PROSECUTING PRESIDENTS:

Executive Accountability in the Era of Trump, Zuma, and Beyond

with

Corey Brettschneider (Brown University)

Author of The Oath and the Office: The Constitution for Future Presidents (2018)

and

Catherine O’Regan (Oxford University)

Former Judge, South African Constitutional Court (1994-2009)

How should presidents be held accountable for alleged criminal conduct? Specifically, under what conditions can, and should, sitting or former heads of state be criminally prosecuted? Join us for a conversation between one of the leading authorities on South African constitutional law, Judge Catherine O’Regan, and the U.S. constitutional law scholar and political philosopher, Professor Corey Brettschneider. We will consider the proper role of courts in holding presidents accountable for alleged crimes, discussing the leading arguments against indicting sitting presidents. In so doing, we will bring abstract questions of comparative constitutional theory to bear on pressing challenges in contemporary politics—in the U.S., South Africa, and beyond.