Alaska’s Ballot Initiative Today: History, Practice, and Process: Elizabeth Bakalar (Former Senior Assistant Attorney General, Current Municipal Attorney)

Alaskan Exceptionalism in Campaign Finance: Chad Flanders (Professor of Law, Saint Louis University School of Law)

Commenter- Susan Orlansky (Reeves Amodio LLC)
Moderator: Professor Thomas B. Metzloff (Duke Law; Alaska Law Review)

Originally recorded on October 30, 2020.

Sponsored by the Alaska Law Review and co-sponsored with the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center.

Keynote Address, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean; University of California, Berkeley Law School)

Originally recorded on October 30, 2020.

Sponsored by the Alaska Law Review and co-sponsored with the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center.

Scott Kendall (Alaskans for Better Elections)
Professor Ryan Fortson (University of Alaska Anchorage)
Moderator: James Brooks, Anchorage Daily News

Originally recorded on October 30, 2020.

Sponsored by the Alaska Law Review and co-sponsored with the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center.

Due to the unique history of the territory and State of Alaska, and the social, political and legislative treatment of its indigenous inhabitants, Alaska’s Constitution has an extraordinary impact on the legal rights of Alaska Natives. Willie "Iggiagruk” Hensley was a young Inupiaq man living in remote rural Alaska at the time of the constitutional convention. He presents the perspective of Alaska Natives in the drafting and ratification of the Alaska Constitution.

This presentation seeks to clarify what is distinctive about the Alaska Constitution by placing it in comparative perspective. This begins with a review of the characteristics of state constitutions themselves, in contrast to the more familiar United States Constitution. Next, an introduction to the New Judicial Federalism, whereby state high courts may interpret, or at least consider interpreting, their own state constitutions to provide more protective rights than those under the US Constitution.

Vic Fischer was one of the delegates to the Alaska Constitutional Convention in the winter of 1955-1956, and he was strongly involved in planning for the 2009 celebration of 50 years of Alaska statehood. Fischer was the first director of the University of Alaska’s Institute of Social and Economic Research, and he has studied and taken part in Alaska government and politics for over 50 years. He was a territorial legislator, a delegate to Alaska’s constitutional convention, and later a state senator.

Michael Schwaiger presents unpublished materials written by the late Honorable Tom Stewart, who was the Secretary of the Alaska Constitutional Convention.

The symposium is co-sponsored by the UAA Justice Center and the Alaska Law Review in cooperation with the Historians Committee of the Alaska Bar Association

Recorded on October 12, 2018.

Michael Schwaiger (Alaska Bar Association, Historians Committee)

The Alaska Judicial Council, created in Article IV, Section 8 of the State’s Constitution, carries out the duties of the merit selection system created by the Constitution. In this presentation, Dosik details the article by herself and Teresa W. Carns describing how the Council developed its procedures from statehood forward, and what they are at the present.

In anticipation of the sixtieth anniversary of Alaska statehood, "60 Years Later: The Alaska Constitution, History in Context" was at the University of Alaska Anchorage - Alaska Pacific University Consortium Library.

The symposium is co-sponsored by the UAA Justice Center and the Alaska Law Review in cooperation with the Historians Committee of the Alaska Bar Association

Recorded on October 12, 2018