Legal experts and academics recently spent a day on the Delaware campus examining some of the nation’s thorniest legal issues from a public health perspective.The symposium, presented by the law school and its Health Law Institute, drew a crowd of about 80 to the Ruby R. Vale Moot Courtroom. Audience members were invited to suspend their beliefs on hot-button issues such as abortion, illegal gun trafficking and tort reform, to consider what policies would best serve the public’s health and welfare. A battery of respected speakers attended the conference from all over the United States, including Evan Stark, an associate professor at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University in Newark, who spoke about domestic violence and how victims are deprived of their rights to equality, personhood and citizenship. “It’s a liberty crime,” Stark said of domestic violence. Widener Health Law Institute Director John Culhane, a Widener law professor, coordinated the conference and presented on the theme of equality in marriage. Culhane, a noted expert on the rights of same-sex couples, was on a panel with Vernellia R. Randall, a University of Dayton School of Law professor. Randall presented on the public health approach and decision making for communities of color.Captions:Photo 1: Widener Law Dean Linda L. Ammons welcomes everyone to the symposium while members of the first panel look on, from left, Evan Stark, associate professor at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University in Newark; Jon Vernick, associate professor of health policy and management at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Widener Associate Professor Dana Harrington Conner. Photo Two: Widener Law student Jason E. Kiracode, president of the Widener Health Law Society. Photo Three: Panelists, from left, University of Dayton School of Law Professor Vernellia R. Randall, Widener Health Law Institute Director John Culhane and moderator and Widener Law Professor Erin Daly. 