Dean Cahill and Faculty Authors Take Part in Annual Brooklyn Book Festival
At this year’s annual Brooklyn Book Festival on Sept. 22, Dean Michael Cahill welcomed festival-goers to the day’s events in the Moot Court Room, which aired live on CSPAN, and served as moderator for a panel discussion presented by the Law School: Criminal Justice and Injustice in One of the Most Imprisoned Democracies in the World: America.
The panel featured Bennett Capers, Stanley A. August Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, an authority on criminal law, whose forthcoming book The Prosecutor’s Turn (Metropolitan Books) argues for a turn away from public prosecutors and toward entrusting the work of justice to citizens. He and Cahill were joined by Fordham Law School Professor John F. Pfaff, author of Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform (Basic Books, 2017); and NYU Law School Professor Rachel Elise Barkow, author of Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration (Harvard University Press/Belknap, 2019). They engaged in a lively discussion about the rise of mass incarceration, the role of prosecutors, and how the criminal justice system and society at large might address the problem.
An afternoon panel Not My Homeland—But My Home, moderated by Maryellen Fullerton, Suzanne J. and Norman Miles Professor of Law, an expert on asylum and refugee law, explored the critical importance of the narratives of migrants and refugees and how they can help us gain a deeper understanding of the immigrant experience. She led a powerful and candid discussion with Dina Nayeri, author of The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You (Catapult 2019), who herself was a refugee from Iran as a child; and Susan Kuklin, author of We Are Here to Stay: Voices of Undocumented Youth (Candlewick Press 2019) which presents the stories of nine young adults living in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The festival also welcomes more than 200 publishers, presses, booksellers, and literary organizations to the popular Festival Day Literary Marketplace across the street from the Law School in Columbus Park. The Brooklyn Law School booth was staffed by faculty authors selling their recent books. Titles included:
- Animus: A Short Introduction to Bias in the Law (NYU Press 2017) and Enforcing the Equal Protection Clause (NYU Press 2016), by Professor William Araiza
- The Common Law Inside the Female Body (Cambridge University Press 2018), by Professor Anita Bernstein
- Untangling Fear in Lawyering (ABA Publishing 2019) and The Introverted Lawyer (ABA Publishing 2017), by Professor Heidi K. Brown
Social Enterprise Law (Oxford University Press 2017), by Professors Dana Brakman Reiser and Vice Dean Steven Dean- Understanding Bankruptcy, Fourth Edition (Carolina Academic Press 2019), by Professors Edward Janger and Jeffrey Ferriell
- Sports and the Law: Text, Cases, and Problems, Sixth Edition (West 2019), by Professor Jodi Balsam, with Paul Weiler, Gary Roberts, Roger Abrams, Stephen Ross, Michael Harper, & William Berry III
The Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literary event in New York City, presenting an array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors. One of America’s premier book festivals, the event draws thousands of booklovers to Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights. The Law School is a Cultural and Programming Partner for the festival and hosted a full day of panels and speakers in the Moot Court Room and the Student Lounge.
Watch CSPAN coverage:
Brooklyn Law School Presents: Criminal Justice and Injustice in One of the Most Imprisoned Democracies in the World: America
Not My Homeland – But My Home
View photos of the festival here