Legal and legal-tech news, from the sourceTrump still can take many administrative actions regardless of who controls Congress. But the election still matters for the future of the U.S. energy system and the planet. A President who has the support of a united Congress can do a lot more than a President who must contend with serious congressional opposition. Here's why it matters.
Dr. Murugan Anandarajan explains a significant dichotomy at play as AI takes on more work, some human capabilities will inevitably be used less often. Some may no longer matter. Others may still be essential when AI reaches its limits. The challenge is knowing the difference and making that choice deliberately, as well as understanding the underlying risks.
Greg Sargent: Donald Trump just unleashed a series of urgent calls to Republican voters, ordering them to vote early in huge numbers and urging them especially to vote by mail. Which is funny, because he previously spent months claiming mail… Continue reading
Glynn S. Lunney, Jr. (Texas A&M University School of Law) has posted Reflections on the Use and Misuse of Economic Analysis in Copyright (73 J. Copyright Soc’y 183 (2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Economic analysis has long been used to justify copyright regulation. Long before the Statute of Anne, the Stationer’s Guild told the […]
Will Oremus in The Atlantic: If you were wondering whether AI could make the midterms even more confusing, here’s one data point: Several people who thought they were donating to James Talarico unwittingly gave their money to someone else. Talarico,… Continue reading
When the Oskil dam in the Kharkiv region was damaged in 2022, the reservoir drained and land downstream flooded. The damage altered the river system and the ecosystems connected to it. Ukrainian prosecutors have brought ecocide charges against two Russian generals over the attack. But the case raises a difficult question for investigators and courts about what exactly counts as harm. This now sits at the centre of Ukraine’s reform of its ecocide offence and of international efforts to define the
At Law & Liberty, Zachary Chambers: The Modernist Case for Originalism. From the introduction: Originalism’s position seems unassailable, with both a majority of Supreme Court justices pledging fidelity to some variant of the theory, and tremendous institutional backing within the conservative legal world through institutions like the Federalist Society Despite this dominance, a number of […]
I remember sitting in a fast-food restaurant years ago, noticing a sign on the wall proclaiming that the restaurant was an equal opportunity employer. I thought it was notable that employers never publicly advertise that they don’t discriminate based on union activity. I spent a fair amount of time thinking about why there seemed to […]
With Chevron gone, there’s a deepening fracture in the standards of judicial review over executive branch actions. On one hand, courts police major agency policies with aggressive skepticism through the major questions doctrine (MQD). On the other hand, when executive actions evade the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and face non-statutory ultra vires review, some jurists […]
“Bonus 258: Book Deals and 28 U.S.C. § 2109; The underlying dispute in BMG Rights Management v. Vetter was about a 1962 song; The real lessons are about the Court’s quorum rules — and the mischief caused by the justices’ (many) book deals.” Steve Vladeck has this post at his “One First” Substack site.
Thomas R. Phillips was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas 1988-2004, who was appointed by Republican Governor Bill Clements. It’s fair to say he’s part of what was the traditional Republican Party establishment in Texas, which makes his… Continue reading
Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT and an expert on election administration who works with election officials throughout the country. His essay today for the NYU Democracy Project addresses how best to… Continue reading
There is one sentence in Fuld v. PLO (2025) that has always bothered me: that “The Constitution confers upon the Federal Government—and it alone—both nationwide and extraterritorial authority.” This statement is demonstrably wrong, so much so that I was easily convinced by colleagues that it did not need direct refutation. And yet that sentence has
Corporate law and antitrust law are generally understood to occupy distinct domains within the legal landscape. Corporate law primarily looks inward, governing how authority is allocated within the firm. Antitrust primarily looks outward, policing rivalry among firms in the marketplace. That division rests on a plausible premise: Governance arrangements may shape how a corporation is […]
Jason J. Kilborn (University of Illinois Chicago School of Law) has posted A Tale of Two Holdouts: Personal Insolvency in Bulgaria and (Not) Malta on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Bulgaria just became the most recent European Union Member State to implement a comprehensive personal insolvency regime, leaving Malta as the sole remaining holdout. This article […]
A copyright dispute over a 1962 song offers some troubling, broader lessons about the Court’s quorum rules and the mischief caused by the justices’ book deals.
10/22/1915: Hadacheck v. Sebastian argued.
To design the right program for capitalism's legal transformation, we must begin with the right theory of capitalism.
Eric S. Fish, Deportation in the Deep State, __ Stan. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming), available at SSRN (Apr. 11, 2026). Christopher Walker At the end of the Term in Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court overruled Humphrey’s Executor—the bedrock precedent that upheld statutory limitations on the President’s removal power over leaders of so-called independent agencies. The formal logic of this unitary executive theory, some have argued, could apply to any other government official who exercises even a
The current debate on artificial intelligence (“AI”) risks in international arbitration has focused mostly on the good-faith use of AI and its human, technical and legal limitations. Much of that debate has concerned well-explored topics such as confidentiality or award enforceability . The rising threat of adversarial techniques by a bad-faith actor in the proceedings remains comparatively underexplored.
States are increasingly trying to renegotiate the foundations of refugee protection, including the right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement. Emotions shape both the adoption and the interpretation of these laws. So far, research has focused on compassion and fear, but has largely left out shame. Yet shame, shaming and shamelessness shape the international refugee protection system: shame acts as its moral guide, and it is also used to sustain racialised and gendered hierarchies
What’s on your mind?
Jubran Alsughayyir (Legal solution) has posted When Step-In Becomes Substitution: The Hidden Contract-Assignment Effects of Saudi PPP Direct Agreements on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Direct agreements are intended to keep a project alive when the project company cannot. In Saudi public-private partnerships, that commercial logic now sits beside an express statutory regime for assignment of […]
Imagine that you intend to run for president of the Republic, governor of a state, or mayor of a municipality. During the campaign, you can choose to run either as an ordinary candidate or as the current holder of the office you seek. Which option would you choose? The answer is intuitive: your chances of success are usually greater if you are running for reelection. This incumbency advantage is a well-known phenomenon. Less well known is the way electoral rules can contribute to mitigating or a
By Ismail Jibril Esq DL, LLB, BL, LLM, (PhD- in-view) (Dispute Resolution Specialist) Abstract On 26 June 2026 the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court issued the Federal High Court (Pre-Election) Practice Directions, 2026, effective from 29 June 2026, repealing the 2022 Directions. This article examines the provisions of the new practice direction that […]
Scholar argues that courts should scrutinize delegations to the President more closely than those to agencies. The post The Nondelegation Doctrine as a Check on Presidential Power first appeared on The Regulatory Review .
Prediction markets have exploded in popularity, transforming from academic curiosities into multibillion-dollar, consumer-facing platforms that facilitate trading on politics, sports, geopolitics, and even clinical-trial outcomes and FDA approvals. To date, attention has largely been focused on whether prediction markets should
Adrian McCullagh (University of Queensland Brisbane) has posted Silicon Agents: Machines, Artificial Intelligence, and the Boundaries of Agency, Fiduciary Positions and Tortious Liability on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article addresses two related questions arising from the commercial deployment of so-called “AI agents”. First, it examines whether artificial intelligence systems can properly be regarded as […]
by Samanvi Narang* and Maitry Pandit**
As the demand for AI compute grows, financing the infrastructure behind it is emerging as a legal and commercial question. Nvidia’s recent move to establish compute financing platforms, alongside a proposed regulatory framework in India, signals an emerging financing model. India’s International Financial Services Centres Authority (‘IFSCA’) has proposed recognising the leasing of Graphics Processing Units (‘GPUs’) and connected data centre equipment as a financial product.
Muhammad Olaniyan (University of Ilorin) has posted Algorithmic Justice: Examining the Admissibility and Evidential Weight of AI-Generated Evidence in Nigerian Courts on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way information is created, stored, analysed and presented. In litigation, parties may increasingly seek to rely on AI-generated text, […]
Extract from Isabelle Roccia’s article “A view from Brussels: Is governance better served by legal uncertainty?” This week made one thing stand out over the rest for me: 10 years […]
Extract from Melina Efstathiou’s article, “Homenum Reviewlio.” Two weeks ago I wrote about a label, “deterministic”, used as a cape. Last week I wrote about a number, recall, and the […]
From Berenson v. Gottlieb, decided yesterday by Judges Pierre Leval, Richard Wesley, and Joseph Bianco: Plaintiff-Appellant Alex Berenson … is
Extract from Kim Neeson’s article, “AI Can Produce a Transcript. But Can It Protect the Record?” Why a Texas Supreme Court case raises important questions about the future of court […]
Season 8, Episode 2 : Will the federal government still mess with mail-in ballots or try to seize ballots in November? Will the new Congress fight over who gets seated on January 3? How protected are voters from shenanigans in… Continue reading
Extract from Stephen Embry’s article, “The Defense Bar In The Age Of AI: Running A Red Queen’s Race?” The mismatch between the talent and resources of plaintiffs’ firms and those […]
Extract from Olga V. Mack’s article, “Agentic Commerce Is About To Become A Contracting Problem.” Agents will need structured positions, contextual rules, and clear escalation paths. Much of the conversation […]
U.S. v. Santiago, decided Monday by Judge Chad Meredith (E.D. Ky.), involves this Instagram post: Santiago is being prosecuted for
At the end of Part One, Schrödinger’s Cat had left the box, crossed from the laboratory into the courtroom, and, with a little artistic license, acquired counsel. The image was whimsical. The transition was not. Part One followed the Cat from Schrödinger’s 1935 thought experiment through the double-slit experiment, Einstein’s dice, entanglement, Bell, and finally into modern quantum computing. The legal lesson was not that lawyers need to master the foundations of physics.
Senate Revisions to House Proposed Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, National Archives (US-PD) On October 15, Canopy Forum, hosted by the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, held an online book symposium regarding Donald L. Drakeman’s upcoming book, to be published November 2026, titled The Free Exercise Clause and the Rights of Conscience (Harvard University Press, 2026). The … Read More
I read and much enjoyed—and highly recommend—my Stanford colleague Diego Zambrano's book, How Americans Enforce the Law. He was kind
Jason Jia-Xi Wu (Harvard University, Harvard Law School) and Valentina Liu (Harvard Law School) have posted Reimagining Companion Animal Rights: A Theory of Contractualized Property Ownership (Washington University Global Studies Law Review, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Companion animals present a conundrum. Across legal systems, animals are classified as personal property and thus subject […]
At my “Firing Line” debate with Nolan McCarty at Yale, I made the case for the Alaska model of primaries, which does away with the traditional party primary. This essay from the Dispatch reports on the ballot fight this fall… Continue reading
The Court seems concerned enough about transitioning children but not adult (prisoners).
The impact of AI on research has already led to much reflection in general and, more recently, on legal scholarship in particular, including first attempts to measure how far the practice has spread, and to examine what happens when generative systems interpose themselves between readers and law review articles. On a similar note, we have recently argued that the way researchers build their scholarship is itself under threat, and that the response required is institutional. In this blogpost, we
BLOG OVERVIEW: Defensible worker categories under the EU Pay Transparency Directive start with a sound, gender-neutral job evaluation. Five triage questions show where an employer’s foundation breaks down: whether jobs were evaluated, whether documentation survives, whether the evaluation reflects the Directive’s criteria of skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions, whether pay structures preserve equal-value groupings, and whether categories follow that structure. The first... By:
David Freeman Engstrom (Stanford Law School), David Marcus (UCLA School of Law), and Elliot Setzer (Yale University) have posted Managerial Courts (Yale Law Journal) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In recent decades, American courts have undergone a quiet but far-reaching revolution in their function and role. Particularly in state courts facing a crush of cases […]
You can listen to my interview with NPR Fresh Air’s Dave Davies (who also interviews Pensylvania’s Al Schmidt ) at this link . (A transcript should post later today at the same link.)
With booster-funded collectives accounting for the vast majority of college athletic NIL compensation, universities and third-party collectives face mounting legal exposure over whether student-athletes are independent contractors, common-law employees or an entirely new legal hybrid. In Part 2 of a series for The Texas Lawbook , this article examines how clearinghouse scrutiny, performance benchmarks and IRS control tests could trigger joint-employer liability under the Fair Labor Standards Act
Ben Berwick and Jessica Marsden have written this SF Chronicle oped: The lawsuit is almost assuredly dead on arrival. So what’s really going on? In all likelihood, the Department of Justice knows its lawsuit against California will fail. This case… Continue reading
From today's decision by Judge John Sinatra (W.D.N.Y.) in Heeter v. James: New York enacted a first-of-its-kind law prohibiting law-abiding residents-who
Joshua S. Gans (University of Toronto – Rotman School of Management; NBER) has posted Liability and Pricing of Dual-Use AI on SSRN. Here is the abstract: How much liability should AI providers bear when their services enable both attack and defence? Liability can improve welfare while increasing harm. Providers sell a common input to productive users, […]
In March, I'll give a lecture at Villanova on "The Real Unitary Executive Problem." My argument will be that the Framers erred by creating a president who is both the head of state and head of government. America managed this problem fairly well through a series of norms and fictions that lasted until the end of the Cold War. Today, though, the original
From Judge Stephanos Bibas, joined by Judge Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, in Monday's Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church v. Township of Collier:
Fatma E. Marouf (Texas A&M University School of Law) and Huyen Pham (Texas A&M University School of Law) have posted Sanctuary and the Data State (Columbia Law Review, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Historically, sanctuary policies focused on protected physical space and limits on police cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—rejecting detainer requests, […]
**Tiyasha Introduction The Supreme Court in Louis De Raedt and later in Sarbananda Sonowal held that the power of the Government of India to expel foreigners is absolute and unlimited and there is no provision in the Constitution fettering its discretion. Although delivered in the context of a self-admitted foreign national, years later, the constitutionally […]
By Ali Ekber Cinar ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE Disputes are a common part of everyday life, and formal legal proceedings provide a mechanism for resolving them. However, the cost, time, and complexity of traditional legal procedures can sometimes make them difficult to pursue. This is particularly true for disputes that affect individuals […]
More than four months after Bill C-34 was introduced (and about ten days after I posted about it ), the government released its Charter statement for the Safe Social Media Act. While there was no doubt the government would insist its bill is Charter-compliant, the question was how it would defend the under-16 social media ban, which I have argued is unconstitutional and whose French counterpart the Constitutional Council struck down in August . On that front, the statement is noticeably weak, ci
The University of San Diego’s Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism has announced the list of papers and commentators for the Eighteenth Annual Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Originalism Works-in-Progress Conference, scheduled for February 5-6, 2027, in San Diego: T.T. Arvind (York) & Christian Burset (Penn), “Defining Legal Traditions” Commentator: […]
“Regulatory Four-Night: Who can fire US Attorneys? The Missing Clear-Statement Analysis; A Thought Experiment About Vacatur, A Reason for Judge Greg Katsas’s Influence, A Firsthand Account of Ken Paxton, and More.” Aaron L. Nielson has this post at Civitas Outlook.
TLB’s primer on foreign sovereign immunity has been updated to reflect recent cases, global developments, and new statutes. The primer on foreign sovereign immunity is part of a popular series of TLB primers covering topics such as personal jurisdiction, choice of law, and service of process. They serve as good teaching tools for classes on
A Thousand Words Cannot Carry A Single Basket Of Yams- African Proverb By Folarinwa Aluko Government is judged by its actions, not its declarations. A government cannot claim to promote innovation merely by publishing a policy that promises to do so. The test is whether the Policy understands the conditions that drive innovation, identifies the […]
Arthur Sidney (The Sidney Group PLLC) has posted Who Can Stop the Machine? Institutional Authority and Meaningful Human Control in AI Governance on SSRN. Here is the abstract: AI governance often asks whether a human remains “in the loop,” but human presence does not establish meaningful control. This paper argues that meaningful human control is an […]
10/21/1919: Abrams v. United States argued.
The recent spasm of nihilistic violence in France will almost certainly have terrible consequences, including, not least, the election of Marine Le Pen next year. The 1968 U.S. presidential election was close. With George Wallace carrying the Deep South, Richard Nixon and Humbert Humphrey were very close in the popular vote. Public opinion turning against the Vietnam War no doubt helped Nixon,
Written by Dr. Rishi Gulati, Associate Professor of International Law at UEA Law School and a Barrier specializing in international law 1 Introduction Multilateral development banks (MDBs) such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the African Development Bank finance large-scale public projects globally and regionally to promote sustainable development and reduce poverty. […]
Allison Anna Tait, The House That Family Money Built: How Inequality Governs Debt and Wealth Management (2026). Bridget Crawford When I teach asset protection trusts, my students often imagine that I am talking about activities that occur in faraway places. The word offshore does a great deal of imaginative work: it makes wealth planning sound exotic, remote, and faintly illicit. One of the many gifts of Allison Anna Tait’s superb new book, The House That Family Money Built, is to show [...] The
A liberal arts education should pursue truth in a way that expands freedom and flourishing.
Your employee signed an agreement to arbitrate all employment disputes. But a single sexual harassment claim can bring an entire lawsuit, and every other claim with it, into court anyway. TL;DR: The Second Circuit joined the Sixth and Ninth Circuits in holding that properly invoking the federal law allowing sexual harassment disputes to proceed in […]
After ten years, what are some of the tried and tested methods of civic-center success?
In new research, Nicholas Short, Sophie Hill, and Jacob Brown examine "ideological capture": regulatory capture that works not through lobbying but through experts defining what goals and values regulators may consider. Surveying the public alongside antitrust lawyers, they find the consumer welfare standard marginalizes important public concerns, like the risk of increased layoffs or more lobbying power. Read it at ProMarket >>
The newly introduced International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) 2026 Arbitration Rules (“2026 ICC Rules”, already discussed here ) clear the air about 'whether to disclose' by imposing an unambiguous duty on arbitrators to disclose relationships or circumstances falling short of a conflict, overriding any subjective doubts held by the arbitrator. Article 12(2) gives an institutional backing to that principle, plugging the procedural gap which institutions have long circled about. There has always
Laura Gratacós i Camós has posted Legal Certainty for B2B Tokenised Collateral: A Functional and Layered Analysis of Private Law, Smart Contracts and Private International Law on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This study examines the use of financial tokens as collateral in cross-border B2B transactions and the legal uncertainty associated with cryptographic control, the localisation […]
What’s on your mind?
[We have the following announcement. DRE]The next Helsinki Legal History Series seminar [will be held] on October 27th! We are delighted to welcome Dr. Minna-Kerttu Kekki (University of Helsinki) to give a lecture titled: “Law and Morality in Soviet Estonian Judiciary: A philosophical analysis of a case from 1960.” Time: 3 pm – 4.30 pm. Location: Athena Sali 167. Link for
By Ishie-Johnson Emmanuel Abstract For over three decades, Nigerian corporate insolvency law was synonymous with corporate death. The enactment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 introduced a paradigm shift from a liquidation-centric to a rescue-oriented framework. This article examines the key innovations of CAMA 2020, particularly administration and Company Voluntary Arrangements, and evaluates […]
It’s probably safe to say that the Federal Reserve is the most closely studied central bank in the world. Scholars have written at length about its monetary policy, its balance sheet, and its governance and independence. But far less attention
Scholars propose regulations to leverage the benefits of robotaxis while managing the risks. The post A Roadmap for Regulating Robotaxies first appeared on The Regulatory Review .
Norio Yamazaki (Yamazaki Administrative Scrivener Office) has posted Receipt of Manifestations of Intention in Asynchronous Messaging: Attribution of Receiving Functions and Notification Risk in Failures After Technical Acceptance but Before Retrieval Becomes Possible on SSRN. Here is the abstract: When a recipient-side service provider has technically accepted a notice, but a failure occurs before its contents […]
This Harvard Law Bulletin story has comments from a number of election law scholars. That distrust has deepened amid rapid technological, economic, demographic, and cultural change. Elections have become a source of anxiety and turmoil, with accusations of foreign interference,… Continue reading
China’s rules for government investment funds ask public capital to serve national strategies and designated industries while telling government agencies not to interfere through administrative means in individual investment decisions.
This post is kindly prepared by Akifumi MOCHIZUKI, attorney at law at Atsumi Toshiyuki Law Office and a member of Private International Law Association of Japan 1. The Absence of Divorce under Philippine Law and the Recognition of Foreign Divorces in the Philippines Philippine law provides for the declaration of nullity and the […]
An upward trending chart over the Canadian flag
Proposals to place medical students inside detention centres makes universities active accomplices in border violence, further legitimising structures of exclusion and containment Guest post by Nicola Cocco, Kristina Millona, Patrizia Borsellino, Vittorio Agnoletto, Antonello D’Elia, Lara Tavoschi, Francesca Cimino, Fabio Perocco, Francesca Esposito, Chiara Montaldo, and Camilla Ponti.
Corporate America is increasingly financed by debt rather than equity. Two market forces drive this shift. On the demand side, private equity has generated an insatiable appetite for debt by acquiring large companies and entire industries through leveraged buyouts. On the supply side, innovations in debt markets—including syndicated lending, private credit, and other forms of nonbank credit—have expanded the debt needed to satisfy that demand.
GPU and Connected Data Centre Equipment Financing: An Indian Legal Perspective
On 18 November 2025, the European Banking Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority published the first list of critical information and communication technology third-party providers designated under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). The authorities assessed providers by reference to their systemic importance, their role in supporting critical or important functions and the substitutability of their servi
The new Return Regulation signifies a systematic and disproportionate extension of detention compared to existing measures under the 2008 directive Guest post by Galatea Scotti and Chiara Catelli. Galatea is a social anthropologist and PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham. Her doctoral research examines life after deportation in Ghana through an ethnographic and participatory approach, focusing on social relations, masculinity, temporality, and acts of resistance. She has worked in the
Recent EU digital and information law initiatives greatly rely on industry participation and knowledge to translate legal obligations into an actionable and acceptable compliance framework. The distinctive Article 101 TFEU concern raised by examples of the GDPR, but even more
On 16 July 2026, the Commission adopted a decision specifying Alphabet’s obligations to share Google Search data under Article 6(11) of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In specifying those obligations under Article 8(2) DMA, the Commission prescribes safeguards and then relies on them to
Feilian Huang and Yujia Liu have posted The First AI-Saturated Election: Disclosure, Detection, and the Regulatory Limits of Generative Political Persuasion on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The campaign cycle preceding the November 3, 2026 United States midterm elections is the first in which generative artificial intelligence has functioned as a routine instrument of political persuasion: […]
NYT: President Trump’s unfounded claims of large-scale voter fraud have Democrats bracing for what they worry could be substantial interference by the federal government in the midterm elections . But with polls showing that Democrats are likely to win control… Continue reading
The federal government has made an illegal, improper, and impractical demand for Los Angeles County to separate out ballots that the federal government has identified as containing potential non-citizen voters. (The federal government’s own expert concedes that the data may… Continue reading
On October 14, 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (Commerce) Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published guidance to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), defining “U.S. content” under clause (2)(d) of Proclamation 11032 (the Proclamation).... By: Troutman Pepper Locke
Kyrylo Korol (J.D. Stanford Law School) has posted Money Laundering and Sanctions Evasion in Video Games (UCLA Journal of Law and Technology) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In video game economies, players spend real money on digital assets, such as in-game items like clothes and weapons, or virtual “money” like “gold” and “coins.” These economies […]
Artificial intelligence could help deliver the next generation of lifesaving medicines. It could also weaken the economic foundation that makes discovering those medicines possible. Both propositions deserve serious attention, and neither is mutually exclusive. Celebrating faster discovery tells only part of the story if the same technology allows competitors to appropriate the commercial opportunity created by pioneer research or obtain patent claims that obstruct the innovator’s next steps. Th
President Donald Trump rips a paper in half, with the U.S. flag on one side and the Canadian flag on the other.
New ABC/Post/Ipsos poll finds “ About 6 in 10 Americans are confident the election will be conducted fairly and accurately .” ABC News is reporting this as a half-empty story, but I am not sure these numbers look so bad… Continue reading
Collaborations between competitors—and the potential for exempting those collaborations from antitrust scrutiny—has increasingly been in the news, with developments in industries ranging from AI to college sports. One area that has received less attention, however, is the Trump administration’s invocation of Section 708 of the Defense Production Act (DPA), 50 U.S.C. § 4558, to allow competitors in industries related to national defense to form voluntary agreements and plans of action with a... B
Seana Shiffrin (University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) – School of Law) has posted Jumping to Conclusions: Free Speech and Imputed Speech (Arizona Law Review) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: It is well understood that a free speech regime needs principles of speech regulation that delineate what speech is protected from sanctions and what speech […]
AI is being widely integrated into legal practice and academic research. Early concerns about such tools were focused on the outputs: hallucinated citations, fabricated case law, overall sloppiness among attorneys and researchers submitting AI-generated work without review. These problems have not disappeared but have received enough attention to warrant continuous improvement of predictive and generative tools for accuracy. However, the fabricated footnotes distract from the fact that we are su
U.S. Department of Justice Headquarters by Sebmol (CC-BY-3.0) Disputes over religion and public funding require careful consideration of the rights of religious grantees, the religious freedom of others affected by public programs, and the consequences of proposed remedies. Those considerations came into sharper focus on August 25, 2026, when the Justice Department opened a new … Read More
Our final installment to track the changes in constitutional law.
Introduction Commercial and civil disputes are rarely driven by legal or financial issues alone. They are also shaped by how parties experience the dispute, as emotional reactions, social dynamics, cultural expectations and personalities influence how parties perceive fairness, authority, identity, risk and belonging.[1] Emotional and social processes operate rapidly and unconsciously, shaping what analytical thinking … Continued
This is the third part in a “Law Meets Science” series on how the scientific record affects expert evidence in litigation. Part 1 examined the implications of unpublished and selectively reported research. Part 2 focused on the potential impact of evolving scientific knowledge on the reliability of expert opinions over time. Now, in Part 3, we examine what experts can reliably conclude from the published science and the implications for admissibility in the courtroom.... By: Womble Bond Dickinso
By: Nigel Bankes Decision Commented On: Canadian Energy Regulator, Approval of Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC, Negotiated Settlement, September 28, 2026 PDF Version: The CER Approves the Negotiated Settlement for TMX’s Tolls and Tariffs: One More Taxpayer Subsidy for Oilsands Producers On September 28, 2026 the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) approved a negotiated settlement between Trans Mountain […]
Avi Koenig-Winter (Columbia Law School; Columbia University; City University of New York (CUNY)) has posted All Aboard! Regulating Locomotive Engineers on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Academic treatment of locomotive engineer training and certification under 49 C.F.R. Part 240 has remained surprisingly sparse, focusing predominantly on decertification procedures rather than core qualification standards. This article fills […]
There’s a lot to ponder in the permitting reform bill before the Senate. I’ve tried to work through what I think the important issues are in Titles I through IV of the bill (which focus on environmental law). As a reference, in case it’s useful to others, here are my blog posts discussing the various … Continue reading "An Overview of BAAJA"
Joel Michaels (Columbia University – Law School) has posted The Bowsher Presidency (Harvard Law Review, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The power of the purse is the principal source of Congress’s political leverage over the executive branch. Yet in recent years, presidents have repeatedly violated appropriations law and taken dramatic spending actions grounded in […]
Last month’s Public Safety progress report on the National Commitments to Combat Antisemitism notably included statements recognizing that antisemitism includes anti-Zionism. The National Council of Canadian Muslims wrote to the department to object and is now circulating a reply from Minister Gary Anandasangaree that former Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia Amira Elghawaby touted as showing that the “Government of Canada Clarifies Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism.” The reality,
As anticipated (by some), yesterday the Supreme Court granted cert in Department of Justice v. McNutt, which may become the leading originalist-oriented federalism cases in many years. Here is the question presented: Whether the [federal] prohibition on the production of distilled spirits in particular locations, including “in any dwelling house” or “in any shed, yard, […]
The Document She Had Never Seen More than once at a deposition, I’ve handed a witness a paper document and asked a simple question: “Can you identify this document?” She, […]
Understandably, almost everyone's focus during the US midterm election campaign this year has been on the possible swing of one or both houses of Congress to majority Democratic control. That is without doubt the most important question that will be determined two weeks from today.(As an aside, however, please understand that we will not know for days, weeks, or perhaps months after
Bertrall Ross is a Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Edley Center on Law and Democracy at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Here’s an excerpt from his essay today: “While a gerrymandering war might yield… Continue reading
I've seen some say yes as to that—as an objection to gun control laws, not as an objection to the
From L.R. v. Bd. of Ed. of Jennings School Dist., decided Wednesday by Judge Joshua Divine (E.D. Mo.): L.R. and
As we enter the final months of 2026, we consider recent developments in bank M&A and offer a framework for preparing for future opportunities. Several significant regional bank deals have closed this year, including Santander/Webster ($12.3 billion), Fifth Third/Comerica ($10.9 billion), Pinnacle/Synovus ($8.6 billion), Huntington/Cadence ($7.4 billion) and PNC/FirstBank ($4.1 billion). Collectively, these transactions reflect […]
Jaclyn Lopez (Stetson University – College of Law) has posted Conservation by Resurrection: The Endangered Species Act in an Era of Ecological Loss on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Endling. The word describes the last surviving member of a species before it goes extinct. It is a word Congress hoped would become obsolete with the passage […]
INTRODUCTION The system operated by Flock Safety in the United States has been in the news A LOT recently. I’m going to break down why this would not fly in Canada, thanks to our federal and provincial privacy laws. This hasn’t been tested by any Canadian courts yet, but my views are based on some pretty strong authorities. I am not a US lawyer, so I’ll assume that what Flock Safety
A longstanding sore spot in the world of dispute resolution is the gap between education and experience. For decades now, I have encountered mediation students eager to put their learning to work only to struggle to find the opportunity to do so. For those pursuing the ADR Institute of Canada’s Qualified Mediator (Q.Med) designation in Ontario, this real-life experience criterion is often the most elusive. After all, who would select a mediator with no experience? I touched upon this question sl
What follows, politically, from the idea that law is constitutive of capitalism? What theories of social change does this view make available, where does it locate possibilities for political agency, and what kinds of political energies might it unleash?
Pope Leo XIV, Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas on Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence (May 15, 2026). Cristina Tilley Robert Prevost has many alter egos. He is a world-famous Chicago White Sox fan1; the 267th Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church2; and, it seems, something of a torts scholar. Pope Leo’s 2026 encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas, sounded a global alarm about the coming wave of artificially intelligent injuries to humanity and demanded that c
Michael Lucchese discusses Russell Kirk, America, and conservatism on the Law & Liberty Podcast .
Jolted by the Great Depression of the 1930s, Thurman Arnold devised an anti-monopoly industrial policy for the United States Justice Department that breathed fresh life into a then-moribund Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Arnold’s jurisprudence built on Adam Smith’s discovery that market-making could promote national security and forestall civil unrest. Smith’s insights had informed the industrial policy of Alexander Hamilton, who laid the groundwork in the 1790s for the country’s economic development.
Development policy needs a sturdier foundation than GDP growth.
As standard-essential patent (“SEP”) disputes grow more complex and costly, courts and advocates are paying more attention to mediation and arbitration as alternatives to litigation. Depending on how they are designed, these forms of alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) may offer practical advantages when parallel proceedings, mounting costs, or the risk of an injunction threaten continued market access. This article does not address whether SEP disputes should generally be resolved through AD
Johanna Stark (Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance) has posted Regulatory Competition and Regulatory Contract Law on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This chapter explores the inherent tension between regulatory contract law, understood as the instrumental use of private law to achieve exogenous social, economic, or environmental goals, and the mobility of legal […]
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New from Cambridge University Press and the ASLH’s book series, Studies in Legal History: Legal Theory in the Colonies: Hindu and Jewish Scholars under British Rule by Assaf Likhovski, Tel-Aviv University. It is available open access on Cambridge Core.In colonial India and Mandatory Palestine, early-twentieth-century legal scholars made important contributions to the study of the
How much should someone pay to use another person’s property without permission? The question sounds like a law school hypothetical (ok, it already is one), but it is anything but hypothetical in several real-world licensing markets. Music streaming, natural gas
When a corporation cancels your shares in a cash-out merger you did not support, it is exercising a form of governmental power. Your personal property is taken without your consent through a legislative act, and you are handed a check
Philipp Hacker (European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) – European New School of Digital Studies) and Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius (iHub, Radboud University, Nijmegen) have posted Automated Poverty: Should Socio-Economic Status Be a Protected Ground in Non-Discrimination Law? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Many people worry about inequality in Europe. Automated decision making (ADM), including by means […]
After School District bans licensed pistols, license holder saves children.
Saviour or Scoundrel? Cornell’s Report on the Future of the American University, a Response. Jeff Edmunds. 16 October 2026 “Si mon hypothèse est exacte, il faut admettre que la fonction primaire de la communication écrite est de faciliter l’asservissement.” – Claude Lévi-Strauss “The recently issued Report of the Committee on the Future of the American ...
“If I let you write the substance and you let me write the procedure, I’ll screw you every time.” Former US Rep. Dingell In the prior post I criticized some of the positions of environmental groups in the debates over the Senate permitting reform bill. But advocates of the bill have also made problematic arguments. … Continue reading "Procedure Versus Substance"
Larry Catá Backer (Pennsylvania State University – Penn State Dickinson Law) has posted The Implementation Opinions on Intelligent Agents in Comparative Perspective: Situating China’s Approach Within Global Regulatory Trends on Agentic AI on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This working paper undertakes a structured comparative reading of thirteen instruments addressing the governance of agentic artificial intelligence—systems […]
From Judge Ted Stewart (D. Utah) in U.S. v. Wang, dated Sept. 9 but just docketed today: Defendant objected to
These resources look very helpful. They join other analyses out there, including the September judicial white paper from UCLA’s Safeguarding Democracy Project.
The case arises as both right and left favor various forms of anti-Asian discrimination.
Adam Smith warned that people in the same trade rarely meet without the conversation turning to a scheme to raise prices. Antitrust enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic now suspect they can skip the meeting—a shared shareholder may do the job. In May 2025, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ... How to Profit From a Cartel Without Joining One
Elena Chachko (UC Berkeley School of Law), Kathleen Claussen (Georgetown University Law Center), and David T. Zaring (University of Pennsylvania – Legal Studies Department) have posted How Executive Orders Can Fail (Administrative Law Review, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Executive orders are one of the President’s most powerful tools, but the legality and impact […]
The permitting reform bill now being considered in the Senate has provoked fairly vicious fights between “abundance” advocates and at least some environmental groups. I think that there are valid critiques of many of the arguments that each side is making, and I think unpacking those critiques can be helpful in trying to find a … Continue reading "Permitting Wars"
The dramatic picture accompanying the Los Angeles Times article of Homeland Security officials doing a pre-dawn arrest of a man accused of illegally registering to vote is meant to convey that the problem of noncitizen voting in California is both… Continue reading
by Mark Engsberg, IALL President; Professor of Practice & Director of Library Services, Emory University […] The post Celebrating the 2026 IALL Conference in Cambridge, UK: Reflections, Gratitude, and Appreciation for Our Local Planning Committee and Sponsors first appeared on IALL .
The U.S. judiciary suffers from a trust issue among the general public, largely due to its fragmented, unusable, costly, and difficult-to-access data. That is the argument put worth in this week's "Student Voices" blog, which suggests that improving judicial data and accessibility to it will improve transparency, public engagement in the courts, and collaboration and innovation among organizations.
Pearls and Irritations
In Normal Accidents (1984), the sociologist Charles Perrow argued that accidents are inevitable in complex, tightly coupled systems. Slowing AI development, as Anthropic’s chief executive has proposed, may buy time, but it cannot remove the need for a techno-legal infrastructure that makes a stop possible and prepares for its failure. Lawmakers should use that time to build it, before the next AI crisis.
Here is the memorandum supporting the TRO. My earlier post explained why DOJ is unlikely to (and under the law should not) get this relief.
In his new book, Alito says that Brown v. Board was consistent with an originalist view of the Constitution. This would be news to the people who created originalism.
By: Alexandra Lyn, Joel Reardon, and Michael Nesbitt Legislation Commented On: Bill C-22, An Act respecting lawful access, 1st Sess, 45th Parl, 2026 (as passed by the House of Commons 18 June 2026) PDF Version: Decrypting Bill C-22, Part 2: Keeping Tabs: C-22 and the Year (Now Half-Year) of Metadata Retention This is the second post […]
Destroying evidence should never leave a party better off. In SS&C Technologies Canada Corp v Bank of New York Mellon Corp, the Supreme Court of Canada considered how courts should address situations when a party intentionally deletes evidence relevant to the calculation of damages. For the first time in more than a century, the Court clarified the law of spoliation. I suggest that while the Court shows how far the resulting adverse inference can go in the most severe cases, it leaves trial judg
A whiskey distilling set up in front of the preamble to the United States Constitution
A quiz about three animal-related figures of legal speech (all of which had been mentioned on this blog in years
My apologies for the hiatus; the Ad Law Reading Room has been busy wrestling with the bear that is teaching Federal Courts. Without further delay, today’s entry is “Murray’s Lessee, Non-Article III Adjudication, and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,” by Ryan C. Williams, which is forthcoming in the Notre Dame Law Review. Here is […]
People sometimes accuse Trump of lacking any consistent policy beliefs, but that’s certainly not true in the areas of energy and environment. He has one clear goal, maximizing fossil fuels. Everything revolves around that. And now we have a whole month officially set aside to celebrate his masterplan.
Right now, the Democrats have 50/50 odds in Georgia and Ohio, and maybe better than 50/50 in Alaska and Iowa. Governors are only one branch of state government, which obviously limits their sway. Still, like Presidents, they have some real maneuvering room. To get some sense of the possibilities, I took a look at five states with Republican legislatures and Democratic governors.
by Jenna Rode and Cecilia Kim On September 30, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law California Assembly Bill 1883 (“AB 1883”), which prohibits employers from using certain AI-powered workplace surveillance tools to recognize, predict, or infer employees’ emotional states or to collect employees’ neural data. The law will take effect on January 1, 2027. Relevant Definitions […]
Many lawyers billed a lot of hours to have a judge affirmed due to a lack of a quorum.
Please direct your tips and comments to Tabatha .
The following is a guest post from Yaniv Roznai: Israel’s elections on October 27, 2026, may be the most consequential in the country’s history. At stake is not merely who will govern for the next four years, but the future… Continue reading
"whose [mental state] is itself the measure of Plaintiff’s [punitive] damages."
How can courts respond to the health impacts of climate change? On the occasion of a conference at Harvard Law School on 29 October 2026, sponsored by the Walter de Gruyter Foundation, we spoke with one of its conveners, Alicia Ely Yamin, about the right to health, climate change, and the role of judicial enforcement. The post Judicial Dialogues on Health and Climate Change: An Interview With Alicia Ely Yamin first appeared on Petrie-Flom Center .
The Annual Boston University Law Review Conference will take place this week on the topic “Presidentialism and the Escalation of Executive Power.” It commences with a "pre-note" keynote at lunchtime on Wednesday, October 21: Cass Sunstein (Harvard Law), “History and Tribalism in Constitutional Law.” Of the many panels, the following are of special interest to legal
Recently published, by Elliott A. King (J.D., Cornell Law School ’27): Whose History, Which Tradition? An Examination of Historical Sources in the Supreme Court’s History-and Tradition Jurisprudence (111 Cornell L. Rev. 1227 (2026)). Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court’s modern reliance on history and tradition has reshaped constitutional adjudication across multiple doctrinal areas, including […]
Chicago Cubs Baseball Club, LLC v. Dunican, No. 24-cv-05086, 2026 WL 2937177 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 30, 2026) The Cubs play at Wrigley Field, a historic open-air ballpark. They sell tickets and incur significant expenses to operate Wrigley Field. Defendant Wrigley View is a rooftop business located adjacent to Wrigley Field, offering views of the Chicago skyline, Lake Michigan, and Wrigley Field.
The Copyright Act of 1976 was enacted as Public Law 94-553 on October 19, 1976, signed by President Gerald Ford, which makes it fifty years old today. It has governed over an era of significant technological advances, including the rise of home video, satellite communications, digital content, the internet, and now artificial intelligence. And yet, […]
The Law Bytes podcast returns after a brief hiatus in late summer and early fall by turning to the debate on data and digital sovereignty. Last week, I was pleased to deliver the dinner keynote speech at the NREN Assembly, an annual gathering hosted by CANARIE that brings together staff and leadership from CANARIE and all thirteen provincial and territorial partners of Canada’s National Research and Education Network . With their kind permission, this week’s episode features the keynote in full,
There were apparently at least a dozen such uses in the U.S. in 2025.
The immunity of states from the jurisdiction of foreign domestic courts is a long-standing and mostly uncontroversial principle of customary international law. The International Court of Justice has described foreign sovereign immunity as a procedural doctrine of international law, one that “derives from the principle of sovereign equality of the States.” As a practical matter,
Boards spend significant time ensuring they have the right mix of skills and experience around the table. However, composition is only part of the performance equation. Board performance depends on how those capabilities are collectively brought to bear. The chair plays a central role in making the board a strategic asset for the organization. How […]
10/19/1789: Chief Justice John Jay takes oath.
Are you struggling to make sense of President Trump's series of moves to lift sanctions on and import diesel fuel from Russia? The reported reason for the diesel move is that Americans, including key Republican constituencies, are very unhappy with the price of diesel fuel, but every analysis I've seen indicates that adding Russian diesel to the supply will have at most a small marginal impact on
As cities across the country fight to take back control of their utilities, Milwaukee’s Sewer Socialists demonstrate what cities can achieve through local ownership, and why state regulation often serves private interests over the public good.
From SSRN:Krishna Janni & Ruchit Yadav, The Wall of Places of Worship Act, 1991 (December 09, 2025).Zalman Rothschild, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, Antidiscrimination , 6 Am. J.L. & Equal. 137 (2026).Abdul Aziz Meslat, The Jurisprudence Of Constitutional Conscience: Religious Exemptions, Third-Party Harms, and Equality in Modern U.S. Supreme Court Jurisprudence, (October 13, 2026).
Hilary Allen, FinTech Dystopia: A Summer Beach Read About Silicon Valley Ruining Things (2025). Woodrow Hartzog Readers of law journal articles wouldn’t be out of line for thinking that we legal scholars take ourselves too seriously and write too obtusely. We know it’s a problem and we wouldn’t blame you if you never wanted to pick up a law review again. Maybe it’s the jargon or our fixation on minutiae. Thankfully, every now and then someone in the legal academy has [...]
Institutions help us make sense of change; without them the AI revolution could be especially disruptive.
In a previous blog post, we shared an annotated bibliography highlighting best practices for prompting generative AI during legal research. Effective prompting, however, is only one aspect attorneys must consider when using generative AI in their work. As generative AI tools become increasingly common in legal practice, lawyers must ensure that their use of these ...
Originalism is, intentionally or not, a highly modernist theory of law.
This post forms part of phase two of the Beyond Compliance Symposium: How to Prevent Harm and Need in Conflict, hosted by the Armed Groups and International Law blog. The introductory post can be found here. The symposium invites reflection on the conceptualisation of negative everyday lived experiences of armed conflict, and legal and extra-legal … Beyond Compliance Symposium: Making Amends for Civilian Harm at the Community Level Read More »
Justin here. On Friday, Rick blogged about a DOJ letter I called “ authoritarian fantasy .” After Tuesday’s letter demanding that California state and local officials break the law to segregate or reject ballots for 20,000 almost-certainly-inaccurately-identified alleged noncitizens, and… Continue reading
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The Supreme Court’s Code of Conduct was adopted in Nov. 2023. The last page of the Code noted that “the Chief Justice has directed Court officers to undertake an examination of best practices, drawing in part on the experience of other federal and state courts.” One might think the Court would take several subsequent steps […]
Princeton University Press has published Who Is American? Belonging and the Question of Jewish Citizenship (2026), by Lila Corwin Berman (New York University). A description from the Press: The history of Jews in the United States is often told as if they immigrated, gained citizenship, and almost immediately achieved full legal rights. Yet this story fundamentally misses how
On September 17, 2026, two days after the Clarity Act failed to advance in the U.S. Senate, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a highly question-begging and likely illegal “Order” granting five-year conditional exemptions from the definitions of exchange and
One physician’s signature can disarm a Pennsylvanian indefinitely. The post The Default Rule is the Regulation first appeared on The Regulatory Review .
I. Introduction Can a foreign adoption deed be given effect in Mozambique? What procedural steps must be followed, and which requirements must be satisfied? Does the fact that the adoption takes the form of a notarial deed complicate its “recognition” in Mozambique under the applicable legal framework for the “review and confirmation of foreign […]
Since 2021, the EU has increasingly relied on its budgetary powers to defend its values under Article 2 TEU; through three value conditionality instruments. In response to value breaches in Hungary, these instruments have been used freeze over €30 billion in EU funding. Under the
To be lawful, processing of personal data must rest on one of the six grounds in Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR). Among them, Article 6(1)(f), legitimate interest (LI), requires a controller, case by case, to show that it
I want to write separately to emphasize how sweeping the permit certainty provisions of Section 1401 of the permitting reform bill likely are. Again, these are provisions that apply if an agency takes an “action” (which is undefined) against a “project” (also undefined) that “would revoke, rescind, withdraw, terminate, suspend, amend, or alter a Federal … Continue reading "How to Deconstruct Federal Regulation"
A guest blog post from Jeffrey Newberry , Senior Legal Clinic Supervisor Director, Death Penalty & Criminal Appeals Clinic at the University of Houston Law Center. Mr. Newberry was not an avid user of AI until recently. Most of what law professors hear about AI and legal writing is a warning:
A nice line from Ninth Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke.
10/18/1960: Gomillion v. Lightfoot argued.
It has been a fortnight of announcements, awards, and anniversaries. International criminal law has provided much of the music: from the latest announcement of US sanctions on the ICC, to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to one of its former judges, to the fraught vetting procedures of its future judges. And all this […]
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Margaret Kwoka maps FOIA trends and explores barriers to using FOIA to increase government accountability. The post Lifting the FOIA Veil first appeared on The Regulatory Review .
We agree on many key points, but have a few notable differences.
Matt Zwolinski responds to my critique of his earlier article on libertarianism and democracy.
From a press release last month, just posted on Westlaw: N.C. Detective Agency, a Durham-based security company, will pay $65,231 in
Originally Posted on Substack I had a fascinating conversation with Jessica Silbey (BU Law) and Woodrow Hartzog (BU Law) about their thought-provoking article, AI Slop. A few interesting relevant quotes: 1. Merriam-Webster selected “slop” as its 2025 word of the year: Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen slop as the 2025 Word of the […]
Theodoros Zarkos, MSc, Medical Ethicist - Social Scientist - European Social Policy and Social Rights; Independent Researcher, Kiato, Greece Photo credit: maido155, via Wikimedia Commons The European Commission’s proposal for an EU KIDS Act, published on 17 September 2026, contains a provision that is easy to misread if it is viewed in isolation. Article 14 would create
For the Balkinization symposium on Diego Zambrano, How Americans Enforce the Law (Stanford University Press, 2026).Brian T. Fitzpatrick How can the author of The Conservative Case for Class Actions say a bad word about a book that argues that private enforcement of the law is a vivid example of American exceptionalism? I can’t. We conservatives are a patriotic lot; we shamelessly believe
10/17/1862: Justice David Davis takes oath.
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A few recent posts of interest from over at JOTWELL: Eliot Tracz (New England Law) shines a spotlight on Jill Elaine Hasday's We the Men: How Forgetting Women’s Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality (2025); Sara Mayeux (Vanderbilt Law) admiringly reviews Julia Rudolph's "William Blackstone, Family Man: New Contexts in Gender, Jurisprudence, and Jamaica," which recently appeared in
Scholars discuss the impacts of federal energy policy and state-level climate policy. The post States Advance Climate and Energy Policy Amid Federal Retreat first appeared on The Regulatory Review .
A leading critic of the conservative majority on the Supreme Court oultines reasons why court-packing is a bad response to its flaws.
Like numerous other federal courts in similar cases, this one rule sanctuary cities are protected by the Tenth Amendment.
Guest contributor Justin Pidot is co-director of the environmental law program at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. Eric Biber’s recent posts have done a terrific job providing an overview of many of the Senate permitting bill’s provisions. I want to revisit the issue of NEPA remedies he discussed here, … Continue reading "NEPA Remedies Revisited"
When a judge asks a lawyer whether AI drafted a filing with fake cases, the Fifth Amendment may come into play, says a Harvard lecturer. [...]
Some colorful lawyer wisdom (see, e.g., Dunn v. U.S. (5th Cir. 1962)); I found versions of this in newspapers going back
From Nunes v. NBCUniversal Media, LLC, decided yesterday by Judges Guido Calabresi, William J. Nardini, and Eunice C. Lee: Nunes
Texas built a parallel deportation system, the Supreme Court narrowed judicial review, and the practical consequences are landing in Texas courthouses first.
From Lajara v. McMenamin, decided Wednesday by Pennsylvania Superior Court judge Brandon Neuman, joined by Judges Jack Panella and Carolyn
Ultimately, families want to know that someone is taking their concerns seriously.
Federal wrong-door raids, federal vigilantes, and federal prosecutions in Indian country.
I’ve flagged an additional issues from the permit certainty provision (Section 1401 of the bill) that I think are quite important and worth considering in assessing the merits of the permitting reform bill. As I noted in my prior post on Section 1401, it has potentially sweeping scope because it prohibits any federal agency action … Continue reading "A Major Problem with “Permit Certainty”"
Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull, Wikimedia Commons (PD-US). This article is part of our series on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Americans approaching the religiosity of the founding must begin by resisting the temptation to read our present cultural and political disputes, so often draped in claims about national identity, onto … Read More
The shock over the shift to the right in the first round of the Brazilian elections on October 4th runs deep. It is felt not only by supporters of the current incumbent, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his broad coalition, but also by all those who had hoped, Brazil would defy the crisis of liberal democracy and remain a bulwark of democratic constitutionalism. Even if there remains a glimmer of hope that the return of Bolsonarism to the presidency during the runoff on October 25 can st
By: Jennifer Koshan and Jonnette Watson Hamilton Case Commented on: Quebec (Attorney General) v Kanyinda, 2026 SCC 7 (CanLII) PDF Version: Grounds for (In)Equality: The Supreme Court of Canada Grapples with Intersectionality in Kanyinda This is the first of a planned series of posts on the Supreme Court of Canada’s most recent equality rights decision, […]
In R v R.B.-C., the Supreme Court of Canada was asked to apply a presumptive ceiling to determine when sentencing delay breaches s. 11(b) of the Charter. Justice Martin declined to do so, holding instead that the test is a ‘markedly longer’ standard. She also held that the correct remedy for unreasonable sentencing delay is a reduction in sentence. This unanimous decision from the Court reveals how it views judges as normative actors within the Canadian criminal justice system. Read more in samh
It's not by the lead singer of "The Slants."
I have a draft paper on the topic up on SSRN entitled “Legislative Intention.” It’s relevant to statutory interpretation of course, but also to constitutional interpretation given that the Constitution too was the product of group lawmaking. Here is the abstract: The communicative intention of the legislature is the lodestar of statutory interpretation. But despite […]
For the Balkinization symposium on Diego Zambrano, How Americans Enforce the Law (Stanford University Press, 2026).James E. Pfander In How Americans Enforce the Law, Diego Zambrano sets out to document and to explain that distinctively American legal institution: the private lawsuit aimed at the enforcement of public law. In a book length treatment of the subject that combines careful
New from the University of Chicago Press: Concrete Leviathan: The Interstate Highway System and State Building in Modern America (2026), by Teal Arcadi. A description from the Press:In Concrete Leviathan, historian Teal Arcadi denaturalizes the interstate highway system, interrogating the ideologies, fiscal mechanisms, and legal tools that led to the construction of a vast and permanent
Vasan Kesavan (Independent) has posted The Limits of Federal Judicial Removal (63 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Can a federal judge be removed from office without the cumbersome process of impeachment? For nearly a century, scholars have split into two camps: those who insist impeachment is the exclusive constitutional mechanism for removing judges, and […]
Yesterday evening I had the privilege of accepting, on behalf of Marquette University Law School, the American Bar Association’s 2026 Pro Bono Publico Award. The award, as announced this past summer, honors the work of the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinics (MVLCs). Hon. Bryant Yang, a judge in Los Angeles, presented the award. A delegation of […]
Here's what happens when I search for "mason soiza spammer with a gold lamborghini"; that headline is the title of a
The government’s ever-increasing financial support for the news media was the subject of a non-public consultation earlier this year, with Canadian Heritage asking funding recipients what they think of the programs, what more needs to be done, and whether they have concerns about the risks to the independence of the press that can come with greater reliance on public funding. If you ask groups whether they want more money, they invariably say yes, so it may not surprise to learn the industry sup
10/16/1898: Justice William O. Douglas's birthday.
Katharina Pistor on the Law of Capitalism, and Ntina Tzouvala on capitalism beyond law. Plus, an upcoming event on governing for affordability, Aslı Bâli & Samuel Moyn on peace in a multipolar world, Hanna Folsz & Jake Grumbach on law firms folding and resistance, Sam Bagenstos on the "Nerd Circuit," Teal Arcadi on the forgotten history of the roadless rule, Pierre-Christian Fink on Hyman Minsky, Mechele Dickerson on student-athlete employment, and Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno on Trumpism as
Justice Alito titled his new "book," "So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court, and our Country." This project is not new, and it is not quite a "book." It is a compendium of previously given speeches reproduced in no particular order. Moreover, Justice Alito can, of course, call himself anything he wants, but his judging is not originalist in any meaningful sense of that
The legal academy, and perhaps many other fields, is at a curious juncture. We have largely accepted AI as a tool for refinement—for polishing language, organising footnotes, checking citations, and formatting documents to meet journal specifications. Yet we have drawn a bright line. AI must not be used for ideation, argument development, and initial writing. One can test arguments with AI-based platforms, probe for weaknesses, and refine logic through dialogue with these systems. However, the g
Brian Galle, David Gamage, Emmanuel Saez, and Darien Shanske, Expert Report on the California 2026 Billionaire Tax: Revenue, Economic, and Constitutional Analysis, University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2026-01 (April 26, 2026), available at SSRN. Neil H. Buchanan California and New York City are the current epicenters of efforts to slightly increase the taxes paid by the extremely rich. Unsurprisingly, those extremely rich people are willing to use their considera
The mental pathologies afflicting Crime and Punishment ’s protagonist fester in contemporary society.
Tom Cruise trades his physical stunts for a more psychological form of athleticism.
Adam Smith’s theory of political economy did not begin with the isolated individual but rather the individual who operates to earn the respect of others. Wealth and freedom grew from these relationships and engaging with others to create a free society, or what 20th century philosopher Isaiah Berlin’s would call positive freedom. In the 1970s and ‘80s, the Chicago School abandoned this aspect of freedom in preference of the isolated individual, which in turn produced a weaker concept of freedom,
Valuing a mine that has been expropriated before it ever produced anything remains a hotly contested area of international investment arbitration. This issue has particular relevance to Australia: around 35 investor-State cases have been brought by Australian companies, either in their own names or through offshore subsidiaries, many of them in the mining sector, reflecting mining capital and expertise as one of the country's major exports. The challenges of valuing such assets and how experts a
Commentary on ‘AI and corporate responsibility’ generally concludes that businesses must understand the technology they deploy and mitigate its risk. This article reaches the same conclusion by a doctrinal route. It examines how EU competition law may apply to AI agents that interact - agents deployed by a business that communicate with the agents or systems of competitors - rather than to autonomous algorithms that align pricing without communication. At each stage, it considers what the case l
“AI is advancing at a runway speed. The question is no longer whether AI will transform our world – it already is. The question is whether we will govern this transformation together – or let it govern us.” —António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations Introduction On 6–7 July 2026, the United Nations (‘UN’) […]
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This paper assesses the European Commission’s draft Merger Guidelines against the treatment of efficiencies, the failing firm defence, and the counterfactual in the 2004 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the 2008 Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines. My central claim is that the draft guidelines represent a welcome but incomplete correction. They rightly recognise that merger control can no longer be organised solely around static price effects, structural presumptions, and a narrow conception of con
A hospital and university didn’t just demote an employee over his criticism of a race-based practice. They went on social media to trash him, and that’s the bigger legal problem. TL;DR: A federal appeals court revived a demoted academic’s retaliation claims against his employer, holding that a public campaign denouncing an employee after he spoke […]
Applying Gideon—the criminal right to counsel—to civil cases seems like a logical step in attaining better access to justice for everyone. So why are three heavy hitters in the access to justice space speaking out against the push for civil Gideon? The reason has to do with expansion and dilution of a limited resource.
This piece critiques the Bombay High Court's decision in Girish Chodankar, which allows a legislature party to "merge" with another party without a corresponding merger at the political party level. It argues that Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule does not create a deeming fiction and must be interpreted in light of the mischief that the Tenth Schedule was meant to remedy. Further, this piece argues that the judgment advances a theory of representation at odds with the basis of representation in
I consider legal decisions resulting in the end of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality regulation. There is evidence that net neutrality regulation has diminished incentives to invest in internet access and increased transaction costs in the market for access. As a result, net neutrality regulation may have constrained e-commerce. I conclude that ending net neutrality regulation may increase investment in internet access and enhance the development of e-commerce.
I have been spending some of my recent months inside a conversation I did not fully anticipate. As part of CONIMA , the Brazilian National Council of Mediation and Arbitration Institutions, I have been serving on its AI Committee. Our task, together with colleagues from arbitration and mediation, has been to organize best-practice guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence across both fields. Within that shared effort, I have been working specifically on the mediation section. It is very m
The scientific panel of independent experts (the Scientific Panel) is a body established under the EU AI Act to support the enforcement of rules on general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and systems. It sits within the Act’s broader governance architecture as one of the three advisory bodies, alongside the AI Board ( established under Article 65) […]
Recent immigration proceedings have exposed the particularly vulnerable position that unaccompanied immigrant children face in court. Heavily dependent on federally funded legal aid, their access to legal representation is challenging at best, doomed at worst. This week, we bring you a "Student Voices" blog that examines the current immigration court environment–hostile to reliance on federal support–and looks at alternative paths for funding and legal right to counsel going forward.
This article examines the Supreme Court’s 2025 judgment on the Aravalli Hills and Ranges, focusing on the Court’s effort to resolve the long-standing definitional ambiguity surrounding the ecosystem. It discusses the ecological importance of the Aravallis, the new scientific definition, sustainable mining framework, and the balance between environmental protection and development.
Public defenders aren't the only ones burdened by excessive caseloads. Prosecutors also face widespread high-volume workloads, and the result can mean delays, weak-case backlogs, overlooked alternative, and unintentional Brady violations. This bonus "Student Voices" blog proposes reforms such as randomized controlled trial research and data-informed case screening.
The Supreme Court just ruled on whether transgender athletes can play girls’ high school sports. If you’re scanning this for a new Title VII rule for your LGBT employment policies, save yourself the trouble: there isn’t one. TL;DR: The Supreme Court held 6-3 that states may limit girls’ school sports teams to biological females, excluding […]
by Juan-Andrés Fuentes, Librarian for Foreign, Comparative & International Law, Harvard Law School Library Last […] The post The Influence of International Human Rights Law on Domestic Law over Time: Prohibiting Child Marriage first appeared on IALL .
As we are on the cusp of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the remarkable fact that our nation has survived so long, it seems a good time to share a speech given by Lee West at the Oklahoma Bar Association Rule of Law Conference at Oklahoma City University School of […]
Labor unions, known for advancing workers' rights, are limited by the National Labor Relations Act and whom they represent. This scope typically excludes low-wage workers--namely, immigrants and gig workers--from unionization support. So where have these excluded workers found access to justice in the form of legal support and collective action organization? Community-based worker centers.
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, known as PIPEDA, has been Canada's private sector privacy law since 2001. It's currently the law that governs how businesses collect, use and disclose your personal information. It's the law that made the Privacy Commissioner of Canada the federal privacy watchdog. And it's the law that most privacy professionals in Canada have
Lorna Woods, Professor Emerita, University of Essex Photo credit: TodayTesting.com, via Wikimedia Commons This recent CJEU judgment has been flagged in some quarters as upholding the French rules requiring age verification for porn sites. In others, it has been seen as stripping intermediary immunity from social media sites. Based on the e-Commerce Directive, however, is this
Canada's federal private-sector privacy law may be about to undergo its biggest transformation in more than 25 years.Bill C-36 would repeal the privacy provisions of PIPEDA and replace them with the new Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act (PPCDA). The bill introduces mandatory privacy management programs, enhanced consent requirements, new rights to dispose of personal information, privacy impact assessments for cross-border data transfers, significant administrative monetary penalties, and
Today’s law students are entering a profession being reshaped by AI, making technology literacy more important than ever. What does it mean to build a legal career and professional identity in this rapidly evolving landscape? Dennis Kennedy’s students have been exploring that very question in one of his most recent classes, and he joins Tom...
On June 12, the Commerce Department directed Anthropic to deny foreign nationals access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, regardless of where...
Oil and gas leases that cover larger tracts — say 300 acres or more — should contain a retained acreage clause. A retained acreage clause has two parts: defining how much acreage will be kept under lease by a well and requiring the lessee to designate that acreage; and defining when the retained acreage must […]
Sohini Mehta and Monique Hurley Solitary confinement is the practice of confining a person in prison for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact. Despite its archaic and barbaric nature, this practice is authorised in all Australian states and territories under different guises: isolation, separation, seclusion, segregation and lockdown.
To make AI legal help truly accessible requires less focus on the AI tools themselves and more focus on the distribution channels where people will use them. Libraries, court self-help centers, community institutions, and kiosks all bring accessibility-related challenges from privacy, workflow support, and overreliance. This "Student Voices" post argues for AI literacy support, as well as improved policy standards and more funding, to help those who need legal AI help the most.
As India's work culture splits between the high-stakes grind of traditional competitive exams and the lucrative allure of the creator economy, a profound legal asymmetry has emerged. While the State rapidly enforces commercial taxation and consumer compliance on digital creators, it leaves them in a regulatory vacuum regarding labor rights and algorithmic exploitation. By analysing Articles 14, 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Indian Constitution, authors argue for a critical evolution in India’s legal i
The article is divided into two parts. Part-I seeks to establish that ASHA workers fulfil conditions to be recognised as workman under the IRC. Part-II aims to show how the feminisation aspect, drawing roots from grounded jurisprudential beliefs, adds another layer to the glaring need for proper legitimisation of their status.
The Advisory Forum (the Forum) is a general advisory body to the European Commission and the AI Board, established to provide technical expertise, advise them, and to contribute to their tasks under the EU AI Act. It sits within the Act’s broader governance architecture, as one of the two advisory bodies, in addition to the […]
Do increased procedural protections for police officers undercut access to justice? Are citizens less likely to be able to hold police officers accountable for misconduct under the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights (LEOBR)? This potential conflict constitutes this week's bonus post, which examines the history and efficacy of LEOBR while also proposing a randomized controlled trial to study both the perceived fairness and actual fairness of LEOBR.
The proposed new privacy law includes order-making powers, penalties but completely sidelines the existing Privacy Commissioner On June 15, 2026, the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Even Solomon tabled in the House of Commons Bill C-36, called “An Act to enact the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act, to amend the Personal Information Protection and Electronic
The proposed new online safety law expands its scope to AI chatbots, introduces strict age limits, and places regulatory oversight under a single Commission. On June 10, 2026 the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller tabled Bill C-34 in Parliament, called the “Safe Social Media Act”. This legislation follows Bill C-63 (called the “Online Harms Act”). While the stated
Who would have guessed that the most interesting religious discrimination issue of the week would show up on a Major League Baseball field? TL;DR: Three San Francisco Giants pitchers wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night caps during a June 12, 2026 game. A fourth wore the standard team cap instead and drew no warning. […]
When a coworker grabs a colleague three times, a Seventh Circuit majority says a jury could find sexual harassment. The employer still won. The reason why is more useful to HR than the result. TL;DR: A production employee claimed a coworker touched her buttocks on three occasions over several months. The Seventh Circuit affirmed summary […]
On May 13, 2026, Judge Leon of the D.C. District Court temporarily enjoined on First Amendment grounds U.S. financial sanctions and travel restrictions against...
by Claudia Holland, Head of the Library, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private […] The post The Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law: 100 Years of Thinking Ahead first appeared on IALL .