Paul DeWitt Carrington
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CAREER Service to Academic Institutions Service to Public Institutions and Foundations Service to the Legal Profession
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Welcome to my website! It was created while I was a candidate for public office in the summer of 2004. It has been revised and is now being maintained to present my views on numerous public issues, and for use by academic friends and critics, descendants and relatives, and any strangers who happen upon the scene. For over sixty years, I have been engaging in public affairs and expressing my views on current issues. In 2009, I was instrumental in securing enactment of the North Carolina false claims law rewarding whistleblowers who detect corruption in our state or local government. I also continue to advocate campaign finance reform in our state and work with the Bar in trying to find an acceptable method of selecting judges. And to encourage the North Carolina legislature to find an effective response to the mischief of the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision in the 2010 Citizens United case. Indeed. since 2004, I have joined with others in an effort to elevate interest in and concern for the law governing the Supreme Court of the United States. Roger Cramton and I have published several essays on the subject and were instrumental in helping to assemble a group led by Alan Morrison that presented a conference at George Washington University on November 20. 2009. The subject will be discussed again at other meetings. We are fully aware that "judicial law reform is no sport for the short-winded," but we will continue to advocate serious reform. For these reasons, I lend qualified support for the initiative to secure a call for a convention pursuant to Article V of the Constitution. My hope is that progress in that direction would cause Congress to address the issues most in need of address, including the corruption resulting from misguided constitutional rights to fund political campaigns And perhaps the issues of pre-emptive filibusters in the Senate and the need for a line item Presidential veto. Since 2005, I have also engaged in an effort to elevate awareness of the need for private enforcement of public and international laws enacted to deter transnational corrupt practices. Susan Rose-Ackerman and I are trying to organize a conference to give serious consideration to the limited options. This interest reflects a half-century of involvement in the subject of civil procedure. That is a hot subject in 2010 because the Supreme Court has yielded to the "activist" temptation to re-write the law to make it more difficult for citizens to enforce their rights as plaintiffs whose claims arise under laws enacted to regulate business, such as the antitrust laws. A conference on that subject was conducted at Duke in May 2010 by the Judicial Conference of the United States. Toward the end of the conference, I was moved to proclaim that the Supreme Court has become a member of the Chamber of Commerce, filled with ambition to serve Businss, but not its investors, franchisees, workers, customers, and patients. In other national matters in 2008, I played a very minor role in persuading Congressmen to protect contract farmers from mandatory arbitration clauses disabling them from enforcing their rights against food processing firms. I had in 2001 represented the National Automobile Dealers Association in a similarly successful cause. I continue to encourage broader legislation to protect consumers and others from this form of oppression. In 2010, there was for a moment at last the prospect of correcting the distortions of the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act imposed by the Supreme Court since 1980. My diverse interests are categorized and indexed in the column on the right so that anyone sharing an interest can see what I think about a matter without being burdened with any other information. I welcome the thoughts of any reader, but especially on those topics. On the left column below the image are links to a curriculum vita supplemented by brief accounts and some links to previous utterances of an autobiographical sort. Those curious about my 2004 campaign will find answers under Political Activity. For kinfolk and anyone curious about the source of my questionable views, there is also a link to my family connections. I pray that I have not neglected them. For Thanksgiving 2008, we celebrated our sesquicentennial: Bessie and I and our four children had by then been married for 150 years! Now 160.
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INTERESTS: No doubt I would have done better to concentrate my efforts over fifty five years on fewer subjects, but it would have been less fun. Academic Freedom and Civil Liberties Civil Procedure and Political Rights Criminal Law and the War on Drugs International Relations and Comparative Law Judicial Independence and Accountability: State Courts Legal Profession: Contemporary Local Government and Public Education Supreme Court of the United States Transnational Dispute Resolution
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This site was last updated 09/07/11
