State Constitutions & The Limits of Criminal Punishments Symposium

October 24, 2024

8:30 am - 6:15 pm

Rutgers Camden Campus Center - Multipurpose Room

This symposium will engage with the growing legal and intellectual movement to challenge excessive criminal punishments—broadly understood to include both prison terms and conditions of confinement—via the anti-punishment and related clauses in state constitutions. The symposium will explore the interplay between state and federal law, and how state courts can emerge from federal law’s shadow through the text, history, traditions, and unique policy goals of their own constitutions to impose meaningful restraints on extreme sentencing, create a more humane legal system, and reduce mass incarceration.