Friday, April 28, 2000, 9:00 a.m-5:00 p.m.
Richard J. Ogilvie Auditorium, Chicago-Kent College of Law, 565 West Adams Street, Chicago, Illinois

Major funding provided by the Joyce Foundation.

This program is free and open to the public. Please register by April 14, 2000 (see below).

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
—Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

The federal courts have long accepted a “collective rights” interpretation of the Second Amendment, which holds that citizens have a right to bear arms only within the context of state-regulated militias. Last April, however, in a highly controversial case that may soon reach the Supreme Court, a federal district court declared in United States v. Emerson that the Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms. Two weeks later, the shootings at Columbine High School returned the issue of gun violence to the center of the nation’s political agenda.

In this symposium, ten leading historians and constitutional scholars will explore what the Second Amendment meant at the time it was adopted, and what it should mean today. Proceedings of the conference will be published this fall in the Chicago-Kent Law Review.

Conference Program

9:00-9:15	Opening Remarks

9:15-9:45	To Hold and Bear Arms: The English Perspective
                Lois G. Schwoerer, George Washington University

9:45-10:15	The Second Amendment in Action
                Michael A. Bellesiles, Emory University

10:15-10:30	Break 

10:30-11:00	The Second Amendment: The Highest Stage of Originalism
                Jack N. Rakove, Stanford University

11:00-11:30	The Second Amendment and the Failure of Originalism
                Daniel A. Farber, University of Minnesota

11:30-12:00	Questions for Morning Speakers 

12:00-1:30	Lunch (on your own)

1:30-2:00	The Second Amendment: A Study in Obsolescence
                H. Richard Uviller, Columbia University, and 
                William G. Merkel, University of Oxford

2:00-2:30	A Well Regulated Militia:  The Original     
                Understanding of the Second Amendment
                Paul Finkelman, University of Tulsa

2:30-2:45	Break

2:45-3:15	Natural Rights and the Second Amendment 
                Steven J. Heyman, Chicago-Kent College of Law

3:15-3:45	What, if Anything, Does the Second Amendment Mean      
                Today?
                Michael C. Dorf, Columbia University

3:45-4:00	Break

4:00-4:30	Lost and Found:  Researching the Second Amendment
                Robert J. Spitzer, SUNY-Cortland

4:30-5:00	Questions for Afternoon Speakers

5:00		Reception

For more information, to register for the conference on-line, or to request that you be informed when the symposium is published in the Chicago-Kent Law Review, please visit the conference website at the link provided below, or call or email Anna Fulkerson at the address or phone number below.