Across the United States, municipalities — like Morgantown — are responding on their own to pressing issues such as anti-discrimination, the environment, gun regulation and consumer protection.
In West Virginia, the Home Rule Pilot Program was launched in 2007 and made permanent in 2019.
At a symposium Thursday and Friday, the West Virginia Law Review will explore home rule topics and challenges with a range of national experts.
“Home Rule: A State and Local Law Symposium” will be held at the West Virginia University College of Law. The program starts at noon Thursday and at 8:45 a.m. Friday.
Admission is free and the public is invited to attend. Practicing attorneys can register for continuing legal education credit at WVCLE.
Frayda S. Bluestein, the David M. Lawrence Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government at the University of North Carolina, is the keynote speaker. She will address courts and home rule.
Other featured speakers included Jennifer Brobst, associate professor of law at Southern Illinois University School of Law, and Paul Diller, professor of law at Willamette University College of Law. Brobst will discuss drone ordinances, and Diller will speak about lobbying.
Expert panelists participating in the home rule symposium include Genevieve Byrne of Vermont Law School; Mark Dorosin of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; Andrew Schneider of Fairness West Virginia; Rosemary Humway-Warmuth, the city solicitor for Wheeling; and Ryan Simonton, city attorney for Morgantown.
For a complete agenda: wvlawreview.wvu.edu/symposium-2020.
