Deference: The Legal Concept and the Legal Practice
Monday, March 2, 2020
Boston University School of Law
Barristers Hall
12:45 – 2:00 pm
This symposium celebrates the publication of Deference: The Legal Concept and the Legal Practice coauthored by Gary Lawson and Guy I. Seidman.
This book’s goal is to provide a definition of and vocabulary for deference that can be used to describe, explain and/or criticize deference in all of its manifestations in the law, including some manifestations that are not always identified by legal actors as instances of deference. Deference is perhaps the most important concept and practice in law. It lies at the core of every system of precedent, appellate review, federalism, and separation of powers, all of which center on how one actor should deal with previous decisions (including that actor’s own decisions). Oddly enough, deference is also one of the most under-analyzed and under-theorized legal concepts and practices, perhaps because its applications are so varied. This book undertakes a descriptive and conceptual, not normative or critical, analysis of deference. It does not seek to prescribe whether and how any legal system should apply deference in any specific circumstance or to critique any particular deference doctrines. Rather, it hopes to bring the concept of deference to the forefront of legal discussion; to identify, catalogue, and analyze at least the chief among its many legal applications; to set forth the many and varied rationales that can be and have been offered in support of (some species of) deference in different legal contexts; and thereby to provide a vocabulary and conceptual framework that can be employed in future projects, whether those projects are descriptive or prescriptive.
Welcome: Associate Dean, David H. Webber
Commentators:
Richard H. Fallon, Jr, Harvard Law School
Daniel Lyons, Boston College Law School
Adrian Vermeule, Harvard Law School
All – including not only professors, law students, graduate students, and undergraduates, but also alumni and the general public – are welcome to attend the symposium. If you have academic questions about the program, please contact Professor David Webber, dhwebber@bu.edu.