March 13, 2009 at Seattle University       home   schedule   register   nlgseattle.org
In 2008, nations worldwide plundered their common wealth in an effort to bail out the prevailing economic order. It is a stark reminder that there could be other ways of doing things. It is an opportune time to reexamine the concept of the commons, perhaps as a parallel, if not an alternative to private property oriented social, political and legal systems. The modern notion of the commons is fractured. It ranges from movements concerned with the private ownership of life, water, access to land and sea, to organic farming versus industrial agriculture, to economic and political localism to the legal enclosures of intellectual creativity. The various commons movements seem superficially to have little in common, but beneath the surface there are multiple and recurring points of intersection. This seminar stitches together many different threads of the commons: the historical perspective in a contemporary context, creative and artistic commons, software and “intellectual property” including patenting of life forms, personal and political commons, natural resources, media and telecommunications commons. The seminar beckons to lawyers, professors and judges whose legal training is framed by property rights and human rights, computer geeks and “techies,” humanists, political activists, food activists, and creative communities of various stripes. Click to download full Law of the Commons brochure (PDF) Steve Reisler's article "Teaching the Commons" in the Sping 2009 issue of Guild Practitioner. (Large PDF) Location: Law of the Commons Conference Seattle University School of Law 1191 E. Columbia Sullivan Hall, Corner of 12th at E. Columbia Seattle, WA 98122-1090	Faculty to Present: For full presenter bios, please click here (PDF). Beth Elpern Burrows The Edmonds Institute Eben Moglen Columbia University School of Law & Chairman, Software Freedom Law Center Louis Wolcher University of Washington School of Law Mary Wong Franklin Pierce School of Law Brian Rowe Founder Freedom For IP Nives Dolsak University of Washington, Bothell William Rodgers University of Washington Mark Leier Simon Fraser University, Vancouver BC Laura Nader University of California, Berkeley Cindy Cohn Electronic Frontier Foundation Maggie Chon Seattle University School of Law Peter Linebaugh University of Toledo Robert Siegal IJustice.law, Seattle