April 17, 2006 "Separate Branches, Balanced Powers: Madison's Legacy" to Be Subject of Law Day Program

The Law Library of the Library of Congress and the American Bar Association (ABA) Division for Public Education will commemorate Law Day with a panel discussion on “Separate Branches, Balanced Powers: Madison’s Legacy.” The event will be held from 4:45 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 1, in Madison Hall, located on the first floor of the Library’s James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The program is free and open to the public, but attendees must register in advance at www.abanet.org/publiced/jaworski.html.

Jeffrey Rosen, George Washington University Law School professor and legal affairs editor at The New Republic, will serve as moderator for the panel discussion, which will explore the Madisonian principles of separation of powers and checks and balances and their relevance in American government today. He will be joined by panelists Richard Matthews, chair of the Department of Government at Lehigh University; Hon. Abner Mikva, Schwartz lecturer at the University of Chicago, former White House counsel and chief judge at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Gary Rosen, managing editor of Commentary Magazine; Hon. Patricia Wald, former judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and chief judge at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and Ruth Wedgwood, Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. ABA President Michael Greco, National Law Day Chair Peter Kalis and Law Librarian of Congress Rubens Medina are scheduled to participate and make opening remarks.

“Separate Branches, Balanced Powers: Madison’s Legacy” is part of the continuing Leon Jaworski Public Program Series devoted to examining the law and lawyers’ role in American culture. Organizational partners for this year’s event include the ABA Division for Public Education, the ABA Commission on Civic Education and Separation of Powers, the Law Library of Congress, the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, the League of Women Voters and the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

This program is part of the Library’s annual celebration of Law Day and one of the ABA’s principal national events for the commemoration of Law Day 2006. The ABA instituted Law Day on May 1 in the late 1950s to draw attention to both the principles and practices of law and justice. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established Law Day in 1958.

The mission of the Law Library is to provide research and legal information to Congress, the federal courts and executive branch agencies and to offer reference services to the public. It contains the world’s largest collection of law books and other resources from all countries and provides online databases and guides to legal information worldwide through its Web site at www.loc.gov/law.