The attention paid to America's jury system has never been more intense than in the past two years. The juries in the O.J. Simpson criminal and civil trials were more scrutinized, more second-guessed, more criticized and more praised than perhaps any juries in modern history. But their performances and that of juries in other recent high-profile cases -- Rodney King and the Menendez brothers -- have raised debate over the health of the jury system. Do jurors represent the community? Do jurors comprehend trials? Does the current size of juries and requirements for unanimous verdicts produce just results?

For the first time since the end of the O.J. Simpson legal saga, a major university will address these questions in an examination of the jury system that will bring together jury consultants, prosecutors, educators and other experts from across the country. Cornell University's Law School will present "Arbiters or Arbitrary? Redefining the Role of the Jury" on March 7 and 8. All sessions are open to the public and will take place in MacDonald Moot Court Room of Myron Taylor Hall, unless otherwise indicated.

• Friday, March 7, the symposium opens at 8 p.m. with a the keynote address by Jeffrey Abramson, professor of politics at Brandeis University. Abramson, who has served as a law clerk to the California Supreme Court and as an assistant district attorney in Massachusetts, is author of We, the Jury.

Neil Vidmar, the Russell M. Robinson II Professor of Law and professor of psychology at Duke University, will deliver the keynote response. Vidmar is co-author of Judging the Jury.

• Cornell University's Law School will present "Arbiters or Arbitrary? Redefining the Role of the Jury" on March 7 and 8. All sessions are open to the public and will take place in MacDonald Moot Court Room of Myron Taylor Hall, unless otherwise indicated.   Saturday, March 8, presentations are "Jury Composition: A Jury of Your Peers," from 10 to 11:45 a.m.; "Trial Consulting," from noon to 2 p.m. in the Atrium of Myron Taylor Hall; and Jury Comprehension: The Trial Begins," from 2:15 to 4 p.m.

Jury demonstrations throughout the symposium will be organized by Glenn Galbreath, a staff attorney with the Cornell Legal Aid Clinic.

Other presentors include:

• Judge John W. Bissell, a U.S. circuit court judge for the District of New Jersey;

• LaDonna Carlton, president of Carlton Trial Consulting and Research Center in Chicago;

• Steven D. Clymer, assistant professor of law at Cornell Law School and a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California;

• Shari Seidman Diamond, senior research fellow for the American Bar Association and a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois;

• Sheri Lynn Johnson, professor of law at the Cornell Law School and director of Cornell's capital punishment clinic;

• Elissa Krauss, vice president and founder of the National Jury Project, a trial consultant firm;

• G. Thomas Munsterman, director of the Center for Jury Studies;

• Arthur Patterson, senior vice president of Forensic Technologies International, a jury consulting firm with offices in Los Angeles, Houston and Dallas;

• Clay S. Conrad, a criminal defense lawyer from Austin, Texas, and author of the article "Jury Nullification as a Defense Strategy";

• Kevin Flynn, a Chicago trial lawyer specializing in anti-trust, commercial and consumer lending, real estate, tax and securities litigation; and

• James Shultz, M.D., a prominent New York eye surgeon who has been an expert witness in both civil and criminal cases in state and federal courts.

The symposium moderator will be Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, assistant professor of law at the Cornell Law School.

The symposium is sponsored by the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. Co-sponsors are the New York State Bar Association, the Keck Foundation, Bar/Bri; Russell Osgood, the Allan R. Tessler Dean of the Cornell Law School; Anne Lukingbeal, associate dean and dean of students of the Cornell Law School; the Graduate Activities Fund Commission; and Simeon's on the Commons.