Brian A. Smith

Aug 12, 2024 | lawliberty.org | Annie Jacobsen |Brian A. Smith |Wilfred Reilly |Helen Dale

In November 1983, the ABC network premiered The Day After, a film dramatizing World War III from the vantage point of ordinary Americans in and around Lawrence, Kansas. The film provided a plausible flashpoint for conflict: the Warsaw Pact begins a military buildup followed by a blockade of Berlin. When the deadline for an ultimatum passes the next day, NATO forces attack East Germany, and in turn are overrun by advancing Soviet forces.

May 6, 2024 | lawliberty.org | Jack Balkin |Brian A. Smith |John Grove |Lee Trepanier

A Law & Liberty symposium on Jack M. Balkin's Memory and Authority. The Supreme Court’s recent turn to history and tradition as guides for understanding the public meaning of text has reignited longstanding debates about the uses of history in law. In Memory and Authority, the longtime advocate of “living originalism,” Jack Balkin, argues that the Court’s use of history is self-serving, and amounts to the “mirror image” of living constitutionalism.

Dec 8, 2023 | lawliberty.org | Brian A. Smith |John Grove |Lee Trepanier |Rachel Lu

Symposium December 8, 2023 A symposium on the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was ratified 75 years ago on December 10, 1948. How the world understands universal human rights has changed significantly in that time. In this symposium, several Law & Liberty contributors consider the nature of universal human rights, what is necessary to uphold them, and what current trends portend.

Sep 21, 2023 | lawliberty.org | Kevin Vallier |Brian A. Smith |John Grove |Lee Trepanier

The twentieth century has seen an unexpected rise in religious politics around the world, and some American Catholics have revived a form of illiberalism that would use the power of the state to promulgate their faith. In All the Kingdoms of the World, Kevin Vallier takes these ideas seriously, using Catholic integralism as his primary focus. He recognizes the attraction of such systems, but reveals their limitations with a realistic appraisal of the possibilities of the modern world.

Aug 21, 2023 | lawliberty.org | Brian A. Smith |John Grove |Lee Trepanier |Rachel Lu

Symposium August 21, 2023 A Law & Liberty symposium on the "Freedom Conservatism" statement. The National Conservatism Statement of Principles published in 2022 served to reveal the widening faultlines among conservatives on questions related to economics, public religion, and foreign policy, among others. Just over a year later, “Freedom Conservatives” have put forward an alternative set of conservative commitments.