Law school faculty from across the country will discuss the evolving nature of speech protection offered by the First Amendment -- particularly in the context of tensions between freedom of speech and other constitutionally recognized interests -- during a symposium to be held Friday, Feb. 16, in the Moot Court Room at the University of California, Davis, law school. "Free speech doctrine doesn't evolve abstractly," says Alan Brownstein, a UC Davis law school professor who is chairing the symposium titled "Developments in Free Speech Doctrine: Charting the Nexus Between Speech and Religion, Abortion and Equality." For example, Brownstein says, "in the 1950s, First Amendment claims were filed in response to McCarthyism, and in the 1960s, the civil rights movement raised new issues for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide. The conference will examine the critical controversies that have resulted in important U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpreting the First Amendment in more recent times." The daylong symposium provides an opportunity for legal scholars to examine the significant changes in how courts have interpreted freedom of speech as a result of perceived tensions between rights of expression and other constitutional guarantees relating to abortion rights, racial and gender equality and the separation of church and state. A distinguished group of law faculty will present and respond to papers discussing a range of issues arising from these sometimes reinforcing, but often conflicting, constitutional principles. The symposium begins at 9 a.m. and concludes in the late afternoon. Brownstein, the only UC Davis law faculty member to speak at the symposium, will present a paper titled "Rules of Engagement for Cultural Wars: Regulating Conduct, Unprotected Speech and Protected Expression in Anti-Abortion Protests." In his talk, he will discuss the constitutionality of a new federal law prohibiting protests that restrict patient access to abortion clinics, injunctions and ordinances intended to prevent harassment of clinic patients and staff, and regulations limiting other forms of protected expression. Other speakers include law faculty members from Harvard, UC Berkeley, University of Texas, Northwestern, University of Chicago and Stanford. The symposium is jointly sponsored by the law school and the UC Davis Law Review, a student law journal. Each year, the law students choose a topic for a symposium. Changes in free speech doctrine were selected this year because of the increasing complexity of free speech cases and continuing controversy over how much protection should be extended to freedom of speech. The papers presented during the symposium will be published in one of the 1996 editions of the law review. Those in the legal profession attending the symposium will be eligible for six hours of Minimum Continuing Legal Education Credit by the State Bar of California. Members of the Bar registering for MCLE credit will be charged a fee of $150. Admission to the symposium is free for students, academics and the general public. Luncheon is available for $15 a person. Registration deadline is Tuesday, Feb. 6.