Connecticut Law Review’s Volume 42 Symposium

On Friday October 30, 2009, the Connecticut Law Review will host its annual symposium in the William R. Davis Courtroom at the University of Connecticut School of Law.  This year’s topic is Redefining Work: Implications of the Four-Day Work Week, and we have invited a diverse group of legal scholars, economists, and other professionals to examine the four-day work week as a potential vehicle for achieving a variety of economic and social benefits, including:

• reducing the conflict between work responsibilities and family/community commitments;
• improving workplace morale and reducing absenteeism and stress-based injury rates;
• reducing unemployment;
• reducing energy use and costs;
• reducing commuting times and otherwise improving the environment and the quality of community life.

Participants will examine the experience in various U.S. jurisdictions that have adopted the four-day work week for public employees as well as the experience under other working-time reduction/flexibility mechanisms currently in use in both private and public sectors, in the U.S. and abroad.  Particular attention will be focused on the feasibility and desirability of legal interventions of various kinds to promote the four-day work week, as well as on the implications of working-time regulations and practices for gender equality and for the working poor.

Our keynote speaker—prominent scholar Joanne Conaghan of the University of Kent at Canterbury— will situate the discussion in the broader framework of debates over workplace regulation and “family-friendly” work policies in the UK and EU.

As Rahm Emanuel famously said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.”   With the Nation facing economic, energy, environmental, and unemployment crises—and lagging considerably behind other democracies in developing workplace policies that promote rather than undermine family and community life—the time may be right for rethinking traditional employment practices and taking a close and critical look at the four-day work week.

Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided to those who RSVP to the e-mail or phone number below by October 23, 2009. For more information, please contact the Connecticut Law Review by phone at (860) 570-5331 or via e-mail.

Confirmed Participants

• Rachel Arnow-Richman, University of Denver, Sturm College of Law
• Robert C. Bird, University of Connecticut School of Business
• Joanne Conaghan, University of Kent, Kent Law School (Keynote Speaker)
• Rex L. Facer, Romney Institute of Public Management, Brigham Young University, Marriott School
• R. Michael Fischl, University of Connecticut School of Law
• Lonnie Golden, Penn State
• Michael Z. Green, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
• Deborah Epstein Henry, Flex-Time Lawyers LLC
• David Howell, Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy
• Jennifer Hunt, Department of Economics, McGill University
• Karl E. Klare, Northeastern University School of Law
• Shirley Lung,  CUNY School of Law
• Sachin Pandya, University of Connecticut School of Law
• Kerry Rittich, University of Toronto
• Brishen Rogers, Harvard Law School
• Vicki Schultz, Yale Law School
• Peter Siegelman, University of Connecticut School of Law
• Katharine B. Silbaugh, Boston University School of Law
• Michelle Travis, University of San Francisco School of Law
• Lori L. Wadsworth, Romney Institute of Public Management, Brigham Young University, Marriott School
• Lucy A. Williams, Northeastern University School of Law

If you require reasonable accommodations for a disability,please contact Jane Thierfeld Brown at least two weeks in advance. She can also be reached by phone at (860) 570-5130.