Change Congress
and Regulatory Transparency: CHANGE v2: What changes will Obama
need?
Professor Lawrence
Lessig
Professor of Law at Stanford Law
School
Chaired by Justice James Douglas of the Supreme Court of
Queensland
Friday 29 May
2009
The Banco
Court
Law Courts Complex
304 George
Street
Brisbane
5.30pm
Refreshments
6.00pm Lecture commences
7.00pm Lecture
concludes
The Speaker
Lawrence Lessig is a
Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and
founder of the School's Center for Internet and
Society. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, he was the Berkman
Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and
a Professor at the University of Chicago.
He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on
the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia
on the United States Supreme Court. Professor Lessig’s career has focused
on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. He represented web
site operator Eric Eldred in the
ground-breaking case Eldred v. Ashcroft, a
challenge to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term
Extension Act. His current academic work addresses a kind of
"corruption." He has won numerous awards, including the Free Software
Foundation's Freedom Award, and was named one of Scientific American's Top 50
Visionaries, for arguing "against interpretations of copyright that
could stifle innovation and discourse online". Professor Lessig
teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, contracts, and the law of
cyberspace.
The Topic
In
this Public Lecture Professor Lessig will talk about the project he (and others)
launched in 2008 called “Change Congress” http://change-congress.org/.
Its purpose is to persuade members of congress to rely for funding on citizen
contributions rather than big donations from special interests. The organisation
considers that funding by corporate special interests has caused members of
congress to favour these interests, undermining the integrity of the legislative
process and resulting in legislation that may harm the public interest. Change
Congress has encouraged congress members to accept a new method of raising
campaign funds where individual donations are capped at $100 and public funding
for campaigns will match private donations once they reach a viability
threshold. Change Congress v1 proposed a multi-tiered program to achieve reform.
It planned to enlist the support of house representatives, encourage citizen
contribution pledges, garner support for sympathetic politicians, and track the
relationship between representatives and lobbyists. v2, announced on 9 January
2009, has simplified this program by encouraging private donors to pledge to
withhold donations from congress members who won’t opt-in to the Change Congress
system. v2 aims to abolish the culture of big private donations and free
legislators from the grip of special interests.
The aims of Change Congress are
consistent with Barack Obama’s goal to achieve a transparent political culture
that restores public trust. Its success may be critical to Obama’s hopes for
enlisting congressional support for ambitious reforms to solve domestic and
political crisis.
Registration
Register by 22 May
2009 at qutlawpubliclectures AT qut.edu.au
Registered
attendees may claim 1 CPD point for the Queensland Bar Association and
Queensland Law Society.
Professor
Lessig’s visit is co-sponsored by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative
Innovation and QUT Vice Chancellor Prof. Peter
Coaldrake
