For those of you interested in issues of presidential power, in particular presidential power after Bush, then there is a conference just for you.
UC Berkeley is holding a conference, titled "The American Presidency at War," that will cover a number of topics that are currently prescient. And they have a slate of participants from all the best schools (save Miami University, which I am sure is not an oversight on their part).
They cover the Imperial Presidency, which has, as a panelist, John Yoo from Berkeley Law School--which I assume he will attend since it is in his own backyard but I wouldn't hold my breath given he has a tendency to blow off these things at the last minute.
They also have a panel--actually a "Roundtable Discussion," on "Rethinking Presidential Power in the 21st Century" that features Stephen Skowronek (who has his own view of presidential power) as well as William Howell, who also has his own view of presidential power based in rational actor theory.
What you won't find anywhere in the list is a unitarian. A scholar who is a proponent of the unitary executive theory and what it means to presidential power in the 21st century. Yoo is not a unitarian--I would say he gave up his right to call himself that based upon his behavior in the Bush administration, where he forced legal reasoning to meet political ends--and while there are many who say that is just what a unitarian is, it isn't. Not close. In fact, ask one of the father's of the theory--Steve Calabresi--what he thinks about Yoo and his practice, and he will tell you the same thing.
It is actually a shame that there isn't someone representing--honestly--the theory at this conference because I am positive that it will be a part of every panel. And every panel will have a discussion that paints the unitary executive theory as the imperial presidency or as fascism in disguise. And there will be a cause celebre collectively that the Bush administration's days are numbered, and with it, the unitary executive theory.
But you and I know better.
