Legal Education

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Final Issue of UW Law School Research Paper Series on SSRN: Federalism, Democracy, Human Rights, Family Regulation, Tax Misinformation, & Policing Reform
September 30, 2026

As you may know, SSRN is discontinuing its Research Paper Series, a platform through which UW Law School and many other academic institutions shared new faculty scholarship with readers.

This is our final issue, and it’s a good one. It seems fitting to close with a selection of papers that captures so much…
Continue Reading Final Issue of UW Law School Research Paper Series on SSRN: Federalism, Democracy, Human Rights, Family Regulation, Tax Misinformation, & Policing Reform

Today is Constitution Day. This year’s observance carries extra weight as the nation marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and 239 years since the signing of the U.S. Constitution. President Truman declared the first Citizenship Day in 1952, and Congress changed the designation to Constitution Day and Citizenship Day in 2004. The day’s educational mission continues to generate quality resources for teaching and scholarship in constitutional history and civil liberties.
Eric Taylor, Evening Reference Librarian and

…
Continue Reading Celebrating Constitution Day 2026

If it’s good writing, so what if they used AI? That’s the question at the heart of a recent essay by writer Abi Awomosu, “Writing Was Never a Test of Who Could Think” (How Not To Use AI, June 14, 2026).
Awomosu argues that AI functions less like a tool and more like a medium, something that reshapes how people think and work simply by existing. Seen through that lens, the question of whether AI was used in the…
Continue Reading If It’s Good Writing, So What if They Used AI?

Here is the latest faculty scholarship from the University of Wisconsin Law School Legal Studies Research Papers series via SSRN.
SSRN is discontinuing its research paper series platform this year. Sign up for our new email distribution list to receive updates on Wisconsin Law faculty scholarship. Or continue to watch for updates here on WisBlawg.

Jason Reinecke (UW Law), What Makes Federal Circuit Opinions Influential?, 109 Marq. L. Rev. 717 (2025)
Reinecke draws on a novel, largely…
Continue Reading Recent UW Law Faculty Scholarship: Analysis of Fed Circ Opinions, Patent Experts, Second Look Sentencing, Milk Markets, & Surveillance Procurement

As we head into the July 4th weekend, many of you are undoubtedly aware that this year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Something that’s not widely known is that the first printed version to make the signers’ names public was printed by a woman, Mary Katharine Goddard.
When the Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776, the identities of the signers were kept secret. Naming them publicly would have exposed them to charges of…
Continue Reading Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the Woman Who Printed It

Gen AI literacy for new associates is expected, not optional. Yet most law schools have not caught up, and students are arriving in practice without the foundational skills to use these tools safely and effectively. Closing that gap need not mean a new curriculum or a major investment. It can be done by coordinating what a school already has.

That is the argument in my new article, Closing the AI Readiness Gap: A Framework for Law Schools, forthcoming…
Continue Reading New Article on Closing the AI Readiness Gap: A Framework for Law Schools

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about AI policies and whether they should prohibit or encourage generative AI use among legal practitioners and law students. Many policies land at one pole or the other. Early on, the restrictive end dominated, with rules built around preventing data exposure and warning about hallucinations. We’re still seeing some, most notably UC Berkeley School of Law’s much-debated policy, which, while not an outright ban, is framed almost entirely around what students…
Continue Reading Most AI Policies Ask the Wrong Question: It’s Not Whether AI Is Used, but What Cognitive Function It’s Replacing

The UW Law Library is marking National Library Week this year with a milestone: the 20th anniversary of our Faculty READ Poster series.
You’ve likely seen READ posters before—those images of celebrities holding their favorite books, produced by the American Library Association. Our version features UW Law School faculty and staff. Since the first posters debuted in 2006, dozens of faculty and staff have been featured, each holding a book that has sparked their interest or shaped their…
Continue Reading Happy National Library Week: Celebrating 20 Years of Faculty READ Posters at the UW Law Library

The Universities of Wisconsin recently launched ASAP: AI Skills Access Passport, a free, seven-episode video series designed to help the general public build foundational AI literacy. I thought it was well done.  Each episode runs about two minutes. The series is sponsored by UW Credit Union.

Although ASAP is aimed at a general audience, it’s worth a look for legal professionals — and worth passing along to clients. The seven episodes cover:

  • What AI Actually Does — how

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Continue Reading UW System Launches Free AI Literacy Series: The AI Skills Access Passport

Here is the latest faculty scholarship from the University of Wisconsin Law School Legal Studies Research Papers series via SSRN.

Joshua Braver (UW Law), Deference Due? “Considers” and the Insurrection Act
Braver offers the first sustained statutory interpretation of the Insurrection Act, the principal authority for deploying military force on American streets to enforce federal law. The prevailing view, reflected in recent circuit court decisions, gives the president “great deference” in determining whether deployment conditions are met. Braver pushes…
Continue Reading Recent UW Law Faculty Scholarship: Constitutional Theory, Court Reform, Executive Power, Antitrust, Surveillance, and AI Prompting

With Iran’s nuclear sanctions in the news, Sunil Rao, Foreign and International Law Librarian at UW Law Library, has put together some helpful research sources covering the history, the sanctions framework, and the snapback mechanism now at the center of a dispute in the UN Security Council.
The Council recently held an open briefing on the work of the  UN 1737 Sanctions Committee, established in 2006 to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities. Russia and China objected to the session, arguing…
Continue Reading UN Sanctions on Iran’s Nuclear Program: Researching the Snapback Mechanism

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) — signed into law in 2025 as P.L. 119-21 — made significant changes to federal tax law, and practitioners are still working through the implications. If you’re trying to get up to speed, Jenny Zook, Reference & Instructional Services Librarian at the UW Law Library and current chair of the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin’s Public Relations Committee, has written a timely guide for the State Bar of Wisconsin’s InsideTrack.
Her…
Continue Reading Tax Research on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: A Guide to Key Resources

A recent episode of the Wisconsin Law in Action podcast features Amanda White Eagle, Director of the Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center (GLILC) at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Host Kris Turner of the UW Law Library draws out a wide-ranging conversation about how the Center works with Tribal nations, students, and practitioners to support Indigenous law across Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region. The Law Library’s close partnership with the GLILC is evident throughout, from joint…
Continue Reading Amanda White Eagle on the Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center and Expanding Access to Tribal Law on WI Law in Action Podcast

Need Help Researching Law in a Foreign Jurisdiction?  The University of Wisconsin Law Library maintains a growing collection of country-specific legal research guides designed to help you get started. Each guide provides an introduction to a country’s legal system and government structure, and directs you to key primary and secondary sources — including constitutions, legislation, case law, legal journals, and more — available through the Law Library and online.
Whether you’re working on a comparative law issue or simply…
Continue Reading Need Help Researching Law in a Foreign Jurisdiction? Check out UW Law Library’s Country-specific Legal Research Guides

Last summer, I received an email from Academia.edu with a link to an AI-generated podcast it had created based on an article I wrote about law faculty scholarly visibility. I listened, and I wasn’t impressed. The AI narrator mischaracterized my arguments and even fabricated a plug for Academia.edu’s platform as though I had said it. I wrote up my evaluation in a previous WisBlawg post, comparing it to a podcast I generated myself using Google’s NotebookLM. The…
Continue Reading From WisBlawg to the Chronicle of Higher Education: A Closer Look at AI-Generated Media for Promoting Scholarly Work

I recently discovered BookBub, a free service that sends daily personalized emails featuring discounted and free ebooks. After a quick signup, you select the genres that interest you—legal thrillers, science fiction, biography, history, fantasy, whatever you prefer. Each morning, you get an email with curated book recommendations in your chosen categories, most priced at 99 cents to a few dollars, with some completely free.
How It Works
An editorial team picks the selections, so you’re not sorting through…
Continue Reading BookBub: A Free Tool for Finding Discounted Ebooks