School
hosts major privacy symposium
Scholars, judges from across the country
attend April 11 session
The Charleston School of Law hosted a major symposium April
11 that garnered attention from national scholars on issues
involving privacy in the federal courts.
U.S.
Magistrate Judge Boyd Boland, editor of the Federal Courts
Law Review |
Charleston School of Law Associate Professor Allyson
W. Haynes said the event highlighted important and timely issues
for judges and litigants alike.
"It was wonderful to see federal magistrate
judges from districts across the country debating privacy issues
like the secrecy of settlements and the sealing of electronic
surveillance requests," said Haynes. "The debate heightened
the awareness of the speakers and the audience as to confidentiality
concerns and threats to open access to court proceedings, and
was an important beginning to a necessary dialogue in this country."
The symposium, sponsored by the Federal
Courts Law Review at the Charleston School of Law, the
Federal Magistrate Judges Association and the Federal Bar Association's
South Carolina chapter, attracted scholars and judges from across
the country who discussed the effects of technology and recent
developments in the law on the right of privacy in the courts.
Panels focused on subjects including the secrecy
of settlements, juror privacy, e-discovery developments, online
access to court records and electronic surveillance.
Miller
makes a point during his discussion on privacy. |
The keynote speaker for the event was renowned
law professor Arthur R. Miller of New York University School
of Law.
In his talk, Miller said the current YouTube and
MySpace generation seemed happy to give out information about
themselves freely, and that everyone increasingly lived in a
fishbowl. Against that backdrop, Miller argued that protection
of personal information was more important than ever. He made
five main points:
