Torts and Civil Rights Law: Migration and Conflict

Sandra Sperino sends news of an interesting upcoming symposium at Ohio State:

On November 15,2013, The Ohio State Law Journal willhost a symposium titled “Torts and Civil Rights Law: Migration and Conflict.”

Increasingly,courts and commentators have labeled federal statutory anti-discriminationclaims “torts” or “tort-like” claims, without thoroughly discussing theimplications of this classification. Particularly since the U.S. SupremeCourt’s 2011 ruling applying the controversial concept of “proximate cause” toa claim of employment discrimination, the lower courts have stepped up theirefforts to reshape a number of anti-discrimination doctrines to align withgeneral tort concepts, often with the effect of limiting the scope of statutorycivil rights protection. Thus, tort law is playing a more prominent role instatutory interpretation under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).

This symposium will explore the theoretical and doctrinalaffinities and tensions between tort and anti-discrimination law, whilefostering dialogue between tort and anti-discrimination scholars. Symposiumspeakers include the following:

Martha Chamallas, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law;

Charles A. Sullivan, Seton Hall University School of Law;

Sandra F. Sperino, University of Cincinnati College of Law;

Jonathan Cardi, Wake Forest University School of Law;

William R. Corbett, Louisiana State University Law Center;

Anthony Sebok, Yeshiva University Cardozo School of Law;

Catherine M. Sharkey, New York University School of Law;

Catherine E. Smith, University of Denver Sturm College of Law;

Angela Onwuachi-Willig, The University of Iowa College of Law;

Ifeoma Ajunwa, Research Fellow, Columbia Law School;

Maria Linda Ontiveros, University of San Francisco School of Law;

Laura Rothstein, University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law;

Deborah L. Brake, University of Pittsburgh School of Law; and

L. Camille Hébert, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

The symposiumwill be held at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.  For more information, please visit thesymposium website at http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/students/groups/oslj/symposium-2/2013-2014-symposium/.

The Supreme Court of Ohio Commission on ContinuingLegal Education has approved this symposium for 5.50 total CLE hours ofinstruction.

 – SBS