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From intimate lunchtime talks by our world-renowned faculty to academic conferences curated by student organizations, the Law School is continually host to some of the most groundbreaking ideas in the legal academy and beyond. Since 2005, the Law School has been committed to sharing these ideas with not only our campus community but with the world at large by making available free audio recordings of selected events. Please use the filters below to find a recording that might interest you, or use the page links at the bottom to browse through the list at your leisure.

  • Adam Samaha, "Tiebreakers"
    May 19, 2011

    What is a tiebreaker? Are some tiebreakers better than others? Does law have tiebreakers? Are ties so terrible that we need to break them? In this CBI, Professor Samaha offers answers to these questions. Using various examples from life and law, he will explain how tiebreakers can be thought...

  • Mary Anne Case, "'You're Telling Me It's Wrong to Do to the Prisoners What the Army Does to Its Own Soldiers?'"
    April 21, 2011

    Among the disturbing reports from a variety of venues at which the U.S. military has conducted interrogations of Islamic male detainees are those detailing exploitation of sexual and gender stereotypes and taboos as a central part of efforts to humiliate and degrade detainees.

  • Bernard Harcourt, "The Illusion of Free Markets: Laissez faire and Mass Incarceration"
    March 11, 2011

    It is widely believed today that the free market is the best mechanism ever invented to efficiently allocate resources in society. Just as fundamental is the belief that government has a legitimate and competent role in policing and punishing. The result, in this country, has been an...

  • Anup Malani and Jonathan Masur, "The True Cost of Patents"
    February 10, 2011

    Patents encourage innovation by granting inventors exclusive rights to sell their inventions. The resulting monopoly profits are a reward for innovation. It is commonly thought, however, that these monopoly profits price some consumers of inventions out of the market. This loss of...

  • Alicia Davis, "Is There a Corporate Governance Clientele Effect?"
    December 16, 2010

    Institutional investors, because of their relatively larger ownership stakes, have more incentive than retail investors to monitor the companies in which they invest, particularly if it is costly to exit.

  • Michael Schill, "The Mortgage Meltdown and Its Aftermath"
    December 2, 2010

    The spectacular rise and fall of the housing market over the past decade has shaken the foundations of virtually every aspect of our economy.

  • Saul Levmore, "From the Wheel to Open Source Software: Growth and Property Rights"
    October 21, 2010

    Reasonably secure property rights are widely understood as important for economic growth, though it is also understood that interest groups and politicians can benefit from particular configurations of rights. What might change in a world where intellectual property dominates? How should we...

  • Anup Malani, “Is it Possible to Interpret Statutes 'Objectively?'"
    July 15, 2010

    Anup Malani is Professor of Law and Aaron Director Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School. This Chicago's Best Ideas talk was recorded May 1, 2010 at the Law School's annual Reunion celebration.

  • M. Todd Henderson, "Unsafe Harbors"
    June 17, 2010

    Most of what we think about as "law" involves a background rule that conduct is legal with an exception for what lawmakers define as illegal. But there are several other ways in which law is made. The most obvious is the concept of a "safe harbor," where the background rule is that conduct is...

  • Geof Stone, "OT 1972: A Year With Justice Brennan"
    June 3, 2010

    In 1972-73, Geoffrey Stone served as a law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. The 1972 Term was an eventful one for the Supreme Court, resulting in landmark decisions in such areas as obscenity, equal protection, abortion, and criminal procedure.