 - 8:30 a.m.	Welcoming Comments and Ritual Slaying of Cell Phones Speaker: Steven A. Reisler
8:30 - 9 a.m.	Session 1 The Meaning of the Commons Speaker: Louis Wolcher
9 - 9:45 a.m.	Session 2 Research, Technology Transfer and the Theft from the Commons Speaker: Beth Elpern Burrows
9:45 - 10:15 a.m.	Session 3 The IT Standards Battle and Why We Are the Spoils of War Speaker: Mary Wong
10:15 - 10:30 a.m.	Break
10:30 - 11 a.m.	Session 4 Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma! Speaker: Maggie Chon
11 a.m. - noon	Session 5 The Law of the Commons, or Lawyers against the commons Speaker: Laura Nader
Noon - 1:15 p.m.	Lunch (provided for all attending the program)
1:15 - 2:15 p.m.	Session 6 Free & Open Software: Paradigm for a New Intellectual Commons Speaker: Eben Moglen
2:15 - 3 p.m.	Session 7 This Land is My Land or Is Their Land Their Land? The Profitization of Common Natural Resources Speaker: William Rodgers
3 - 3:15 p.m.	Break
3:15 - 4 p.m.	Session 8 Accident or Design? Historical Snapshots North of the Border and the Bigger Picture of the Commons Speaker: Mark Leier
4 - 4:30 p.m.	Session 9 Weathering the Storm: The Global Climate Commons Speaker: Nives Dolšak
4:30 - 5:15 p.m.	Session 10 Magna Carta and the Commons: the Ultimate Stare Decisis Speaker: Peter Linebaugh
5:15 - 6 p.m.	Session 11 21st Century Civil Rights: the Digital Commons Speaker: Robert Siegal/Cindy Cohn/Brian Rowe
6 - 8 p.m.	Concluding Reception, Dinner and Common Conversation

Travel & Lodging

Please view our travel information page for help planning your trip to Seattle.

For additional information about this CLE seminar, please contact Julie McClure at the Office of Continuing Legal Education at mcclurej@seattleu.edu or by phone at 206.398.4282.