One of the preeminent professors at Cardozo Law School is Monroe Price. A former Cardozo dean, Professor Price is a famed scholar on media law and the director of the Howard Squadron Program on Law, Media and Society. He is an internationally-renowned expert and helped create the now self-named international media moot court competition in Oxford. While he is currently on leave, he magnanimously agreed to answer a few of the Jurist’s questions.

You are a former Dean of the law school. What are some differences between Cardozo then and now, and how would you evaluate our progress?

There’s a world of difference, in one respect, and not that much in another. When I arrived, almost three decades ago, a lot of the values that undergird the law school were in place. Monrad Paulsen had recruited a founding faculty that had amazing values, values that have persisted and shaped the institution. There was, in these beginning days, a kind of conditionality to the place. ‘Did New York need another law school?’ was a pretty frequent refrain. Cardozo was fighting to establish its metropolitan and national identities.

What’s changed is also pretty dramatic. The sheer beauty of parts of the building hits me every time I enter. One thing I notice these days is what I’d call the generational shift in the organization and development of the faculty. Cardozo has negotiated a peaceful and interesting approach to bringing younger faculty along and squarely into the governance of the institution. The LL.M. program didn’t exist at the beginning. Clinics had started, but the bloom into such strengths and such impact had not yet occurred. Whenever I see recognition of the work of the Innocence Project (a relatively frequent occurrence) I think of its soft beginnings.

Cardozo, from the outset, sought to define itself in an ambitious, almost noble way. Its progress is measurable, palpable and pretty apparent. The challenge is to maintain it.

The Cardozo Moot Court team participates annually in the Monroe Price Moot Court competition at Oxford, which focuses on international media law. How did you become involved with the Oxford competition and why is this important to you?

After I finished being dean, I spent my sabbatical at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. During that year, I conceived of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), to be established there and to help develop research on media systems around the world. The PCMLP came into existence and I co-directed it for about five years. Much later, just three years ago, PCMLP announced the International Media Moot Court Competition in my name (I objected, but not vigorously enough).

The Competition is flourishing. It is up to 30 teams and it emphasizes bringing groups from a wide variety of societies. There are law schools from India, China, Hungary and elsewhere participating. There are thoughts of having regional competitions in regional languages. It’s a great way to instill free expression values in a pedagogically entertaining way. The competition is important for this very reason—its potential for bringing a more varied audience of lawyers and policy makers to debates about the role of speech in society.

There are some fundamental concerns about the progress of the media in the era of media consolidation by a handful of major corporations. Does the consolidation of media outlets by a small group of transnational corporations concern you and if so, what can we do about it?

Of course it concerns me, but I am wary of single-approach attitudes toward media flaws. I’d be happy with a very large and consolidated public broadcasting service, so size is not the issue. A consolidated but socially responsible medium might be better than a flailing, failing decentralized version. We’re now at what might be called a critical juncture in terms of press realities, technological implications and government policy. I think we have to move to a different form of debate about media structure.

In 2005, Cardozo gained its second Supreme Court law clerk. You yourself are a former clerk for Justice Stewart. How much are Supreme Court Clerkships a barometer of a school’s success or prestige?  Do you think the school should focus on increasing its numbers?

I think Supreme Court clerkships are a useful measure, but I’m not sure how much focus there should be on that goal—at least directly. A steady production of clerkships at all levels with some emphasis on “feeder” clerkships will contribute to getting this particular form of icing on the cake. The general work the faculty and the institution do to further excellence should also contribute to Supreme Court clerkships. I loved my clerkship. It’s a startling and very American idea that newly minted law graduates should have such an important role at the country’s highest court.

You’ve been involved in the Cardozo Community for many years. With a new Dean and a new legal community growing in this new post-recession legal environment, what recommendations would you make in order for the law school to continue growing over the next ten years?

I think Cardozo has to continue to be strategic. It has to think of how to expand in global markets. It should improve and enhance its LL.M. program. It has to think of how to continue to be a leader in areas of change (for example in approaches to new technologies). It has to examine areas of national excellence (like intellectual property) and see how to sustain reputation and how to find new areas that call for a Cardozo contribution. We think the heart of the law school is its faculty. But the quality and the ambition of its graduates will ultimately determine the future of the institution.

Monroe Price in a Nutshell:

B.A., 1960, LL.B., 1964, Yale University
Dean of Cardozo: 1982-1991
Teaching at Cardozo since: 1982
Specialties: Communications law, art law, regulation of mass media

Joseph and Sadie Danciger Professor of Law and Director, Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and SocietyProfessor Price contributes to the Huffington Post and to University of Southern California’s Public Diplomacy Blog.

Among his many books are a treatise on cable television, Media and Sovereignty, and Television, The Public Sphere and National Identity.  Most recently Price wrote Objects of Remembrance: A Memoir of American Opportunities and Viennese Dreams, which Prof. Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader, calls “an intimate and provocative meditation on Jewish life between the old and the new world.”