Legal Commentary

I participated on Friday and Saturday in a very rewarding and interesting event, organized by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions (sorry, Mr. Rich!), that was billed as a "consultation" on the topic, "Law and Religion:  Historical and Philosophical Perspectives."  Perhaps others are already familiar, or experienced, with this format, but it was new to me and, I thought, very successful.

Basically, the event's organizers gathered 10-ish pretty-far-along papers, and then distributed them not only to the presenters, but to an additional group of a dozen or so "discussants."  Each session involved a pretty short presentation (15 minutes) by two authors of their papers, and then an hour (or more) of very lively conversation among presenters, discussants, and attendees.

A few weeks ago, our guest-blogger Mark Kende arranged a similar program on "Law, Religion, and Constitutionalism".  Again, the event was set up to resemble a lively workshop -- lots of participation, back-and-forth, etc. -- and not the usual rubber-chicken, four-talks-on-a-panel affair. 

And, it sounds like we are seeing more and more Prawfsfest-esque,"schmooze"-type roundtable events.  All this -- i.e., a diversifying array of conference formats -- strikes me as a good thing.  Any thoughts?  Any other formats worth mentioning that people have experienced or tried?  Any downsides?