AJS / Drake Law School Justice System Series

November 28, 2007 ║ 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. ║ Des Moines Central Library
"Justice at Home and Abroad: the Importance of the Rule of Law"
                Agenda      Program Summary      Promotional Flyer

April 20, 2007  ║ 9:00 am - Noon ║ Drake Legal Clinic, 2401 University Avenue
"Maintaining Iowa's Fair and Impartial Judiciary"

March 8, 2007 ║ 3:00 - 6:15 p.m. ║ Drake Law School (Rm 213 in Cartwright Hall)
"Collisions of Conscience and Professional Responsibility: When Judges, Pharmacists, Lawyers, and Doctors Choose Not to Serve"
                Agenda      Program Summary    Faculty Biographies    Promotional Flyer

February 28, 2006
How the Media Impacts Judicial Independence and Accountability

More than 80 attendees were treated to superb presentations by the Honorable Mark Bennett, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa; Professor Rachel Paine Caufield, Consultant to the AJS Hunter Center for Judicial Selection; and Professor Kathleen Richardson, Drake School of Journalism. The presentations were followed by a lively panel discussion and Q & A session with the audience. Professor Mark Kende, James Madison Chair and Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Drake Law School moderated the program. DVD copies of the program should be available presently.

February 9, 2006
The Jury and the American Litigation Process

Professor David McCord reported on how the jury has evolved in American history, with primary focus on the "jury reform" movement that has gathered steam over the past two decades.  He examined the slow transition from juries as passive recipients of information to the emerging model of jurors as active learners.  This movement has been given a significant boost through the new ABA Jury Trial Principles, adopted in February 2005.

Judge Dale E. Ruigh, Iowa District Court, presented on “plain English” jury instructions. The presentation provided a historical overview of the conversion of jury instructions from “legalese” into plain English, both in Iowa and elsewhere; methods for drafting and communicating the instructions to the jury for maximum comprehension; and a discussion of the benefits to the trial bar of plain English instructions.

Attorney Timothy Eckley presented on the phenomenon of the "vanishing jury trial," which has been noted with alarm by many researchers.  Eckley traced the numerical decline in trials over the past forty years, propose causes for the trends, and canvass possible remedial measures.