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Event

State Constitutions and the Limits of Criminal Punishments

This symposium will engage with the growing legal and intellectual movement to challenge excessive criminal punishments via state constitutional prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishments and related clauses.

Upcoming:
Camden, New Jersey
Illustration of U.S. states

Rutgers Law School
217 N 5 Street
Camden, NJ 08102

Decades of harsh sentencing practices have made the United States the world’s number one incarcerator. This symposium will engage with the growing legal and intellectual movement to challenge excessive criminal punishments — broadly understood to include both prison terms and conditions of confinement — via state constitutional prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishments and related clauses. The symposium will explore the interplay between state and federal law and the power of state courts to use the text, history, traditions, and unique policy goals of their own constitutions to emerge from federal law’s shadow and impose meaningful restraints on extreme sentencing, create a more humane legal system, and reduce mass incarceration.

In-person and virtual registration options are available.

Produced in partnership with State Court Report and the State Law Research Initiative

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