Brookings Partnership

The Center for the Constitution at Montpelier and The Brookings Institution established a five-year partnership in 2009 to provide a series of interactive conferences for journalists.  The Montpelier-Brookings Conference on Contemporary Constitutional Issues series, which meld Brookings research on legal and constitutional affairs with the Center's approach to constitutional theory, is intended to help members of the media carry out their unique responsbility of informing Americans about their government.

These conferences expose members of the media to the interaction of Founding Era thought and contemporary legal policy challenges in a relaxed, retreat environment at the symbolically significant home of James Madison, the Constitution's chief architect. 

The first of these conferences, The Legal Architecture of Counterterrorism: Constitutional Principles and Contemporary Policy, was held May 11-13, 2009.  Participants included journalists from The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The New York Times, The Miami Herald, The Atlantic, ProPublica, SCOTUSblog, National Journal, and WVTF Public Radio.  Click here for more information on this conference's speakers and agenda, or click on the tab above.

The second conference in this series, The Madisonian System and Modern America: Is it Broken and Can We Fix It?, was held October 21-22, 2009.   Participants from National Journal, Wilson Quarterly, and Free-Lance Star, along with several non-profit leaders, gathered to discuss the state of Madisonian institutions in America today.  Click here for more information on this conference, and to see video of each speaker's presentation, or click on the tab above.

Eleven more of these conferences will take place over the next four years at James Madison's Montpelier.  If you are a journalist inerested in attending, please contact us.