2021 Symposium

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO JOINED US ON MARCH 19!

Our 2021 Symposium was held virtually on March 19, 2021.

The Northeastern University Law Review (NULR) collaborated with Northeastern's Center for Public Interest, Advocacy, and Collaboration (CPIAC); Center for Health Policy and Law (CHPL); and Center for Law, Innovation and Creativity (CLIC) to host this full-day event.

This Symposium's focus was selected to reflect the ongoing pandemic, as well as the surge in awareness related to the nation’s public health crisis related to systemic racism. Throughout the Symposium, there were multiple opportunities to learn from industry-experts about strategies and initiatives that could be used to solve these complex legal and social issues.

We thank everyone who took this extraordinary opportunity to join us in this exciting and innovative event. 

To learn more about the Symposium, please see the information below or check out our Conference Packet.

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

8:30 AM
Opening Remarks & Welcome Address

8:45 AM
Keynote Speaker Introductions

9:00 AM
Keynote Address
Speaker: Daniel E. Dawes
Executive Director at Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine

9:45 AM
Break

10:00 AM
The Balancing Act: Intellectual Property Rights and the Right to Access Medicine

11:15 AM
Break

11:30 AM
"Essential" to Work: Achieving a Just Workers' Bill of Rights

1:30 PM
Racism as a Public Health Crisis: the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline

2:45 PM
Break

3:00 PM
Prisons, Pandemics, and Population Health

4:15 PM
Closing Remarks

PANELS

The Balancing Act: Intellectual Property Rights and the Right to Access Medicine

Intellectual Property Rights were developed in order to help foster creativity and innovation. In the midst of a global health pandemic, innovation and creativity is needed in order to mitigate the global spread of disease. As of January 1, 2021, there are two vaccines - the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna - approved for emergency use in the United States and approved for use in Canada. However, also in the midst of a global pandemic is the need for medicine to be provided to the population as a whole without delay or undue hardship. This creates a natural conflict that we must balance. This panel seeks to examine what can we learn from the crises around the skyrocketing prices of insulin and epinephrin injectors (e.g. Epi-Pens) to figure out how do we balance the need for innovation with getting products and medicine to the people that need it?

Moderator:
Jonathan Khan
Professor of Law and Biology at Northeastern University School of Law and College of Science

Speakers:
Merith Basey
Executive Director at University Allied for Essential Medicines North America

Jorge Contreras
Professor of Law at University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law

Ellen 't Hoen
International Medical Activist and Researcher at the University Medical Centre at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Ruqaiijah Yearby
Professor of Law at Saint Louis University School of Law and Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Institute for Healing Justice and Equity


“Essential” to Work: Achieving a Just Workers’ Bill of Rights

The pandemic has brought to the forefront and exacerbated a number of disparities in the labor force, including employment disparities. There are “essential” essential workers, who have been rewarded with higher pay, better job stability, and better benefits (e.g. doctors, nurses, and lawyers); and there are “non-essential” essential workers (e.g. grocery store clerks, janitorial staff, Uber/Lyft drivers, non-managerial restaurant staff) that are essential to the company’s success yet are not rewarded in the same way with compensation and societal standing. These “non-essential” essential workers are also largely people of color and individuals from low-income backgrounds. This panel will explore the difference between these two types of “essential” workers and what it would take for them to be justly treated in the American labor force.

Moderator:
Theodore C. Landsmark
Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Faculty Director at the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University

Speakers:
Rebecca Dixon
Executive Director at National Employment Law Project

Seema Mohapatra
Associate Professor of Law at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Veena Dubal
Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of Law

Racism as a Public Health Crisis: the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline

Structural racism has been demonstrated to drive racialized health disparities. Its manifestations in health care and public health systems, as well as other public institutions, such as housing, additionally contribute to the criminalization of Communities of Color. This panel will explore racism as a public health issue, with a particular focus on the systems that contribute to the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline, as well as on jails and prisons themselves.

Moderator:
Aziza Ahmed
Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law and Bennett Boskey Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard University School of Law

Speakers:
Wendy Bach
Professor of Law at University of Tennessee-Knoxville College of Law

Khiara M. Bridges
Professor of Law at University of California - Berkeley School of Law

Kesi Foster
Lead Organizer and Co-Director at Make the Road New York Youth Power Project

Leon Smith
Executive Director at Citizens for Juvenile Justice

Prisons, Pandemics, and Population Health

Incarcerated persons already receive disproportionally less or negative health care and treatment than non-incarcerated persons and the COVID-19 pandemic has only reinforced these norms. We will examine what policymakers can do to change these current trends and how the criminal justice and legal systems foster these issues. This panel seeks to answer the questions how are prisons observing and/or enforcing public health mandates related to COVID; how has COVID exacerbated health issues and health disparities already seen in prisons; and are there laws and policies that can be used to address these issues and what does that look like?

Moderator:
Leo Beletsky
Professor of Law and Health Sciences at Northeastern University School of Law and Bouvé College of Health Sciences and Faculty Director for the Health in Justice Action Lab

Speakers:
Sharon Dolovich
Professor of Law at University of California - Los Angeles School of Law and Faculty Director of the University of California - Los Angeles Prison Law & Policy Program

Adnan Khan
Executive Director and co-founder of Re:Store Justice