By: Melanie McDonald
Date: October 22, 2007

United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia joined several of the nation’s most prominent legal scholars for a conference at Notre Dame Law School last Friday, Oct. 19. The conference, “Separation of Powers as a Safeguard of Federalism,” was sponsored by Professor of Law A.J. Bellia and the Notre Dame Law Review.

Justice Scalia delivered the opening lecture, “The Importance of Structure in Constitutional Interpretation,” during which he discussed the unique function of the judiciary in American government and analyzed several cases that have gone before the Court. After his talk, Scalia allowed time for student questions. During a lunchtime reception, Scalia spent more than an hour mingling and talking with students in the student lounge.

Scalia is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He began his career as a member of the federal judiciary in 1982 when he was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was subsequently nominated by President Ronald Reagan to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He took his seat on the Court on September 26, 1986.

The Notre Dame Law Review was founded in 1925. Its members have gone on to become some of the most notable judges, practitioners and scholars in the country. Law students edit the entire volume of the Law Review, and its five issues comprise approximately 2,000 pages of legal scholarship. The finished publication serves as a resource for legal scholars and a tool for practitioners.

“The goal of this conference was to address fundamental questions of American constitutional governance,” says sponsoring Professor A.J. Bellia. “In recent years, courts, scholars, and politicians have vigorously debated such questions as how federal courts should interpret legal texts, whether federal courts should enforce structural limits on congressional power, and what place international law occupies in the American federal system. These are not just questions of our day; these are questions of the American ages.”

Conference participants, in addition to Justice Scalia, were William Eskridge, Jr., John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School; John F. Manning, Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; Peter L. Strauss, Betts Professor of Law at Columbia Law School; Carlos Manuel Vazquez, Professor at Georgetown University Law Center; Elizabeth Garrett, University Vice President for Academic Planning and Budget; Sydney M. Irmas Chair in Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, Political Science and Policy, Planning and Development, USC Gould School of Law; Bradford R. Clark, William Cranch Research Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School; and Ernest A. Young, Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts, University of Texas School of Law.

Further information may be obtained from the Notre Dame Law School Web site at http://www.nd.edu/~abellia/clarkconf/. Contact: A.J. Bellia at 574-631-9353 or Anthony.J.Bellia.3@nd.edu.