Join us for a book launch from Professor Emeritus Richard Weisberg, preceded by a panel on American Discourse and the First Amendment in Today’s Political Environment.

Weisberg's new book, Law, Literature, and History: A Fateful Rendezvous with the Shoah, focuses on close readings of acclaimed 20th century novels and lesser known but stunning works of popular culture uniquely situate us to understand the clash of religious values that led to genocide in World War II Europe (including Great Britain).

Morning Panel: 10:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
“The First Amendment and Related Current Issues: A Panel Discussion”
The morning panel will discuss the current state of our discourse and of First Amendment doctrine. Five distinguished speakers will converse about such topics as “the fairness doctrine”, “the fate of NY Times vs Sullivan and Libel Law”, “Campus related Tensions, Title VI and the Freedom of Speech”, and the “Much Noted Contemporary Tendency to 'Silo' : we only want to get Messages that Confirm our Own pre-existing beliefs and that Don't Upset Us.”
Panelists:
• Floyd Abrams — Floyd Abrams is senior counsel at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. He has argued 13 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and been involved in many more. He is the author of three books, the most recent of which is The Soul of the First Amendment (Yale University Press, 2017).
• Arthur Eisenberg — Arthur Eisenberg currently serves as Executive Counsel to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). Prior to assuming his current position, he was Legal Director of the NYCLU for twenty-five years. For an equally long period, he has also taught Constitutional Litigation as an Adjunct Professor at Cardozo Law School.
• Peter Goodrich — Professor of Law and Director of the Program in Law and Humanities, Cardozo School of Law. He was the founding dean of the Department of Law at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he also held the position of Corporation of London Professor of Law. An authority on Contracts, Film and the Law, Gender and the Law, and Jurisprudence, Professor Goodrich has written extensively on legal history and theory, law and literature, and semiotics. He is the author of 12 books and serves as managing editor of Law and Literature. He was also the founding editor of Law and Critique.
• Daniel Kornstein — Daniel Kornstein is a partner in the Manhattan law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel. A graduate of Yale Law School, he has handled a number of First Amendment cases and has represented Shakespearean characters in moot courts, including one at Cardozo Law School.
• Richard Weisberg — Richard Weisberg has written on Times v Sullivan and its progeny and received a Guggenheim grant to research the common law roots in England of the law of libel. He is an Emeritus at Cardozo and currently teaches in the English Department at Carnegie Mellon University.
• Additional guests TBD

Afternoon Book Launch: 2:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
“Richard Weisberg’s New Book on Law, Literature, and European Antisemitism During the Holocaust”
A celebration of Richard Weisberg's new Book on the Contribution of Imaginative Fiction to an Understanding of the Shoah.
Guest Speakers:
• Vivian Curran — Vivian Curran, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh. Professor Curran is a Vice-President of the International Academy of Comparative Law and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Comparative Law. She writes and teaches in the areas of comparative and international law.
• William W. Park — Professor of Law Emeritus at Boston University, taught tax, finance, and conflict of laws, and directed the University’s Center for Banking Law Studies. An Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge, he served as General Editor of Arbitration International (2005–2022) and President of the London Court of International Arbitration (2010–2016). After studies at Yale and Columbia, Park practiced in Paris and Geneva before entering academia. He has held visiting posts worldwide, served on the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators, and participated in tribunals on dormant Swiss bank accounts and Holocaust-era insurance claims. Park has acted in disputes spanning tax, insurance, investment, banking, IP (FRAND), gas supply, and construction, and is the author of Arbitration of International Business Disputes, International Forum Selection, and ICC Arbitration.
• Julie Stone Peters — Julie Stone Peters, H. Gordon Garbedian Professor of English and Comparative Literature; Affiliated Faculty, Columbia Law School; Global Professorial Fellow, Queen Mary University School of Law.
• Shaina Trapedo — Shaina Trapedo, Assistant Professor of English, Stern College, and Resident Scholar at Yeshiva University’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought.
• Additional guests TBD

Panelist and speaker lineups subject to change.