NYU School Of Law’s Summit On Constitutional Adjudication Attracts Justices From Key World Constitutional Courts

--Global Teleconferencing Unusual Aspect Of Summit

New York City (Saturday, Oct. 25, 1997) -- The New York University School of Law last week hosted a landmark Summit on Constitutional Adjudication, which brought together Justices from the four most important Constitutional Courts in the world---Italy, Germany, Russia, and the United States.

The 1997 Summit, the second convened by the NYU School of Law as part of its innovative Global Law School Program, ran from Wednesday, October 22 through Friday, October 24. The issues discussed were judicial ethics and independence, separation of powers, Federalism, conceptions of due process and judicial restraint. Distinguished participants were United States Supreme Court Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony M. Kennedy, and Sandra Day O’Connor; Justices Nicolai Vedernikov, Vladimir Oleynik, Oleg Tiunov, and Viktor Luchin of the Russian Constitutional Court; Justice Antonio La Pergola Advocate General, Court of Justice of the European Communities; and Justices Deiter Grimm, Helga Seibert, and Udo Steiner, and President Jutta Limbach of the German Federal Constitutional Court.

"We are proud and honored to have had the opportunity to host this historic occasion, which we consider to be one of the most significant in the life of our institution," said John Sexton, dean of NYU School of Law. "What occurred was a frank dialogue among the Justices of the Courts with an extremely distinguished group of academics from the NYU School of Law and the Saint Louis University School of Law facilitating the discussions."

An unusual aspect of the Summit, growing out of the German Justices’ inability to come to NYU, was the linking of two sites internationally by INTELSAT satellite to produce two-way full motion teleconferencing, which resulted in a continuous presence between the two locations. The technological setup was done on only two days notice and was coordinated by NYU’s Department of Television and Media Services, Division of Libraries.

"Although four of the Justices were a world away, it was as if they were all in the same room talking," added Dean Sexton.

Other NYU participants included Professors Norman Dorsen, Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Franck, Sylvia Law, Burt Neuborne, David Richards, Lawrence Sager and Richard Stewart.

The first Summit on Constitutional Adjudication was held in July, 1995, at NYU’s Villa La Pietra in Florence, Italy. The 1995 conference, which (like this one) was sponsored by the NYU School of Law in cooperation with Saint Louis University Law School, marked the first joint meeting of Justices of the world’s four most distinguished Constitutional Courts and set the precedent for succeeding meetings to discuss common issues of constitutional dimension.

Participating Justices at the 1995 Conference included Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer; Justices Dieter Grimm and Helga Seibert of the German Federal Constitutional Court; President Antonio Baldassare and former President Antonio La Pergola of the Italian Constitutional Court; and Justices Oleg Tiunov and Nicolai Vedernikov of the Russian Constitutional Court. Agenda topics included court jurisdiction and organization, the role of the judge and judicial ethics, separation of powers, Federalism, judicial authority and self restraint, and international law and rights jurisprudence.

The conferences fit within the most ambitious curricula initiative to occur in legal education in recent years. In 1994, the NYU School of Law announced the establishment of the world’s first Global Law School Program. The Program, which builds on NYU’s existing eminence in legal education and its proximity to the legal, financial, and diplomatic centers of New York, is designed to bring the world’s leading law professors and law students to NYU, where they will teach, research, and study side by side with their American counterparts.

10/25/97