At the end of the first week in March, I went to a conference at Bard College titled: Between Power and Authority: Arendt on the Constitution and the Courts.
The two-day conference brought together people with expertise in the American Constitution and the history of constitutional law and government with historians and philosophers all in the context of Hannah Arendt's thoughts and writings.
My only expertise when I go to these conferences is that I have read all of the Hannah Arendt's major works and many of her essays. For me each session opens a new aspect of Arendt's thoughts which often gives me a glimpse into a world I knew nothing of, or gives me a new perspective on a topic I have some familiarity with.
At this conference, the Supreme Court was, in part, the subject of both panels on first day of the conference as well as the keynote lecture in the evening. Arendt's book "On Revolution" (my personal favorite of all her works) was mentioned a lot as was "Eichmann in Jerusalem".
In "Eichmann" the question of "What is justice?" hovers over the whole story of the trial. In "On Revolution" the unique success of the American Revolution amid so many revolutions that end in tyranny made a great perspective to exam the long-term effectiveness of the Supreme Court and the rest of the judiciary the current lowering of its esteem.
Each of the Hannah Arendt Center Conferences has been enriching for me. Both the talks themselves and the discussions at meals and breaks.
This conference was organized by the Nick Dunn, Klemens von Klemperer Postdoctoral Fellow in the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College.
