Austin Sarat

Law in Film – What We Can Learn from Classic Movies Filmmakers love the law for its suspenseful and dramatic qualities. They have turned to legal subjects from the very origins of moving pictures and continue to do so today. But do they accurately portray, or substantively distort, the legal processes that they depict? And whether accurate or not, what lessons can we learn about law–and about film–from examining the many films that portray police, lawyers, trials, and punishments? In this course, Amherst Professor Austin Sarat will discuss such classic movies as: Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

The Worst Supreme Court Decisions: When Our Highest Court Gets it Terribly Wrong. The Supreme Court is generally thought of as the citadel of the rule of law and an essential beacon of liberty and rights. Decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education (ending the legal segregation of public schools) and Obergefell v. Hodges (allowing same sex marriage) underlie that reputation. But there is another side to the story–a side that shows resistance to inclusion, equality and rights. This lecture will examine that other story. Professor Sarat will examine the Court’s most notorious decisions and ask why they are infamous. What can we learn about America and its legal traditions from a close study of cases in which injustice was done in the name of America’s Constitution?

So far this year, the United States has executed 12 people and over 2500 remain on death row. We are one of only 56 nations in the world out of 195 that still practice capital punishment. Should the United States as a country stop using the death penalty? Is it ever justified, such as for the most heinous crimes? Or as a deterrent to extremely dangerous criminals? Or is the death penalty always cruel and unusual punishment as outlawed by the Constitution? ? Alternatively, should it be suspended for practical reasons, because it is costly and often unfairly administered? Amherst Professor and Dean Austin Sarat is an internationally acknowledged world expert on the subject, and he is anxious to pose the questions above and discuss his thoughts.

Voting in America: Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, Where We’re Headed. For as long as America has been a nation we have witnessed conflicts over the right to vote. Originally the vote was restricted to a narrow subset of the population, but throughout our history marginalized and disadvantaged people have struggled for the right to vote. Securing that right is a crucial aspect of citizenship. But today, new questions are being asked about America’s commitment to expanding the opportunity to vote. Partisan gerrymandering, limits on the number of polling stations, voter suppression efforts and controversies around mail in voting echo through our politics. This lecture will offer a unique vantage point from which to understand the past, present, and future of voting.

The End of Privacy: The New Realities of a Digital World. Americans say they value their privacy, but they regularly relinquish it knowingly and unknowingly. The privacy dilemma has become all the more acute in the present moment when many are more dependent on technologies which threaten our privacy than we have ever been. This talk will consider the legal status of the so-called “right to be let alone” as well as its meaning in our daily lives. Professor Sarat will discuss various situations in which we choose convenience over privacy or in which we mistakenly think have a right to privacy. What does that right protect? What can we do to better protect our privacy?

Even if we know little about the law, most of us know something about one of law’s great rituals, the trial. We are regularly fascinated when this or that legal case is played out in a courtroom and proclaimed in the media to be “the trial of the century.” Courtroom contests pit good versus evil, right versus wrong. But, in addition to their dramatic quality, they also are educational moments, occasions on which some of our most important political and social issues get played out before judge and jury. In this lecture, we will consider four trials that changed the world and American history during the twentieth century. Four Famous Trials that Changed History “Scopes Monkey Trial.” The Nuremberg trials The O.J. Simpson trial Impeachment Trial against President Bill Clinton

As is well known, America’s founding political commitments were to democracy and the rule of law. Some have described them as the soul and spirit of our nation. And over the generations citizens have given their lives to preserve those commitments. But it turns out that their meanings are contested and open to interpretation. This lecture will discuss those contested meanings as they have played out in American history. We will, in addition, assess the health of democracy and the rule of law in the United States. We will consider challenges posed by the Watergate scandal, life in an age of terrorism, and the relationship between the Executive and Judicial branches of our national government.

As is well known, America’s founding political commitments were to democracy and the rule of law. Some have described them as the soul and spirit of our nation. And over the generations citizens have given their lives to preserve those commitments. But it turns out that their meanings are contested and open to interpretation. This lecture will discuss those contested meanings as they have played out in American history. We will, in addition, assess the health of democracy and the rule of law in the United States. We will consider challenges posed by the Watergate scandal, life in an age of terrorism, and the relationship between the Executive and Judicial branches of our national government.