Alexander Reinert participated in a panel on Erie and Federalism and presented his paper "Erie Doctrine, State Law, and Civil Rights Litigation in Federal Court." The topic of the Sixth Annual Constitutional Law Conference at Akron is the eightieth anniversary of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938). In this iconic case, the U.S. Supreme Court cast significant doubt on the federal courts’ authority to make law absent express authorization. This conference will bring together scholars from a range of legal disciplines in order to engage in a day of intensive scholarly discussion about the implications of Erie on choice of law issues that arise within specific fields including civil procedure, remedies, evidence, and intellectual property. The cross-disciplinary focus stems from a sense that Erie’s impact on fields of law has been underexplored, and that Erie problems can be better understood and assessed with concrete examples in hand.

Panel also featured: Bernadette Genetin, Charlton Copeland, Kermit Roosevelt, Jeff Rensberger, and Laura Little.